Web Whiteboard: collaborate with others online for free
Web Whiteboard is an online collaboration application that brings whiteboard functionality for groups to the web.
Communication is one important cornerstone of projects. While it may work well if all team members are working in the same office building or region, it can be problematic if that is not the case.
If you work with freelancers for instance, you may need to communicate with workers living in different countries.
While there are plenty of options to do that, phone calls, emails, messaging, online voice chat to name a few, most limit what you can do to text, video or voice communication.
Web Whiteboard's free version offers a simple no-registration required solution. It is a web-based whiteboard application that teams can use to work on ideas and communicate with each other.
First thing you do is create a new invite link for the board that is created for you automatically when you open the site. The link is a simple share link that you can paste in emails, chat messages or message boards.
Each team member has the same rights once they join which means that anyone can draw and modify what is shown on the screen.
This is a limitation of the free version only. Paid versions introduce read-only boards that limit access rights so that only select members have write access while everyone else has read access only.
The second big feature that paid accounts introduce is voice chat. While you get around that easily through Skype or other voice communication software, the integration on Web Whiteboard makes it easier to use.
The whiteboard app itself is basic but should be sufficient for many different use cases. You can draw freehand using different brush sizes and colors, add images to the board or use the text tool to add plain text to it instead.
There is also an option to undo changes, erase parts on the board or throw it all in the trash to start anew.
Creations can be saved to the local system. Since there is no requirement for an account, boards cannot be saved online which can be problematic in some cases, for instance when you need to continue working on the board the next day or after the break.
The whiteboard has been designed for mouse-controlled and touch-devices. It should work fine on most devices including mobile devices provided that a modern web browser is being used.
Boards exist for as long as there is activity and get deleted automatically if there has not been any activity for a two hour period.
Verdict
Web Whiteboard is an interesting online application. It is simple to use, does not force users to register an account before they can start using the app, and works well all across the board.
It could use a couple of improvements though. Hotkeys for instance would help improve some operations, undo for instance, and additional drawing tools would improve the usability of the application further.
This seems to be nice but maybe a bit to simple to have anything complex done.
Jack I agree that it is simple. What I like about it is that you don’t need an account to use it, it seems a rather rare thing.
the no account thing is good, but not go back to a project not so good….
what they could probably do with is add an additional whiteboard “overlay” layer. So you have two layers. So you can upload a previous saved whiteboard image to bottom layer of new session and edit top transparent layer, e.g. applying white paint on top layer would effectively erase parts of the under layer.and you could use other drawing tools as normal… then save output as merged layers…
This or something like it is a really good idea. I hope you are suggesting it to them directly.
I like how web apps make it so easy for a developer to deploy fixes, changes and improvements.
on your suggestion tried dropping them a note via the contact us link, but after send just got a “500 sorry but no one here right now” message, so not sure if they got it.. but hopefully they’re savvy enough to check ghacks, read this review and take it on board
There is an undo tool available that appears to undo multiple steps (I don’t know how many). There’s also a tool available to upload an image, so if you download an image of your session through the sharing menu, you can upload it later to start a new session. I do agree that some other drawing tools, like the ability to draw lines, rectangles, and ovals, would be a great improvement.