The Microsoft Windows 10 Whiteboard app is fully integrated and is now available to all users. Learn how to use it and share your whiteboard projects with others.
While in its public preview version, the Microsoft Windows 10 Whiteboard app was only available to users who actively searched for it and downloaded it from the Windows Store. However, with the current updated version of Windows 10, the Whiteboard application is now an essential part of the operating system and is available to all users.
The Microsoft Windows 10 Whiteboard app is fully integrated into the operating system and many of its most important features, such as cloud storage and collaboration, depend on an active Microsoft account. This tutorial shows you how to access Microsoft Whiteboard and how to share your whiteboard creations with others.
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How to Access the Microsoft Whiteboard App
The Microsoft Whiteboard app is listed in the Windows 10 Start menu (Figure A), meaning you can pin it to Quick Start or Taskbar if you want.
Figure A
Access to the Whiteboard application is also available from the system tray if you enable this feature in your taskbar settings. Right-click on an empty area of the Windows 10 taskbar and select the “Show Windows Ink Workspace Button” item from the list. A new icon (Figure B) will be added to the system tray. Click on the new icon and you can choose the Whiteboard app.
Figure B
When you open the whiteboard, a thumbnail representing previous whiteboard projects is displayed, as shown in Figure C. Assuming you’ve signed in to Windows 10 with an active Microsoft account, these previous projects will be accessible from Microsoft’s cloud servers.
Figure C
Microsoft continues to add and improve Whiteboard features, making the tool much more versatile and powerful than the public preview version first available in 2018. Images and documents and note taking are now all core features of the app. Figure D hints at some of the features.
Figure D
How to share Microsoft Whiteboard projects
To share your current whiteboard with another user, click the invite icon in the upper left corner. The app will ask you to enable the feature as shown in Figure E. When activated, the app creates a link that you can copy and paste into an email, text, or conference call session.
Figure E
Of course, access to creating your whiteboard will require proper credentials and authorization, which must be arranged in advance.
If you want to share your completed whiteboard project without asking for collaboration, you can export your project as an image file. There are only two file type choices at the moment, .png or .svg. However, these file types can be converted to other types with a different application.
Microsoft Whiteboard app
While Microsoft Whiteboard will work well enough with the mouse and keyboard combination for many applications, serious artistic collaboration will likely be more effective with pen and tablet input. The Whiteboard app has several features and settings specifically designed to take advantage of this specialized interface.
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