Use shapes to visualize ideas
Whiteboards aren’t available in Atlassian Government environments.
Whiteboards in Confluence help you bring your ideas to life with a wide variety of shapes. Whether you’re mapping user journeys, building flowcharts, or designing technical diagrams, shapes make it easy to organize and communicate your thoughts visually.
Shapes are perfect for:
User journeys and user flows
Architecture diagrams
Flowcharts
Teamwork exercises, wireframes and other activities that combine shapes and text
Add shapes to a whiteboard
To add a shape to a whiteboard:
Select the Shape tool to select a shape.
Choose the shape you want to use on your whiteboard.
Hover the shape preview over the whiteboard to pick a spot.
Select again to drop the shape.
You can also drag and drop a shape from the toolbar onto the board.
Add lines to shapes
Add lines between sticky notes and shapes to diagram flows.
Select in the toolbar.
Select between a line or connector.
Select and drag your cursor between the objects you want to connect.
Once created, you can select and drag a line’s start or end point to another object or another side of the same object.
Access more shapes
You can access additional shapes, icons, and system architecture tools in the More shapes menu.
Select the shape icon from the main tool bar.
Select More shapes.
A sidebar appears on the left containing all of the basic shapes and connectors, flowchart shapes, advanced shapes, and several sets of system architecture icons.
Edit shapes
Color
Use the color picker in the floating toolbar to change a shape's color.
To edit a shape's color:
Select the shape.
Select the color picker in the floating toolbar.
Select a new color.
Type
You can change a shape already on your whiteboard from one type to another. For example, you can change a square to a circle.
To change a shape’s type:
Select the shape.
Select the shape selector in the floating toolbar.
Select a new shape.
Size
You can resize a shape in two ways:
Drag the corner. This will evenly scale the shape up or down in size. The ratios of the shape will also be kept the same, but make the shape a different size.
Drag a side. This will only change the width or height of the shape. You can use this method to turn a square into a rectangle, etc.
Text labels
You can add text to any shape. Select the shape to see a cursor and a floating formatting toolbar. When you resize the shape, the text stays the same size.
Standard shapes: The label fits inside the shape and as you add text, the shape will grow.
Advanced shapes: The label sits outside the shape and will move when you move the shape.
Icons: The label sits outside the icon and will move when you move the icon.
Create a Jira work item from a shape in whiteboards
Make sure that no ideas or to-dos get left behind when you’re done brainstorming or sprint planning. With whiteboards, you can improve your workflow by selecting single or multiple shapes and turning them into a Jira work item. This will work for Jira, Jira Service Management, and Jira Product Discovery.
Select the shapes you want to turn into a Jira work item.
Select Create from the floating toolbar.
Add all the relevant information to the dialog on the right of your whiteboard.
This will take you to Jira.
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