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A Hiveboard is a whiteboard for your team. Put ideas on sticky notes, move them around, let everyone vote on the best ones, and keep the board for later. Everything you add saves on its own. This guide collects ideas for the first month of Northwind’s new Pearl District café.

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Start a board

1

Open Hiveboards and click New Board

Click Hiveboards in the left rail, then New Board. Your existing boards are listed below it; click one to open it.
The Hiveboards page with New Board outlined, the search box, Include project boards, Recently Edited, and three Northwind boards: Pearl District opening ideas, Subscription funnel and Northwind site map

New Board, above your boards

2

Name it and click Create

Type a Board Name and, if you like, a Description. Link to Project attaches the board to one of your projects; leave it on No project - standalone board for a board of its own. Pick a Background and click Create.
Create New Board: Board Name Pearl District opening ideas, outlined, the description Ideas for the new café's first month, Link to Project No project - standalone board, five backgrounds with the yellow one picked, and Create, outlined

Northwind's board for the new café

The new board opens. A short welcome tour may show the first time; close it with X.

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Put your ideas on sticky notes

1

Pick Sticky Note and click the board

The tools run down the left side of the board. Click Sticky Note (or press S), then click an empty spot on the board. A note appears where you clicked.
The lower half of the board's tool bar with the Sticky Note tool picked and outlined, between Text and Comment

The Sticky Note tool

2

Double-click the note, type, then click the arrow

Double-click the note and type your idea. When you are done, click the arrow at the top of the tool bar (Select, or press V). The board reads Saved at the top once your words are stored.
The Select arrow outlined at the top of the tool bar, a blue note reading Loyalty card: every tenth drink free, and a yellow note reading Free pour-over tasting on opening Saturday, outlined, being typed on

Typing on a note, and the arrow to finish

Don’t press Esc to finish typing. Esc cancels: the note goes back to what it said before you double-clicked, even after Saved shows, and Undo does not bring your words back. Clicking an empty part of the board does not finish typing either, so use the arrow.
Add a note for each idea. To move a note, drag it to a new spot; to remove one, select it and click the red trash can in its corner.
3

Color-code the notes

Click a note once to select it. A row of colors appears under it: click one to change the note’s color. Use colors to sort ideas, for example blue for loyalty ideas and yellow for opening-day ideas.
A selected note reading Loyalty card: every tenth drink free, with the toolbar above it and the row of six colors under it outlined: yellow, blue, green, pink, purple and orange

The colors under a selected note

A selected note also shows a Properties panel on the right, with its exact size and position, Lock (so nobody moves it by accident), Duplicate and Delete.

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Let your team vote

Dot voting gives everyone the same number of votes to place on the ideas they like best, so the favorites rise to the top.
1

Start a vote

Click Dot voting in the toolbar above the board (the box with a tick). Set Votes per person and click Start voting.
The Dot voting button outlined in the toolbar, and the Dot voting panel with Votes per person 3 and Start voting, outlined

Dot voting, three votes each

2

Click the ideas you like

Each teammate who can edit the board and has it open clicks the notes they want to vote for. A pink dot with the count appears on each note, and the panel ranks the ideas as votes come in. Click a note again to take your vote back. Your dots shows how many you have used.
The Dot voting panel, Live, Your dots 2/3, with the ranking outlined: Pastries from a Pearl District bakery 1 and Free pour-over tasting on opening Saturday 1, and the matching pink dots on those two notes

Two votes in, ranked in the panel

3

End the vote

Click End when everyone has voted. The panel keeps the Results, and New round starts another vote. The trash can next to it clears the votes.

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Share the board

1

Invite a teammate

Click Share at the top right. Type a Teammate email, pick what they can do (Viewer looks, Editor adds and changes, Owner can also manage who has access) and click the send arrow. The people who have access are listed below, where you can change their role or remove them.
Share board: Restricted, Only people granted access below can open this board, with Enable link; Copy link; the Teammate email box with Editor and the send arrow, outlined; and the board's owner listed below

Share board

You can invite people who are already on your Hiveku team. Add someone to your team first if they are not.Enable link in this window lets anyone on your Hiveku team who has the board’s link look at it, even if you did not invite them; Copy link copies that link.
2

Or share a view-only link

To show the board to someone outside Hiveku, such as a contractor or a landlord, click Share link above the board, then Enable link. Anyone with that link can look at the board without signing in, but cannot change it. Click Turn off in the same window to stop the link working.
Share a view-only link: Anyone with the link can open this board read-only, no Hiveku account or sign-in needed, and Anyone with the link can view with Enable link, outlined

A link for people outside Hiveku

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Save a copy or go back to an earlier version

Export at the top right saves the board as a PNG image, a PDF or an SVG, to drop into a document or an email.
The Export menu open under Export, outlined, with PNG image, PDF and SVG

Export

The clock icon next to Share opens Version history: the saved versions of the board, newest first. The eye previews a version, and Restore makes the board look like that version again. Restore asks first, then replaces everything on the board; the board as it was is kept as a version called Before restore.
The Version history icon outlined next to Share, and the Version history panel with v1, 9m ago, Auto-save, 1 element, Auto-saved, with the eye and Restore, outlined

Version history

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Good to know

  • More tools: the left tool bar also has shapes, lines and arrows to connect ideas, a pen, text, frames to group notes, comments and images. The toolbar above the board has Templates for ready-made layouts, a Timer for timed brainstorms, and Present, which hides the tools so you can show the board to a room.
  • Moving around: use + and - to zoom, Fit to see everything, and the hand tool (H) to drag the board. The small map at the bottom right shows where you are.
  • Boards for a project: on the Hiveboards page, Include project boards shows or hides the boards linked to a project.