Whiteboard Cards

Whiteboard cards are the essential building blocks of your whiteboard. Cards are freeform placeholders, or you can link them to work items such as issues and articles. With customizable options, you can configure each card to suit the specific needs of your team or workflow.

You can add existing issues and articles onto a whiteboard as cards. Additionally, you can convert text cards into issues or articles whenever needed, making it easy to turn ideas into actionable tasks or documentation.

You can add an infinite number of cards to your whiteboard to represent issues, articles, or any ideas you want to visualize. You can place cards anywhere on the whiteboard and customize them with text and colors.

You can link cards on the whiteboard to visually represent relationships or dependencies.

Card Types

Whiteboard cards include text cards for capturing ideas, existing or new issues for visualizing tasks, and existing or new articles for referencing information in the knowledge base. This flexibility allows you to organize your board in a way that aligns with your project's unique needs.

Action	Description
Text cards	Freeform cards where you can add notes, ideas, or placeholders for tasks or information. These cards can be converted into issues and articles.
Issue cards	Cards that represent issues in YouTrack. You can convert text cards into issue cards or add existing YouTrack issues as whiteboard cards.
Article cards	Cards that represent knowledge base articles in YouTrack. You can convert text cards into article cards or add existing YouTrack articles as whiteboard cards.
Text blocks	Text blocks are freeform elements on the whiteboard used to add context, notes, or labels. They can be placed anywhere to provide additional information or improve clarity. Hyperlinks in text blocks are working links, enabling you to reference external resources or navigate to relevant content directly.

Add a New Card

When adding a New card to the whiteboard, the card begins as a text card. After creating the card, it can stay as text or you can convert it into an issue or article.

To add a card to a whiteboard:

From the main navigation menu, select Whiteboards.
In the whiteboard toolbar, select New card.
- Move your cursor from the toolbar onto the whiteboard workspace. A transparent outline of a card appears under your cursor.
Left-click to set the card onto the whiteboard.
Enter text on the new card.
- The viewable text at the top of the card is the summary description.
- Select Show description in the corner of the card to display or edit the description of the card.
To confirm the new card on the whiteboard, select any other element in YouTrack except for the new card.

Card Toolbars

The card toolbars provide quick actions to manage both standard cards and issue/article cards, including styling, and organizational options.

The card toolbar provides quick access to key actions for managing individual cards. You can convert a card into an issue or article, assign a color for organization, or delete it from the whiteboard.

Action	Description
Convert to issue	Select Convert to issue to create a new issue from the card content.
Convert to article	Select Convert to article to create a new article from the card content.
Set color	Select Set color to open a color palette menu. Select a color from the color palette to change the color of the card.
Delete	Select Delete to delete the card from the whiteboard.

The issue and article card toolbar offers quick actions for managing the cards on the whiteboard. You can expand the card to open the issue or article, assign a color for organization, or remove it from the whiteboard without affecting the item in YouTrack.

Issue or article card toolbar on a whiteboard.

Action	Description
Expand	Select Expand to display the issue or article.
Set color	Select Set color to open a color palette menu. Select a color from the color palette to change the color of the card.
Remove	Select Remove to remove the card from the whiteboard. This action only removes the card from the whiteboard. The YouTrack issue or article remains unchanged.

Add a New Text Block

A New text block on the whiteboard is a borderless space for adding context, labels, or organizing information. Text blocks cannot be converted into YouTrack issues or articles but can be linked to other elements to provide structure and clarity.

To add a text block to a whiteboard:

From the main navigation menu, select Whiteboards.
In the whiteboard toolbar, select New text block.
- Move your cursor from the toolbar onto the whiteboard workspace. A transparent outline of a text block is displayed under your cursor.
Left-click to set the text block onto the whiteboard.
Enter text on the new text block.
To confirm the new text block on the whiteboard, select any other element in YouTrack except for the new text block.

The text block toolbar allows you to style and format your text for better clarity and emphasis on the whiteboard. You can adjust the text type (normal or heading levels), apply formatting such as bold, italic, or strikethrough, and delete the text block if needed.

Action	Description
Text type	Select the text type from the drop-down menu. Headings are differentiated from the rest of the text through larger boldface font sizes. Lines that are not headings appear as normal text.
Bold	Select Bold to set the current selection of characters in a boldface font.
Italic	Select Italic to set the current selection of characters in an italic font.
Strikethrough	Select Strikethrough to set the current selection of characters with a horizontal line through the center.
Set color	Select Set color to open a color palette menu. Select a color from the color palette to change the color of the text block.
Delete	Select Delete to delete the text block from the whiteboard.

Select Multiple Elements

You can select multiple elements on the whiteboard at once to perform actions such as moving, converting cards to issues, background color, or deleting them as a group. Click and drag a highlighted box over the desired elements on the whiteboard, or use the search bar to select multiple elements.

When you select multiple elements, a toolbar is at the bottom of the whiteboard.

Action	Description
<N> items selected	Displays the number of elements selected on the whiteboard.
Convert to issues	Select Convert to issues to create a new issues from all the selected cards. This action does not affect current issue cards, article cards, or text blocks.
Set color	Select Set color to open a color palette menu. Select a color from the color palette to change the color of all selected elements.
Delete or Remove	Select Delete or Remove to remove converted cards and delete other elements from the whiteboard. Removing issue or article cards from the whiteboard does not affect the issue or article in the YouTrack project.

Restricted Cards

Restricted cards appear on the whiteboard when the user does not have permission for the issue or article in YouTrack. The card is visible as a placeholder, but its summary and description remain hidden.

To learn more about updating issue permission, see Set Visibility.

Learn More About Working with Cards

To learn more about working with whiteboard cards, see:

27 March 2026