FAQ: whiteboard, collaboration, boards, images, zoom

The same as the traditional whiteboard extended with all the benefits that a virtual version can provide: infinite space and zoom levels, shape recognition, unlimited color palette, highlighter, and much more. Using the built-in voice/video chat or Skype, Hangouts gives an incredible opportunity to communicate better. Typical use-cases:

• Private tutoring, distance learning
• Classrooms at any level
• Designing layouts, workflows and prototypes with a team
• Data- and process visualization
• Casual, ad-hoc presentation, meeting notes
• Virtual whiteboard
• Visual facilitation

• Zoomable user interface, vector graphics
• Device independence (pure html5 + javascript web app)
• Lightweight
• Lightning-fast, real-time synchronization
• Reliable disconnection-handling
• Permanent, shareable board URL-s
• Customization options

On devices with a physical keyboard, place a dot anywhere and start typing. On touch devices, long tap to an empty space until the virtual keyboard comes up and you can start typing. Click out from the text box to close it and draw again.

If you want to edit a text, select the text by long-pressing and click again. Alternatively, select the text by long-pressing and press any key.

Trick: if you miss a conventional text tool, you can use the Sticky Notes tool with a transparent background.

Click the pen icon twice and a tool panel opens. There are 3 basic colors in the Free plan and 9 custom colors in the Pro plan. You can see what color your teammate is using from the dot next to their profile icon.

Advanced tip: turn on the Display Pen Panel option from the Settings.

Click the pen icon twice to open the tool panel. There are three options for line thickness.

Advanced tip: You can set your preferred values for the line thickness by customizing your whiteboard.

Use the traditional keywords: Ctrl + c (command + c on Mac) for copy and Ctrl + v (command + v on Mac) for paste. You can paste images and texts from the clipboard by pressing Ctrl + v (command + v). You can clone any object or a group of objects on the whiteboard by selecting them and pressing Ctrl + v (command + v). Copy-paste on touch devices is not supported.

Advanced tip: You can copy a group of objects from one whiteboard into another whiteboard opened in another tab. Additionally, you can copy a range of a Google Drive Sheet and paste it into the whiteboard as a table.

Drag and drop you usually do from other browser tabs or from your computer. Alternatively, press Ctrl + v (command + v on Mac) to paste an image from the clipboard. For advanced options, open the Insert Image or PDF from the menu. If you feel like, customize your user interface and put the Insert image or PDF menu as a tool icon from the Settings.

You can insert an image from the web if the file has a common format, for example, png. In this case, the link you insert ends in .png. From Google Drive choose: 'Get link', and set 'Anyone with the link'. From Dropbox, use the 'Copy link'.

Advanced tip: it is common practice to lock the image, so you can work on it without erasing it accidentally or even being able to select it. You can lock an item by long pressing on it and clicking the LOCK button.

Use the Insert (image, PDF, mp3) in the menu or the drag&drop technique. You can't insert a video/audio file from your local device. You can insert a video/audio from the web if the file has a common format, for example, mp4. In this case, the link you insert ends in .mp4. From Google Drive choose: 'Get link', and set 'Anyone with the link'. From Dropbox, use the 'Copy link'. Youtube links are not yet supported.

You can share a board via the board link. Anyone with the board link can access the board. For details see How does collaboration work?

Collaboration only works between different accounts and browsers. Follow these steps:

• 1. Both tutor and student register an account and log in to the app.
• 2. Tutor creates a new board by Create Board from the Menu.
• 3. Tutor's profile icon appears at the bottom right corner.
• 4. Unique board link appears in the URL address bar.
• 5. Tutor chooses Invite People from the Menu and types the student's email.
• 6. Student opens the board link in the invitation email.
• 7. Student asked to log in if he is not logged in.
• 8. Student's profile icon appears next to the tutor's profile icon.
• 9. Done. The content of the board is synced instantly.
• 10.(Optional) Enable Mirror View from the bottom right corner.

Enable the Mirror View option from the bottom right corner of an active board. If it is on, the team members will constantly see the same position on the canvas. To put it this way, your screens will be synced. Since different devices usually have screens with different dimensions, a dashed line indicates the area that everyone sees.

Tags: screen sharing

If you are ready with your board and you want to show others what you have done, publish the board by choosing Share to View from the menu – to get the published board.

Anyone with the generated link can view, move and zoom the board with Ziteboard viewer, but they can’t edit or collaborate. It’s the presentation mode of Ziteboard.

If you want to collaborate with others, share a board. See How does collaboration work?

If you share the board via Facebook / Twitter, a clickable preview will be attached to your post. You can also embed the zoomable view in your blog or website.

The Public board can be accessed by anyone with the board link, however, you can only access a private board if you are the owner or you are invited/shared by the owner based on your Ziteboard account email. To control access to your board, open the board and click the SHARE button in My Boards. The Private board is a Pro feature.

• Arrows and Page up/down for moving the canvas or selected objects.
• Shift + drag for selecting objects in a rectangular area.
• Ctrl + long click for selecting objects individually.
• “aa” for arrow tool (on/off)
• “ll” for line tool (on/off)
• “rr” for rectangles (on/off)
• “cc” for circle tool (on/off)
• “ff” for freehand
• Ctrl + c or cmd + c for copy
• Ctrl + v or cmd + v for paste
• Ctrl + z or cmd + z or backspace for undo
• Ctrl + y or cmd + shift + z for redo
• Ctrl + plus for zoom in
• Ctrl + minus for zoom out
• Space for zoom tool
• ESC for hiding menu

Additionally, you can set your own hotkeys in the Settings of the Menu.

