Board Tools

Depending on your board access role within a board, you have a set of tools at your disposal to mark-up, change, and move content.

As an Editor, you can use all of the Conceptboard tools. As a Reviewer, you only have access to certain tools to be used for editing content and giving feedback. As a Reader, you do not have access to any of the tools on the board.

All your tools are located in the top toolbar. As you select a tool, more options will be shown in a floating toolbar close to the element. The floating toolbar initially shows the visual design properties for an element (colour, line width, etc.). You can add and modify text by clicking on the text options. Click on the dot menu on the right side to find all action properties related to an element (e.g. delete, foreground/background, group).

Whenever you create an element by mistake, click on the trash can icon in the floating toolbar, or click outside of it or hit escape and click Command + Z on your keyboard to delete it quickly.

Zoom Tool

By default you can zoom in and out of the board by scrolling with the mouse wheel or trackpad (Mouse Mode active). When you press Shift while  scrolling you will pan around the board instead.

If you prefer to pan around the board by default, you can change the default zoom behaviour for a board: Click the mouse symbol in the bottom left to uncheck the "Scroll to zoom" mode (Mouse Mode inactive). This means you will now have to hold Shift while scrolling to zoom.

You can also select the Zoom tool to select an area by clicking and dragging the mouse over a board area to which you want to zoom. Or click on the dropdown menu to select a percentage of zoom. To exit the Zoom tool simply click on another tool that you want to use, or press ESC on your keyboard.

To learn more about how to move around in a board, click here. 

Minimap

The Minimap shows a smaller version of your board including all items on it. A rectangle on the map always shows your current position and field of view.

When you click the + or - buttons you will zoom into the board, while keeping your current position in the board.

You can also toggle the Minimap by hitting M on your keyboard. 

Browse Tool

The browse tool allows you to move around the board, just by clicking anywhere and dragging the board.

In any tool mode, press and hold Spacebar while dragging to move around the board without having to switch tool modes.

Select Tool

You can use the Select tool to:

• Select, resize, and slice elements on the board
• Pin elements to the board or add them to the board outline
• Select multiple items to move, group, align, or delete
• Double click to change the text in any Comment, Shape or Sticky Note.
• To select pinned items, double click or hit Shift and click

Format Brush Tool

Use the Format brush to quickly apply the same formatting, such as colour, font style and size, and line style, to multiple items on your board. The Format brush enables you to copy all of the formattings from one object and apply it to another one – think of it as a "copying and pasting" for formatting.

To use it, select the object whose format you want to copy, and then click on the Format brush tool in the top left toolbar or press F. Then, select the object which you want to apply the settings to by clicking on it. 

Copying the format is only possible between objects or items of the same type. This means that you can only transfer a format style from a scribble to another scribble and not from a scribble to a sticky note.

Note: the Format brush tool F does not transfer the shape style across different shapes. This means that when using the Format brush tool to copy the format of a rectangle and apply it to a circle, the circle shape will remain, and only the colour, opacity, line style and width, and the text settings will be transferred.

Format Brush infinite mode

You can also apply the formatting of an item (shape, text, line/arrow, highlighter, or sticky note) several times by activating the infinite mode of the Format brush. To use it, select an item in your board, double click the Format brush and apply the item formatting on multiple items several times.

Once you click on your board again, the Format brush infinite mode is deactivated.

Erase Tool

Using the Erase tool, you can click to erase any item on the board. Click on the Erase tool via the drop down of the Select tool or press E on your keyboard. On the iPad, select the erase tool and drag your finger back and forth across all the elements you want to erase.

Scribble Tool

Use the Scribble tool to sketch out ideas, mark up your content directly on the board or create virtual hand-written sticky notes. Once you select the Scribble tool or press P, Scribble presets are shown with default colours and line widths.

You can customise the presets the way you want anytime by choosing your preferred line width and line colour. You can also choose the various colour palettes available:

• Basic colours - includes 15 redesigned basic colours to work with.
• Board colours - includes the 25 recently used colours on the board.
• Light colours - includes 15 pastel nuances of colours.
• Grayscale - includes 10 shades of grey colours.
• Corporate colours (available for PRO accounts) - includes the corporate colours of your team, set up by a team administrator. To learn more about Team custom colour branding, click here.
• Personal colours - define up to 50 colours of your personal choice or use the eyedropper tool to copy an already existing colour on the board. Your chosen personal colours will be displayed on every board.

