🗒️ Whiteboard¶

The Whiteboard is a free surface where cards stay exactly where you put them. It is meant as an intermediate step: first you collect thoughts as unconnected cards, later you connect them and turn the result into a diagram.

The difference from the layouts: a layout arranges your items automatically. On the whiteboard you decide the arrangement yourself, and nothing moves on its own.

You can keep several whiteboards in one knowledge base — one per topic, say, or one per stage of work. Each surface shows only its own cards.

⚠️ Prerequisite: Edit mode must be active. You can view an existing whiteboard in browse mode as well, but you cannot create one, rename it or add cards to it.

🚪 Creating, switching and leaving whiteboards¶

Click Tools in the left main menu. There you will find:

New whiteboard — creates another surface and opens it straight away. The very first time, this is also the way to your first whiteboard.
Whiteboards — a section listing all existing surfaces.

The section is collapsed and fetches its contents when you expand it. Inside, the two commands for the surface you are currently on come first, followed by the surfaces themselves:

Rename whiteboard
Dissolve this whiteboard
the list of all surfaces — the current one is marked, clicking another one switches to it

The structure is the same as for the saved views under Adjust View: creating on top, below it a section holding commands and list.

When creating a surface, the application adds an invisible element that holds it together. You never see it and do not need to care about it.

Leave the whiteboard using the × in the whiteboard toolbar at the top right. This returns you to the layout you used last.

While a whiteboard is active, the layout selection under Adjust View is hidden — the arrangement is yours to decide.

The mode is stored: the next time you open the knowledge base, you are back on the surface you used last.

It ends automatically as soon as the whiteboard is no longer being shown — for example when you jump to an item outside it via the search, or load a different knowledge base. You then end up in the layout you used last.

While a whiteboard is active, a toolbar of its own appears at the top right. On the far left it carries the name of the surface — with several whiteboards, this is where you read off which one you are on. Next to it are three buttons:

Button	Effect
Rename whiteboard	Opens the surface's edit dialog — the same as the entry in the panel
New card	Creates a card in the centre of the visible area
×	Leaves the whiteboard

Rename and New card only appear in edit mode, because they write data. The name and the × stay in browse mode as well.

The usual quick access toolbar above it stays in place — search and view switching remain available. Its centre button brings all cards back into view while you are on a whiteboard, which helps when you have scrolled away.

✏️ Naming surfaces¶

New surfaces are called "Whiteboard", "Whiteboard 2", "Whiteboard 3" and so on. As soon as you keep more than one, a meaningful name pays off: it appears in the toolbar and in the list in the Tools panel.

To rename, click Rename whiteboard — either in the toolbar or in the panel. The familiar edit dialog opens; change the Name field there.

🆕 Creating cards¶

There are four ways, and none of them creates a connection:

Double-click on the empty surface — the card appears exactly where you clicked. The quickest way.
New card in the whiteboard toolbar or New in the Edit Diagram panel — the card appears in the centre of the visible area.
Dragging from a card's drag handle onto the empty surface — the card appears at the drop point.
Enter key — when nothing is selected, the card appears in the centre of the visible area.

On a whiteboard that is still empty, the Create New Item button sits in the middle of the surface, with the hint about the double-click gesture below it. Both disappear as soon as the first card is there.

In every case the familiar Create New Item dialog opens, right next to the spot where the card appears. If you pin it, you can create several cards in a row; they are then staggered so they do not cover each other.

💡 Tip: Cards are ordinary items of your knowledge base. They have descriptions, notes, attachments and categories like any other item and show up in the search.

🔗 Connecting cards¶

Hover over a card and drag from the round handle at its tip onto another card. This creates a real connection with name, direction and category — the same one you get in any diagram.

Important: Connecting moves nothing. Both cards stay where they are, only the line is added. Deleting a connection moves nothing either.

If you drag onto the empty surface instead, a new, unconnected card appears there. On the whiteboard the drag handle therefore has exactly one job: connecting cards.

📌 Moving cards¶

Click a card and drag the blue handle with the cross that appears below it. The card stays where you release it.

This is the only way a card that has already been placed will move. Everything else — connecting, disconnecting, creating new cards — leaves the existing cards untouched.

Each surface remembers the positions of its cards separately.

♻️ Dissolving a whiteboard¶

If you have finished working on a surface and want to start a new one without losing what you built, choose Dissolve this whiteboard.

Nothing is lost in the process: the cards and all connections stay unchanged in the knowledge base. Only the surface as such disappears — the invisible element becomes an ordinary item and keeps holding your cards together. You can find it again through the search or the category panel; give it a meaningful name beforehand and you will recognise it later.

Afterwards, use New whiteboard to start a fresh, empty surface.

💡 Tip: If you no longer need the old collection at all, you can delete the dissolved item as well. Make sure your cards are connected to each other — otherwise cards standing on their own will only be reachable through the search afterwards.

➡️ From whiteboard to diagram¶

Once your collection has taken shape, leave the whiteboard using the ×. The same items and the same connections then appear in the layout you selected — as a mind map, flowchart, network or in the 3D view.

Your whiteboard positions are not lost. When you come back, everything is where you left it.

In the diagram, the element holding the surface together becomes visible as well; it forms the centre there.