You can bind your own hotkeys to pre-defined actions. You can select this option from the Settings in the Menu. For example, if you want to bind the ‘Unlock All’ action to shift + u, you should open Menu > Settings > HOTKEYS; select the Unlock All action in the list. Then click the dot to start recording and hit the key shift and the key u. Optionally, type out the buttons you have selected for your own reference in the reminder input.

You can zoom an individual item, a group of items, or the whole canvas. For items, first, you need to select them.

On touch screen, use the two-finger pinch gesture. On laptops with touchpads or trackpads, move two fingers vertically. On laptops with mouse, simply scroll. Alternatively, you can use the zoom buttons at the center of the right-hand side of the screen. You can also try Ctrl + plus and Ctrl + minus on Windows or set your own hotkeys for zooming in the Settings.

You can rotate an individual item, a group of items, or the whole canvas. For items, first, you need to select them. For the canvas, first you need to enable Canvas rotation from the Settings.

On touch screens, use the two-finger rotation gesture. On laptops with touchpads or trackpads, move two fingers horizontally. On laptop with mouse, hold Shift and scroll.

You can rotate a selected image by 90° with the button displayed after the image is selected.

Select the image (or any other object) with long press/tap and zoom — see How do I zoom section. You can use the resize the image by dragging from the right bottom corner as well.

You can select an individual item with a long press. Alternatively, hold down the control key (command on Mac) and click the items one by one. For group selection, hold down shift and drag with your mouse.

You can move, zoom and rotate the selected items in the same manner as you move, zoom, and rotate the canvas. Move by dragging; zoom by scrolling or zoom by pinch gesture; rotate by horizontal scrolling or rotate by holding down shift and plain scrolling or with two-finger gesture.

Advanced tip: turn on the Display Select Icon option from the Settings on touch screen devices.

Long click / tap on the image to activate the LOCK button. Once an object is locked, it is not erasable or selectable anymore. However, you can unlock all locked objects at once by clicking the move/zoom icon and hit Unlock All.

If Shape recognition is enabled in the Settings, Ziteboard automatically recognizes your intentions when you draw a shape and it will automatically perfect it to circles, rectangles, and straight lines.

Shape tools are available from the pen panel (after clicking the pen icon twice). Select straight lines, rectangles or circles. Click again the icons for deselection. Go back to hand-drawn lines by deselecting all shape tools.

Using hotkeys is also convenient. Hit double the initial letter of the shapes to turn on/off the tool, that is:

• 'll' for line
• 'rr' for rectangle
• 'cc' for circle
• 'aa' for arrow

You can combine 'aa' with 'll' for straight arrows.

Advanced tip: with the line tool, you can draw any polygons (e.g. triangle) by exposing the joining lines feature: if a line segment starts close enough to where the previous line ends, then they will be perfectly joined.

You’ll find the marker / highlighter in the pen menu. Although it’s a PRO feature – it’s definitely worth it. Highlight any text or objects with the color of your choice. If you want to delete all the markers at once, click the eraser icon twice and choose Delete Markers.

Click the teamwork icon in the bottom right corner to find the Laser Pointer checkbox. If Laser Pointer is turned on, then participants of the teamwork will see your mouse/cursor’s position. If you turn it off, you will still receive the others’. This tool is dependent on Mirror View, so first, you need to turn on Mirror View.

Best practice: instead of Laser Pointer use the highlighter to show and mark things. When you are done, delete the mess by clicking the Delete Markers in the eraser panel. Even you can set a hotkey for this action.

Open the board that you want to be copied and wait for the content to load. Close the board. The content remains on the canvas, so you can save it as a new board.

Click the Export as … in the Menu. There are several formats supported for different purposes.

Choose PNG if you need a quick snapshot only of the visible screen.

Choose SVG if you need scalable vector graphics of the whole board. It is a perfect choice for feeding Photoshop, Illustrator, and other professional software.

When you choose PDF export a special area of the infinite canvas will be exported. This area is a column of A4 pages, so before you export or even before you start working it's worth enabling the 'Display A4 pages' option in the Settings. You can even change the paper format (e.g. from A4 portrait to B5 landscape) or the number of the pages.

Choose Full Board Backup for a file which when inserted or dropped back, the board becomes fully editable again. With this method, you can easily archive all your work to Dropbox or Google Drive.

If you would like exports without the Ziteboard logo at the bottom left corner just reach out to us (scroll down).

Only Pro users can initiate board chat by clicking the board title at the bottom left corner of a board in live teamwork. Free users connected to the particular board can use the board chat thereafter. Voice and video chat is also available from the board chat panel.

You and the other team member open the same board. The Pro user starts the board chat from the bottom left corner (see How do I text chat?). The Pro user clicks the audio or the video chat icon and waits for the connection to be established. The other team member is notified about the chat request. You both need to give permission in the browser when it is required to allow access to the camera and the microphone. Please prefer Google Chrome as the browser you use, but on Ipad, Safari 12+ is required. The audio-video chat only supports 1:1, but no conference calls.

You can check the browser's permission by clicking the green lock in the URL address bar.

Ziteboard is a subscription-based service, which means that your plan renews every month or year (depending on the term you choose). You can cancel your subscription at any time during your plan term to cancel the auto-renewal of your subscription.

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