Additionally, you can change the Scribble settings (line colour, line width, line style and opacity level) using the floating toolbar that pops up once you have scribbled on your board.

Furthermore, you can scribble on Sticky notes whereby the individual objects will be grouped automatically. For the smoothest writing, use a stylus and check your zoom level when using the scribble tool - depending on your tablet you may have a better performance if you zoom in between 100-200%.

Hint: hold Shift while using the Scribble tool to draw straight lines.

Highlight Tool

Use the Highlight tool to highlight on top of your content. Once you select the Highlight tool or press X, a dropdown menu appears. It shows five Highlight presets with default colours and line width.  

You can smoothly customise the presets by choosing your preferred Highlight line width, and colour. All presets are stored on your device, so you just need to set them up once. You will find the following available colour palettes:

• Basic colours - includes 15 redesigned basic colours to work with.
• Board colours - includes the 25 recently used colours on the board.
• Light colours - includes 15 pastel nuances of colours.
• Grayscale - includes 10 shades of grey colours.
• Corporate colours (available for PRO accounts) - includes the corporate colours of your team, set up by a team administrator. To learn more about Team custom colour branding, click here.
• Personal colours - define up to 50 colours of your personal choice or use the eyedropper tool to copy an already existing colour on the board. Your chosen personal colours will be displayed on every board. 

You can change the Highlight tool settings at anytime (line colour, line width, line style, and colour opacity) using the floating toolbar that pops up once you highlight content on your board. 

Please note, when scribbling and highlighting on sticky notes the individual objects will be grouped automatically. 

Hint: hold Shift while using the marker to create straight highlights.

Line Tool and Arrow Tool

Apart from the standard presets in the toolbar menu, you can customise the line parameters according to your preferred style, line width, opacity level and colour. Our available colour palettes are:

• Basic colours - includes 15 redesigned basic colours to work with.
• Board colours - includes the 25 recently used colours on the board.
• Light colours - includes 15 pastel nuances of colours.
• Grayscale - includes 10 shades of grey colours.
• Corporate colours (available for PRO accounts) - includes the corporate colours of your team, set up by a team administrator. To learn more about Team custom colour branding, click here.
• Personal colours - define up to 50 colours of your personal choice or use the eyedropper tool to copy an already existing colour on the board. Your chosen personal colours will be displayed on every board. 

Our hint: Lines can easily be changed into an Arrow, or vice-versa. To do that, select the Line/Arrow or hit L or A, click on "set line ends" on the floating toolbar that pops up, and choose your preferred arrow/line shape. Alternatively, select the preferred type in the toolbar line menu 

How to Use Lines:

1. Select the line tool in the board toolbar
2. Optional: Select one of the line types, f.ex. arrow, double arrow or straight line
3. Optional: adjust your presets in the line toolbar, f.ex. width or colour
4. Start drawing line/s. You can draw as many as needed
5. Switch to the select tool
6. Use the select tool to modify any line on the board, or multiple lines if needed

Board Shapes

Conceptboard offers the opportunity to create different kinds of Shapes. To create a shape, select the Shape tool in the main toolbar or hit S on your keyboard. To cycle through all of the Shapes, press Shift and S at the same time. After selecting the shape that you like, you can drag your preferred shape to your board. These are all the Shapes that you can create:

• Rectangle 
• Racetrack
• Oval
• Triangle
• Play Triangle
• Orthogonal Triangle
• Diamond
• Parallelogram
• Hexagon
• Signal in Arrow
• Chevron in Arrow
• Block Arrow
• Double Block Arrow
• Cloud
• Explosion

Once you select the Shapes tool, shapes presets are shown with default colours, opacity regulator, and line width. You can easily customise these presets by choosing your preferred colour, line width, opacity level and other settings. The following colour palettes are available:

• Basic colours - includes 15 redesigned basic colours to work with.
• Board colours - includes the 25 recently used colours on the board.
• Light colours - includes 15 pastel nuances of colours.
• Grayscale - includes 10 shades of grey colours.
• Corporate colours (available for PRO accounts) - includes the corporate colours of your team, set up by a team administrator. To learn more about Team custom colour branding, click here.
• Personal colours - define up to 50 colours of your personal choice or use the eyedropper tool to copy an already existing colour on the board. Your chosen personal colours will be displayed on every board. 

