Board Shapes

What's a Shape?

You can use the shape tool to create objects in various geometrical shapes and colours. Just like sticky notes, shapes can contain text inside.

How to Paste Shapes

To create a shape, select the shape tool on the top toolbar or press S. 

When selected, the background on the tool button is greyed out and a fall-down menu appears that lets you:

• Change shape type (square, circle, etc.)
• Adjust shape opacity or make shapes completely transparent with the opacity regulator
• Set shape background colour
• Set stroke colour
• 'More'/'three-dot' menu with border outline options and font options

Without any changes in the shape settings, all new shapes will be created with the default settings:

• Shape: Rectangular
• Background color: Blue (#107FC9)
• Border line: 5pt width and solid line type
• Text: Opens Sans Font, black font colour, size 18pt, central alignments (vertical and horizontal)

After selecting the shape tool, there are two possible methods to paste a shape on the board:

1. Click on the board to create a default size shape (as pictured above)
2. Draw/ drag out an area on the board to create a custom-size shape

The size of the shape can be changed at any moment using the sizing points (white).

How to Edit Shapes

Selected Mode

When the shape tool is activated (selected mode) you can:

• Delete the object - Press Backspace/Delete
• Move the object - using the move handle (crossed arrows), presented at the bottom right corner of the shape, or click & drag
• Resize the object - using the sizing points
• Rotate the object - using the rotation handle (circular arrow) presented at the bottom right corner of the shape
• Duplicate the object - Press CMD+D
• Copy the object - Press CMD+C
• Floating toolbar actions:
  • Pin object - or Press CMC+L
  • Activate text edit mode - this is also possible with a double click or by pressing enter
  • Change shape
  • Change background colour
  • Change stroke colour
  • Change opacity
  • Change border line width
  • Change border line style
  • Access the 'more'/'three-dot' menu
• Open context menu (right click)
  • Options available on this menu: copy, delete, arrange order, voting widget options, add to sections, add and copy link, export
• Open a hyperlink - click on the link
• Enter text edit mode and select a paragraph - triple click
• Activate format brush to copy the object style and apply to another shape - press F or click on the format brush button (top toolbar to the left)

Unselected Mode

When the shape tool is deactivated (unselected mode) you can:

• Select object - click or draw a selection area
• Activate text edit mode - double click
• Open a hyperlink - click on the link
• Select text in the shape - press spacebar to select the hand tool, and then use drag and drop to select the text 

Text Edit Mode

When a shape is in text edit mode you can:

• Floating toolbar actions:

  • Pin object  - or Press CMC+L

  • Exit text edit mode - this is also possible with a click on the board, or by pressing tab or shift+enter

  • Edit the text style: font colour, font family, font size, horizontal and vertical alignments

  • Access the 'more'/'three-dot' menu

• Open context menu (right click)

  • Actions available: copy, delete, arrange order, voting widget options, add to sections, add and copy link, export

• Add or edit hyperlinks in the text - paste a valid link

• Paste text from other apps - copy the text from an app and then press CMD+V to paste the text inside a shape

  • NOTE: The text style defined for the object with be applied to the pasted text - ignoring the original style properties like font sizes, bold/italic characters, font colours or lists.

• All standard keyboard shortcuts and mouse navigation options apply to shapes

How to Convert Shapes into Sections

Shapes can be added to the sections list (left-side board ledge). There are 3 ways to do this:

1. Select an object, open 'more options'/'three-dots tab' in the floating toolbar and select “Add to sections“
2. Select an object, open the context menu (mouse right-click) and select “Add to sections“
3. Select an object, open the edit menu and select “Add to sections“ 

Any or these actions will create a new entry on the sections list. The text inside the shape will became the name of the section. If the shape does not contain any text, the section name will be 'unnamed section'.

Edit Section

To edit a board section, select it from the sections list and open the context menu. These are the actions offered on the sections context menu:

Using Shapes in Voting Widget 

Convert the shape into a voting widget

Any unrotated shape can be converted into a votable item in the voting widget - an area on the board where all objects (i.e. shapes, sticky notes or images) can be used to do a voting session.

To create a voting widget with shapes: 

1. Select an object, open its context menu (mouse right-click), click on “Voting“ and select “Create a voting widget“ 
2. Select an object, open the board edit menu (top right corner), click on “Voting“ and select “Create a voting widget“  

Once the widget is created, you can start a new voting session.

Add Shapes to Voting Widget

You can add any shape to an existing voting widget simply by selecting any object and dragging it into the voting area. The object will be shown with a circular black bubble containing a white checkmark.

Edit multiple shapes 

To edit multiple shapes simultaneously, you can implement one of these options:

1. Draw a selection area encompassing the objects
2. Hold the shift key and click on each object to add it to the selection 

Selected Mode

All actions applicable to single shapes on board are equally applicable to multiple objects

Text Edit Mode

To activate the text edit mode, click on “T“ button on the default floating toolbar. 

• Floating toolbar actions:
  • Pin objects - or Press CMC+L
  • Exit text edit mode
  • Edit text style: font, font colour, font size, horizontal and vertical alignments - these changes are applied to all selected shapes.
  • Access the 'more options'/'three-dots' menu
• Open the Context Menu (mouse right click)
  • Actions available: copy, delete, arrange order, group objects, voting widget options, add to sections, export

How to Connect Shapes

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 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