How to Visualize Projects and Tasks on a Whiteboard
To visualize projects and tasks instead of guessing how they connect, draw them as a diagram the whole team can read at a glance. The Planfix Whiteboard is a visual planning tool built into Planfix: you add ideas as blocks, connect them, turn them into tasks and watch the plan move. This two-minute video shows how to create a Whiteboard and use it as a visual navigation hub for your work.
What you’ll learn: how to visualize projects and tasks
- Create a Whiteboard in the Planfix Planner and connect blocks into a clear workflow (0:06).
- Turn blocks into tasks, add existing tasks and open their task cards (0:30).
- Add projects, contacts, employees, buttons, automated scripts and Planners to one visual workspace.
- Switch between versions of the Whiteboard and restore an earlier one (1:09).
- Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate and edit the board faster (1:22).
How to create a Whiteboard in Planfix, step by step
Step 1. Create a Whiteboard in the Planner
You create a Whiteboard directly in the Planner: a Whiteboard is one of the list views a planner list can have, so it lives beside the lists, boards and calendars you already use instead of in a section of its own. An empty board opens, ready for the first block.
Step 2. Add blocks and connect them
Click the new block icon to add a block to the Whiteboard, and press F2 or double-click the block to change its title. For each block you can customize the color, the font and the size, so the parts of the plan that matter stand out. Drag blocks around the canvas and connect them in the order you need: a connection drawn from one block to another makes the sequence of the project explicit, and the appearance of the arrows that connect the blocks can be customized too. To remove a connection, click the arrow between the blocks to select it and press Delete.
Step 3. Turn blocks into tasks
Any block on the Whiteboard can become a task, so the work stays where you drew it instead of being retyped into a list somewhere else. Once a block is a task, the diagram stops being a sketch and starts showing the work your team is actually doing.
Tasks that already exist can join the diagram too: click the existing tasks icon, select the task you need from the list, and it appears on the Whiteboard. A single click on a task on the board opens its task card.
Step 4. Add projects, contacts, scripts and Planners
A Whiteboard holds more than tasks. You can place other Planfix objects on the same canvas: contacts, employees, projects, Planners, automated scripts and buttons. That is what lets you see the entire workflow in one place and turns a diagram into a visual navigation hub — one board where the process is drawn, the work behind each step is linked, and you can jump straight to any planner, project or script you need.
Step 5. Review and restore earlier versions
To keep track of changes, you can switch between different versions of the Whiteboard. If you need to go back to an older state of the board, you restore a previous version with a single click and it becomes the current version. On a board the whole team edits, that is a safety net: if a reorganization goes wrong, you roll it back instead of redrawing it.
Step 6. Navigate with keyboard shortcuts
A few shortcuts keep a large board workable:
- mouse wheel up and down — zoom in and out;
- Spacebar with the left mouse button, or the right mouse button — move around the board;
- Ctrl with the left mouse button — select several objects at once;
- F2 — edit the text inside a block;
- Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V — copy and paste blocks;
- Ctrl + Z — undo the last change;
- Delete — remove the selected object.
From idea to project on one board
The pattern is plan, implement, control. You sketch the stages of a launch as blocks and connect them, so the shape of the project is visible before anything is scheduled. Then you convert the blocks that stand for real work into tasks and hand them out. After that, the same diagram answers the questions a status meeting usually eats up: which stage are we in, which task is active now, and what is holding up the next one. The Whiteboard works as a complete visual overview of the project, with every task on it one click from its task card.
Who it’s for
- Project and product managers: map the stages of a launch, then convert them into tasks without redrawing the plan somewhere else.
- Team leads: show the team how their tasks connect, and keep one board as the entry point to the work.
- Process owners: draw a process map and attach the buttons and automated scripts that run each step.
- Analysts and consultants: brainstorm as a mind map, keep the change history, and turn the branches you agree on into tasks.
FAQ
Is a connection on the Whiteboard the same as a task dependency?
No. Connections on a Whiteboard are only visual arrows: they show how work relates inside the diagram, they are not task dependencies, and they do not move any dates. If you need one task to start after another finishes, use links between tasks and sequential tasks instead.
Can I add a task that already exists to a Whiteboard?
Yes. Click the existing tasks icon and select the task from the list: it appears on the board, where you can connect it to the other blocks and open its task card with a single click.
Can I go back if someone rearranges the board?
Yes. The Whiteboard keeps its earlier versions, so you can switch between them and restore the one you need with a single click; the version you restore becomes the current one.
Draw your next project before you schedule it
Pick a project that is hard to explain in a list and sketch it as a diagram: blocks for the stages, connections for the order, tasks for the work that is already real. The Whiteboard sits beside the other views of the Planfix Planner, so you can move between the diagram and a board or calendar of the same tasks. For more on working visually, see visual task management in Planfix, and the Help Center article on the Whiteboard for the full list of options. New to Planfix? Sign up to try it.
