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Whiteboard Widget Guide

What is Whiteboard Widget?

A spatial canvas for Grist: each visible row becomes a draggable card with optional notes, dates, tags, styling, and attachments.

Quick Start

Required mappings:

PositionX and PositionY → Numeric columns
Node Title → Text column

Then double-click the canvas to create your first card.

Markdown & Paste Conversion

Titles, notes, and text/markdown attachment previews support lightweight markdown. Rich paste from Docs, Word, or web pages is converted into readable markdown.

Supported: bold, italic, links, headings, lists, quotes, code, tables, and horizontal rules.
Paste a URL over selected text to create a markdown link.

Editor shortcuts: Cmd/Ctrl+B bold, Cmd/Ctrl+1-4 headings, Cmd/Ctrl+H cycle heading, Tab/Shift+Tab indent lists.

Column Reference

Column

Type

Purpose

PositionX

Numeric

Card's horizontal position (required)

PositionY

Numeric

Card's vertical position (required)

Node Title

Text

Card text (supports markdown) (required)

Notes

Text

Longer content (open with right-click or Space)

Due Date

Date

Shows on card; enables overdue filter

MapAppears

Bool (toggle)

Hide/show rows without deleting them

Project

Ref

Group cards; new cards inherit last-used project

Colors as Choice

Choice

Color-code cards using Grist choice colors

Node Options Styling

The Node Options column accepts space- or comma-separated style tokens. Later tokens win.

color:#f00, bg:white, size:1.5, font:Georgia
attractor makes a large zone heading; use Title — subtitle for a subtitle.

The floating style toolbar writes these tokens back to Node Options. Use ◎ to toggle attractor mode and { } to view or edit the full value for one card.

Analyze & Export

Attractors with matching normalized names automatically fuse into one theme; Markdown markers, accents, and case are ignored.
Use an attractor’s visualization control to choose Active — export, Active — not exported, Normal member card, or Ignored — non-member. A normal member card keeps the attractor appearance but participates in membership like an ordinary card instead of creating a theme. To keep specific cards out of one export format without changing a theme's state, use that format's exclude tags.
Ignored themes are removed from the membership graph and every export, and are shown with a dashed marker in visualization mode.
Export order supports theme hierarchy, newest/oldest modification date, and all four spatial directions.
Any theme can pin its own card order (e.g. episodes top→bottom) independent of the global sort; "Pinned-theme placement" decides whether those blocks stay in sort order or move to the front.
While visualization is on, select cards on the board and use "Selected cards' themes →" to set every theme that owns a selected card.
While visualization is on, select cards on the board and use "Selection’s themes →" to set every theme that owns a selected card — fast way to export just the episodes you picked.
"All themes…" next to that row opens a bulk manager to sort, tally, and set many themes' states at once; click its ? for details.
Visualization numbers cards and connects them with arrows in the exact JSON order.
The ZIP can contain one JSON file plus one Fountain file per exported theme (themes set to Export). The JSON includes screenplay by default and can add diagnostics from advanced options.
Last-used settings auto-save in browser data; named presets can be saved, loaded, updated, or deleted.

Using the Canvas

Action

How

Pan

Drag empty space

Zoom

Ctrl/⌘+scroll or pinch on trackpad

Fit all cards

Press Space (with nothing selected)

New card

Double-click empty space

Edit title

Double-click a card

Edit notes

Right-click → "Edit notes…" or Space

Edit Additional Info

Right-click → "Edit [column name]" when Additional Info is mapped

Select many

Click + Cmd/Ctrl, or drag a selection box

Image gallery

Press F with selected cards, or click a card image preview

Duplicate

Right-click → "Duplicate card"

Set due date

Right-click → choose a date shortcut

Attachment Viewer

Open a card's paperclip to preview mapped attachments.

Preview images, PDFs, video, audio, HTML, text, and markdown.
Fullscreen on an image opens an image-only gallery. It includes every image on that card.
With multiple cards selected, press F or click an image preview to browse all selected cards' images.
Use Left/Right or the side arrows to navigate; Esc closes the gallery and returns to the whiteboard.
Open and Download stay available as discreet controls in the gallery.

Toolbar Buttons

📅

Show dates
Toggle due dates visible on all cards.

⏰

Overdue filter
First click shows cards due today or overdue. Second click keeps non-matching cards visible but dimmed. Third click clears the filter.

ℹ

Filter Additional Info
Show only cards with Additional Info data. Hidden until the Additional Info column is mapped.

▶

Read aloud (TTS)
Reads card titles via OpenAI TTS. Store the API key in a card titled "Whiteboard TTS OpenAI Key", in its Notes field.

🏷

Tag filter
Filter by mapped Choice List tags. Supports AND/OR matching and dimmed non-matches.

🔍

Search
Text or /regex/ search across titles and notes, with a configurable match scope. Open it and click its ? for the full query syntax.

Timeline
Filter by Modified date range. Non-matches can stay visible but dimmed.

↻

Card history
Browse visible cards by Modified or Created date, starting with the most recent or most ancient card.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key

Action

Space

Fit all cards to screen (nothing selected) / open notes (one card selected)

F

Open image gallery for selected cards

Cmd/Ctrl+C

Copy selected cards with their titles, comments, and screenplay text

Cmd/Ctrl+F

Open search and focus the search field

Cmd/Ctrl+G

Next search result

Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+G

Previous search result

Left/Right

Previous/next attachment or gallery image

Esc

Close editor, modal, attachment viewer, or image gallery

Cmd/Ctrl+Enter

Save and close editor. Exception: while inline-editing a bare mind-map node's text directly on the board, Cmd/Ctrl+Enter inserts a newline instead — plain Enter there already commits.

Cmd/Ctrl+B

Toggle bold in editor

Cmd/Ctrl+H

Cycle heading level (H4 → H3 → H2 → H1 → none)

Cmd/Ctrl+1-4

Set heading level 1-4

Tab

While inline-editing a bare mind-map node (double-click its text on the board): commit and create a child, opening its inline editor. In the floating card editor (right-click a card → "Edit in card editor…") and in Notes and other Markdown editors: create or indent bullet list items — never structural.

Tab

On the board, with a single card selected (not editing) and Parent/Children both mapped: create a child of that card and open its inline editor.

Enter

While inline-editing a bare mind-map node: commit and create the next sibling (or a child, on a root with no parent), opening its inline editor. In the floating card editor, or a free card's title: insert a newline.

Enter

On the board, with a single card selected (not editing) and Parent/Children both mapped: create the next sibling (or a child, on a root with no parent) and open its inline editor. Does nothing on a free card.

Shift+Enter

Always insert a newline in the title — in the inline mind-map node editor as well as the floating card editor

Shift+Tab

Outdent bullet list items in title/notes editors

Query syntax