All presets are stored on your device, so you just need to set them up one time. 

You can also change the Shapes tool settings at anytime (line colour, line width, line style, and colour opacity) using the floating toolbar that pops up once you drag a shape to your board.

Shapes can hold text. To add text to a shape, simply double-click on the shape and insert your text. You can edit the text options or the shape style using floating toolbar that pops ups once you add or edit the shape.

Our hint: Shapes can also be added as a Board Outline/Section, and the text will automatically become the Outline/Section name. To do that, select your Shape, click on "more options" in the floating toolbar, and select "Add to sections". For more information about the Board Outline, click here.

How to Connect Shapes or Sticky Notes: Connecting Lines

You can connect shapes or sticky notes with each other by activating their connection setting.

How to create connected shapes (sticky notes adopt an identical process):

1. After drawing a shape or pasting a sticky note, the tool presents in the selected mode
2. In this mode, blue dots (red in the picture above) become visible on the sides of the shape's outline
3. Clicking on the blue dot creates the shape's copy connected to the original with an arrow
4. The copy shape also has connecting dots activated
5. You can create as many shapes as necessary in every direction
6. Moving any shape in the set will prompt its connecting line to follow the shape's movement
7. Shapes and lines/arrows can be altered and adjusted separately

Important Note: If you move or resize the line itself, the connection between the line and the shapes it connects will be severed.

How to add personal colours to your board

You can customise 50 colours to your own account. These personal colours can be applied to most of your board tool functions (scribble, highlight, line/arrow, shapes, text, sticky notes) and even icons! Here's how to add personal colours: 

1. When selecting the board function, select to 'Set colour'
2. From the dropdown arrow, choose 'Personal colours'
3. Click (+) Add colour
4. Pick your desired colour

Eyedropper 

The eyedropper can be found via the colour menu of shapes or other board elements and allows for:

• Selecting colours from a colour spectrum
• Adding hex codes of user-defined colours
• Identifying hues of media on the board and apply them to other elements

Read the step-by-step guide.

Table Tool

Use tables to display data visually for better display and comparison. Once you select the Tables tool or press D, the default settings are shown: cell colours and text properties. You can customise these settings the way you want at anytime by choosing your preferred variants. You can learn more about text options in tables in the Text Box chapter of this article.

Tables are created with 3 rows by 3 columns by default, but it is possible to add new rows and columns, customise their size and remove them when no longer needed. To find out more about this tool, check out this article.

Cards Tool 

Use Cards to organise, prioritise and manage tasks within a board in collaborative manner.

Board cards allow you to

• Add a title to the card (header style text)

• Add a description (second-level text)

• Apply status (to do, in progress, done, blocked)

• Categorise tasks with your tags of choice

• Assign cards to contacts/team members

• Set start and due dates

A new card can be added to the board from the top toolbar or by pressing the keyboard shortcut [G]. Once the submenu opens and the colour is selected, simply click anywhere on the board where you wish to add the card. The card will be shown with the title in text edit mode, and the floating toolbar.  

The menu includes such options as:

• pinning the card

• choosing the colour of the card side line

• activating second-level text input

• setting card status (to do, in progress, done)

• selecting a card assignee

• setting start and due dates 

• selecting a card tag

Text input in board cards

Once you created a card, double-click on an unselected card with no description, enters the title field in text edit mode. The same happens if you double-click on an unselected card with a description in the title area.

Double-click on an unselected card with description in the description area of the card, enters the description field in text edit mode.

When anyone is writing in the title or description, other participants should see the “tag” saying “user X is typing…”.

Resizing

User resize

You can resize the width in a similar way to other board elements. However, the card has a minimum width, and the height is not manually resizable; it always “hugs” the content - it grows in height with the amount of text.

Content resize

The card height resizes to adapt to content added by the user:

• Title: has no character limit

• Labels:

  • Status: one label

  • Assignee: up to 3 labels

  • Dates: one label

  • Tags: up to 7 tags

• The label order should always be the following: status, assignee, dates, tags

Set Tags

You can add tags, change them, or remove them from a card. You can also create, edit, and remove existing tags.

