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Sketch on collaborative whiteboards

Pro plan Member

Whiteboards give every project a shared drawing canvas for the thinking that does not fit in a task list: architecture sketches, process flows, brainstorm clusters, quick diagrams during a call. Changes sync live between editors, so a whiteboard works as well in a workshop as it does asynchronously.

Create a whiteboard

Section titled “Create a whiteboard”

  1. Open the project and go to the Docs section, then the Whiteboards tab.

  2. Select New whiteboard and give it a name.

  3. Start drawing. The canvas supports freehand drawing, shapes, arrows, and text, and you can expand the board to full screen when you need room to think.

Each project can hold multiple whiteboards, so you can keep “Q3 architecture” separate from “retro brainstorm” instead of crowding one infinite canvas.

Drawing together

Section titled “Drawing together”

When several people open the same whiteboard, everyone’s changes appear live for everyone else. There is no save button: the board persists as you draw, and the latest state is what the next visitor sees.

Already using Miro or Figma?

Section titled “Already using Miro or Figma?”

You do not have to move. The same Whiteboards tab has a Link board/doc button for pasting a Miro, Figma, or Excalidraw URL, so external boards sit alongside native ones. See Link external boards and docs. Native whiteboards have the advantage that everyone on the project can open and edit them with no extra accounts or sharing setup.

Best practices

Section titled “Best practices”
  1. Name boards by topic, not date. “Q3 architecture” beats “Whiteboard 2026-07-15”. Searchable names age better.
  2. One board per topic, not one infinite canvas. Multiple smaller boards are easier to navigate than one massive scroll. Split when a board gets too dense to scan in 10 seconds.
  3. Use the link-from-files affordance. Boards belong with the specs they illustrate. Link a board from the document library card so readers find them together.
  4. Pair with meeting cadence. Whiteboards during sync calls leave a durable artifact the moment the call ends. No more “send me the screenshot” follow-up.
  5. Archive boards by deleting them. Onplana has soft-delete (recycle bin). When a board’s topic is done, delete it; restore if needed. Keeping every whiteboard ever clutters the list.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

Section titled “Troubleshooting / common pitfalls”
  • Changes not syncing live. Refresh. Live sync uses websockets; intermittent connectivity drops the live channel.
  • A board I drew on yesterday is empty. Check the recycle bin — someone may have deleted it. Restore if accidental.
  • Can’t open a whiteboard. Two causes: (a) project membership lost; (b) plan downgraded below Pro. Verify both.
  • Board feels slow with many shapes. Excalidraw handles ~1000 shapes well; beyond that, performance degrades. Split the board.
  • Mobile view loses some controls. Whiteboard editing on mobile is limited. Read-only is fine; for editing, use desktop.

How this combines with other features

Section titled “How this combines with other features”
  • Whiteboards + Document libraries. Link a whiteboard from a library to show “the diagram that illustrates this spec”. See Organize document libraries.
  • Whiteboards + Wikis. A wiki page can embed or link to a whiteboard. See Write project wikis.
  • Whiteboards + Tasks. A board can be the “definition of done” reference for a design task; link via task description.
  • Whiteboards + External boards. Mix native + external (Miro, Figma, Excalidraw URLs). See Link external boards and docs.

Coming from another tool

Section titled “Coming from another tool”
ToolMapping
MiroDirect concept; Excalidraw-based
Figma FigJamDirect
LucidchartOnplana whiteboards are sketch-first
Microsoft WhiteboardDirect
MuralDirect

FAQs

Section titled “FAQs”

Who can see and edit a whiteboard? The project’s members. Access follows project membership, like the rest of the project’s Docs section.

Can I put a whiteboard next to the project files? Yes. In any document folder, Link Onplana item adds a card pointing to a whiteboard, handy when a diagram belongs with a spec.

Is there a limit on how many whiteboards a project can have? No fixed limit. Create as many as the work needs, and name them so the list stays navigable.

Are whiteboards on my plan? Whiteboards are included from the Pro plan up. On lower plans the tab appears locked with an upgrade prompt.

Can I export a whiteboard as an image? Yes — Excalidraw supports PNG/SVG export from its own toolbar. Use that for static sharing.

Are whiteboards versioned? Today: live state only, no version history. For durable revisions, export to PNG and attach to a document library.

Can I share a whiteboard externally (read-only link)? Not natively today — external sharing is for documents. For external whiteboard sharing, export to PNG/SVG and share the image.

Section titled “Related”