Plan the week on a whiteboard

A whiteboard is the list on the fridge: what to get done this week or this weekend, ticked off as it happens. Each project can have several, such as "Our weekend" and "Dave's week". Open a project and select the Whiteboards tab.

Make a whiteboard#

1. On the Whiteboards tab, select New whiteboard.
2. Enter a Name.
3. Choose the Period: This week (Monday to Sunday) or The weekend (Friday to Sunday).
4. Under People, tick whose tasks it's for. Tick no one to include everyone's.
5. Under Put tasks on by themselves when they're, keep or untick the rules: In progress, Overdue, Due this period and Starting this period.
6. Select Make whiteboard.

Making, changing and deleting whiteboards needs the Edit project settings permission. Everyone in the project can see them.

What goes on it#

Tasks come on by themselves when a rule matches and they're assigned to one of the whiteboard's people. Each card says why it's there, such as In progress, Overdue or Due Fri 9 Oct. Subtasks only come on if you add them by hand.

Tasks are grouped in a lane for each person. A task with two people shows in both lanes. Tasks you've added that aren't assigned to the whiteboard's people show under Others (or Unassigned when the whiteboard is for everyone).

Tick off and start tasks#

Select the round tick on a card to mark the task done. It's the same as ticking it on the board: the task goes to 100%. A ticked task stays on the whiteboard, crossed out, until Monday, when the week starts again. Unfinished tasks carry over by themselves.

Select Start on a task that's To do to mark it In progress. Select a task's name to open it.

The tally under the whiteboard's name counts what's done, such as "3 of 5 done this week", with a bar that fills as you go. When every task on it is ticked, the whiteboard says so with a small celebration. If your device is set to reduce motion, you get the message without the animation.

Add, pin and hide tasks#

• Add a new task: type its title in Add a task to this whiteboard and select Add. The new task goes to the whiteboard's people (to nobody when it's everyone's) and is pinned on.
• Add a task you already have: select Add a task, search, and pick one. It's pinned on until it's done and the week resets, or until you unpin it.
• Add just one subtask: in Add a task, select the number beside a task to show its subtasks, and pick the one you want. Searching for a subtask's title finds it under its task. The subtask is pinned on by itself, labelled with the task it belongs to.
• From the task itself: on the Tasks tab, open a task's ⋯ menu (or the ⋯ button on the task's page, or a subtask's ⋯ on its Subtasks tab) and select Add to whiteboard…. Tick a whiteboard to pin the task on it, or untick it to unpin it. The menu shows once the project has a whiteboard.
• Pin: open a card's ⋯ menu and select Pin to this whiteboard to keep it on even when no rule matches.
• Put a lane in order: drag a card up or down its lane, or use Move up and Move down in its ⋯ menu. Each person's lane keeps its own order, on the wall display and the shared link too. Tasks that come onto the whiteboard later go below the ones you've ordered.
• Give a task to someone else: drag its card into another person's lane, to the place you want it. The task is now theirs instead of the lane's person, and anyone else on it stays. On a phone or tablet, hold the card for a moment before dragging. You can also open a card's ⋯ menu and select Move to and a name. Dragging into Unassigned takes the lane's person off the task. Nothing can be moved into Others, which holds tasks for people who aren't on the whiteboard.
• Hide: select Hide from this whiteboard to take a task off. Hidden tasks are listed under the lanes, with Show again.

Adding, pinning and hiding needs the Edit tasks permission. Adding a new task also needs Create tasks.

Need to buy#

When the tasks on a whiteboard have materials still to buy, a Need to buy strip shows above the lanes. It lists each item once with how much is left to get, adding up the same item across tasks (the same name and unit, as on the shopping list). Done tasks aren't counted, and the strip goes away when there's nothing left to buy.

Select the tick beside an item to mark it bought, for every task on the whiteboard that needs it. It's the same as ticking it on the shopping list, and it works offline too. The strip never shows prices. On a shared link it's a list to read, without ticks.

Wall display (kiosk mode)#

For a tablet on the kitchen wall, select Wall display on the whiteboard or its shared link. The whiteboard fills the screen in large type, without the app's menus, and shows the time and when it was last updated.

• It checks for changes every 30 seconds, so ticks made on phones show up on their own.
• It keeps the screen on while it's open, where the browser allows it.
• Select Full screen to hide the browser's bars too, where the browser allows it (not on an iPhone).
• Select Leave wall display to go back.

To open a tablet straight into it, add ?kiosk=1 to the end of the whiteboard's link.

Share it on a phone or tablet#

A whiteboard's link opens on any phone or tablet without signing in, so the kitchen tablet or whoever is doing the work can tick jobs off as they go.

1. On the whiteboard, select Share whiteboard.
2. Enter a Name, such as "Kitchen tablet". Only people who manage the project see it.
3. Choose when it Expires, or Never.
4. Optionally, enter a PIN of 4 to 8 digits. Each phone or tablet asks for it once.
5. Select Create link, then Copy, or point the tablet's camera at the QR code. The link is shown only once.

Anyone with the link can tick tasks on that whiteboard done or untick them, select Start, and add a task by its title. A task added this way goes to the whiteboard's people and is pinned on. They see only what's on the whiteboard: no money, no address, no task pages and nothing else in the project. In the project's activity, what they do shows as the whiteboard's link, such as "Dave's week link completed “Book the skip”".

The list under the form shows each link's views, when it was last opened and when it expires. Select Revoke to stop a link working at once. A link also stops working when it expires or the whiteboard is deleted.

Sharing a whiteboard needs the Edit project settings permission.

What each plan includes#

Free includes one whiteboard per project. Premium and Professional include as many as you like. A project follows its owner's plan.