Tag sets are defined per board, meaning they are not consistent across all boards, just the current board you are using.

It is important to note that there is a 40-character limitation and a 7 tags per card limit. Additionally, tags cannot be duplicated, and the text has to be different on every tag on the same board.

When the text is entered and the colour is chosen, the tag appears in the card (tick icon in the tag menu), and it's also shown below the creation of the tag text field.

Once the first tag is entered, there appears a new edit option.

When you select a tag you want to edit, you can either delete it or just change the text and colour.

When the maximum amount of tags is reached, a message appears indicating that you cannot add more tags.

Sticky Note Tool 

Use the Sticky note tool to easily collaborate, or write down your ideas. Create a Sticky note by selecting the tool and clicking or dragging it to your board. Then type or paste a text and click outside of it when you are done. You can also simply scribble onto your Sticky notes by selecting the Scribbling mode first. Tip: Use Conceptboard on a touch device for the best Scribbling outcome on your Sticky notes.  

Once you select the Sticky note tool or press N , a dropdown menu appears made up of five Sticky note presets with default colours, and text style. You can customise all the presets by choosing your preferred Sticky notes settings. You will find the available colour palettes:

• Basic colours - includes 15 redesigned basic colours to work with.
• Board colours - includes the 25 recently used colours on the board.
• Light colours - includes 15 pastel nuances of colours.
• Grayscale - includes 10 shades of grey colours.
• Corporate colours (available for PRO accounts) - includes the corporate colours of your team, set up by a team administrator. To learn more about Team custom colour branding, click here.
• Personal colours - define up to 50 colours of your personal choice or use the eyedropper tool to copy an already existing colour on the board. Your chosen personal colours will be displayed on every board. 

You can also edit the text options, or the Sticky note style, using the floating toolbar that pops up once you drag a Sticky note to your board.

All Sticky notes can be added to your Board Outline/Section. To do that, select your Sticky note, click on "more options" in the floating toolbar, and select "Add to sections". For more information about the Board Outline, click here.

When using Sticky notes in touch mode, the scribbling tool will be selected automatically. After you scribble or highlight on your sticky note an auto group of the several objects will occur, in order to make it easier to drag the notes around the board. 

Our hint: if you need to export a board with CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) scripts please switch the font to Arial first in text boxes, sticky notes, or headlines. You can also learn more about text options on sticky notes in the Text Box chapter of this article.

Text Box Tool

Text Colours

Create a Text box by selecting the tool icon, and click or drag it to your board. Type or paste a text, and click outside of it when you are done.

Once you select the Text box tool or press t, a dropdown menu will appear with a Text box preset with default colour, and text style. You can customise the preset by choosing your preferred text style. All text presets are stored in your device, so you just need to set them up one time. You will find the available text colour palettes:

• Basic colours - includes 15 redesigned basic colours to work with.
• Board colours - includes the 25 recently used colours on the board.
• Light colours - includes 15 pastel nuances of colours.
• Grayscale - includes 10 shades of grey colours.
• Corporate colours (available for PRO accounts) - includes the corporate colours of your team, set up by a team administrator. To learn more about Team custom colour branding, click here.
• Personal colours - define up to 50 colours of your personal choice or use the eyedropper tool to copy an already existing colour on the board. Your chosen personal colours will be displayed on every board. 

You can also edit your text options  at any time by using the floating toolbar that pops up once you add a text box in your board. You can change text colour, font, size, alignment, and other settings.

Text Box as a Shape

A Text box is created as a shape without borders and fill. Therefore, you can change the box to any shape of your liking. To do that, simply select the text box, and click on "Shape" icon in the floating menu to see all shape options, and select one. 

Add Text to Sections

All Text boxes can be added in your Board Outline/Section, and the text written will automatically become the Section's name. To do that, select your Text box, click on "more options" in the floating toolbar, and select "Add to sections". For more information about the Board Outline, click here.

Special Font Input: Korean/Japanese/Chinese

Our hint: if you need to export a board with CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) scripts please switch the font to Arial first in text boxes, sticky notes, or headlines

Text Autofill

Once you select the Autofill function in the font size dropdown of the floating menu, the text will automatically scale to fill the entire text box. The system will choose the largest possible font size that fits the box.

