Sections and Board Outline

Board Sections are a great way to organize your boards. You can use them to:

• create an overview of the board
• create presentations from board content
• change where the board opens when a user joins
• create custom exports (as image or pdf)

Adding Board Sections

Please note. Users on the board must be Editors to be able to edit Board Sections. However, everyone on the board can use Board Sections for navigation. Learn more about Board Access Roles. 

 The following items can be added as a Board Section:

• Shapes
• Sticky notes
• Images, uploaded files (multi-page documents are automatically added as board sections for easier navigation)

You can create a shape section around Scribbles if you want to include them in the sidebar as a section.

Add an Item on the Board as a Section:

1. Select the item.
2. Click the "Make board section" icon in the floating toolbar or use the right click menu 'Add to sections'.

Tip: You can also use the 'Make a Section' shortcut ALT + B after you have selected the item.

How to Add Freeform Sections

1. Zoom out to where you can see all content.
2. Open sections sidebar and click on " + create new section".
3. Click on 'New freeform section'.
4. Click and drag to create sections.
5. Make sure to add useful names!

You can also use the Rectangle tool R to visually group other content on the board:

1. Zoom out to where you can see your content.
2. Select the Rectangle tool from the shape library (or hit R on the keyboard).
3. Click and drag to create the size you need. Pin the rectangle and change its color etc.
4. Click the "Make board section" in the floating toolbar or right click menu. Or use the shortcut: ALT + B.

How to Add Custom Section Sizes

1. Open the sections sidebar.
2. Click "create new section", then "new custom size section".
3. Choose the section size you need (or choose your own size) and click "create section".
4. You can resize while maintaining the right ratio by holding Shift when using the Select tool and dragging out the corners.

What can you do with the custom section sizes? Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Create quick UI sketches for apps.
• Export board sections to use in Powerpoint (use the 4:3 ratio).
• Setup Letter or A4 page sections so you can easily print out your custom board exports.
• Setup 16:9 ratio sections in the board to make sure your interactive presentations look great on laptops.

More Section Types

Besides Custom size and Freeform sections, Conceptboard offers a variety of other section sizes. You can choose between:

• Ratio: 16:9, 4:3, 1:1
• Page format: A4 Portrait, A4 landscape, Letter portrait, Letter landscape
• Devices: Mobile, Tablet portrait, Tablet landscape, Desktop, Desktop HD

Navigating Sections

Sidebar

Clicking on a section in the sidebar will take you to that section on the board.

• The active section is highlighted with a blue bar.
• To navigate using the keyboard, use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.
• To view the selected section on the board, press "Enter".

Board

If no object is selected on the board, you can move between sections using the keyboard's left/right or up/down arrow keys.

ℹ️ Due to accessibility improvements introduced to Conceptboard, sections are now in the selected mode only in the following cases:

• Directly clicked on while the Select tool (V) is active
• If the selection is drawn around them while the Select tool (V) is active
• Tabbing through the board content when there is a selected object on it

Organizing the Sections Sidebar

To move a section in the sidebar, click and drag it to a new position. You can also right click and choose "move to top" or "move to bottom".

To duplicate sections, select it and copy/paste via the keyboard shortcuts, or the duplicate button in the toolbar/right click menu.

To select a section, double click it, or hold down command and click on a section/sections to select them. You can also use shift to select a range of sections.

To select all sections, click on the sections menu and choose "select all".

To remove an item from the sections sidebar, right click on it and choose "remove from sections list". This does not remove the item from the board.

Tip: You can also toggle sections by hitting B on your keyboard.

 

Pinning Elements

Exporting Sections

Click on the toggle icon in the outline and select the sections you want to export. All selected sections will be highlighted on the board. Then click on the drop down menu and choose ‘Export section(s) as PDF’.

You can also export specific items in your board that you have selected as a PNG image.

1. Using the Select tool, select all items that you would like to export.
2. Right click or click on the Edit menu in your top toolbar and choose Export > Selection.

A new tab will automatically open with the selections that you have chosen to export.

Changing Board Start Position

By default when a user or guest enters a board, they will see the full board content. You can also choose to open the board on a specific section. For example, if you would like to highlight the latest iteration, or create a welcome screen for the board.

How to Change the Start Position

1. Create a section, or add an item to the sections list.
2. Right click the item the sidebar and choose "Set as initial start section". It will be marked with an icon to show it's the initial start section for the board.

How to Reset the Start Position

1. To reset the start position to the full board again, click the Section menu and choose: "Reset initial start section".

Troubleshooting

If you share the board url with a section item number, this overrides the board start position.

It's a great way to direct someone to a particular section, but make sure to share the board url without any item id if you want to take advantage of the board start feature.

4 Ways to use the new Board Sections

If you need some inspiration check out this short video on how you can use the new board sections!