• The input field shows the actual calculated size, even if it does not correspond to one of the standard sizes.

How to use Autofill:

1. Select a board object (apart from text boxes, the feature also works on sticky notes and shapes)
2. Open the font size dropdown menu in the floating toolbar
3. Choose Autofill 
4. The text will resize automatically
5. The calculated size will be shown in the custom size input field

Proportional Text Resizing

If you is resize an object with text (incl. text boxes), the text inside it will also scale itself proportionally.

How to use Proportional Resizing:

1. Select the object you want to resize
2. Click and drag one of the corner contact points of the object while holding SHIFT
   Dragging from the corners ensures proportional resizing
3. As you resize, the text inside the object will scale proportionally
4. The updated font size will appear in the custom size input field. If it does not match a standard size, the exact calculated value will be shown

Default Font Sizes Menu

You can determine default text size for new text boxes and other board objects (shapes or sticky notes). 

How to set a Default Font Size:

1. Open the Preset menu from the top toolbar
2. Under Font Size, choose one of the following:

• Default (automatic sizing based on the object's inner dimensions)
• Autofill (fills the object)
• Standard Size (select a predefined value from the dropdown list: 12, 16, 20, 28, 36, 48, 72, 144, 288)
• Custom Size Input (enter a specific value)

Font sizes are limited to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 2000.

• If resizing or autofill calculation could reduce text below size 1, it is set to 1.
• If the calculation exceeds 2000, it is capped at 2000.

Resizing Objects with Overflow

If you choose to drag out a text box or any other board object only horizontally or only vertically with autofill deactivated:

• The text might overflow the boundaries of the object
• The font size will remain unchanged

Comment Tool

Create a Comment

• Select the comment tool in the tool bar or click C on your keyboard, then click and drag to create a comment. Make sure the arrow points to something useful as comment alerts from @mentions include a small image preview.
• Type '@' and a user’s name to @mention them in the comment and send them an alert. You can either mention someone from your contact list or click on the "search in whole team" option to choose a team member that is not a participant on the board yet.
• Hover over a comment and click the task button to mark it as a task. Any @mentioned users will have the task assigned to them.

Remove a Comment 

• Made a comment by mistake? Click outside of it or hit escape and click cmd / ctrl + Z on your keyboard.
• To delete the whole comment, select it, and hit Delete or Backspace on the keyboard.
• To delete only your comment, click edit, select all, and hit delete/backspace on your keyboard. Click save. An empty comment box automatically disappears.

Collapse Finished Comments

Once a decision has been made or a task is ready to be assigned, collapse the comment via the right up arrow on the bottom of the comment box. This will leave only the initial task and final decision visible and let's you see which conversations are finished while reducing the number of elements on top of your content.

It doesn’t matter how long your discussions get, it’s always good to be able to revisit a complete conversation and see the thought process behind a decision.

Pinning Items to the Board

All elements are created unpinned with the option to be pinned. Pinned elements are locked and therefore protected against accidental movement and certain types of modification.

Actions that are permitted on pinned elements without unpinning:

• text editing
• updating text styles
• changing colour of the element
• adding object links
• adding rows and columns in tables

Actions that are prohibited on pinned elements before unpinning:

• moving the element
• resizing
• rotation
• cropping
• object deletion
• object alignment

There are different options to pin or unpin the item and then edit the item:
1. Click on a pinned item or use the selection tool to draw a selection area around the desired area if you wish to select several objects or simply press Shift while clicking on the items

2. Choose the pin icon on the floating toolbar to pin the element

3. You can also select the item that should be pinned and hit cmd/ctrl + L. In order to unpin it, hit cmd/ctrl+shift+L.

Object Alignment

Select multiple items on your board and choose the Object alignment in the floating toolbar to align them the way you want. You have different alignment options, including a grid layout where you choose the number of columns and rows you want.

Crop Images

You can easily crop images: Select the image, you want to crop. Use the crop-handle and move it to crop the image the way you like.

You can also crop and duplicate a defined part of pictures on your board. To do so, select the picture, click on the crop button in the floating toolbar and select the area you want to crop. Now you can drag the duplicated, cropped picture away, while the original one stays unaltered.