Frames

Frames are essential to structure your content on the board and manage the big picture. They are also helpful for creating presentations or exporting a board. You can move frames, arrange content on frames in a grid-like mode, and hide content on frames from your collaborators' view.

In this article:

1. Getting started
2. Grid in frames
3. Navigating between frames
4. Hiding frames
   4.1. How it works for board owner
   4.2. How it works for board participants
5. Presentation mode
6. Export

Getting Started

There are simple ways to add a Frame to the board:

• Select Frame on the toolbar or press F on your keyboard and click anywhere on the board or drag the cursor.
• Drag and drop a Frame widget right on the board.

Frame on the toolbar

And if you need to add an existing frame from another board - just copy and paste it like any other content! Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V will work as well.

Frames act like pages that group objects together. All the content inside the frame moves and is copied together with the frame. You can change the frame color, ratio, and name. Accidentally deleted a frame? Have no worries, all the content will stay on the board.

✏️ If objects on your board unexpectedly change their positions or disappear, please check whether you have the Grid mode enabled on your frames.

Modifying a Frame

To resize an existing frame, simply select it (by clicking its border or title) and drag its borders, adjusting the frame to the needed size:  Resizing frames

To rename a frame, double-click its heading or choose the option on the frame context menu:

Renaming a frame

✏️ If you want to put frames inside frames and move the outer frame together with the nested ones, feel free to group them:

Moving multiple objects together

✏️ You can lock a frame to prevent it from moving accidentally. 

Locking a frame

If you want to restrict other board editors from editing the content inside the frame, select all the needed objects and lock them: Locking objects inside a frame

💡 You can get a direct link to any frame on the board. Share this link with your collaborators to draw their attention to the exact frame. Open the context menu and choose Copy link. Note that users will still have access to the whole board. 

Copying link to a particular frame on the board

You can duplicate a board with a help of shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + D. If your frame's name contains a date, the date on the copy will be changed to the next day (for example, Feb 5 will change to Feb 6).

Grid in Frames 

Working on a user story map, service blueprint, customer journey map etc., you want a quick way to organize objects and keep them organized after adding new ones. In cases like this grid in frames comes in extremely helpful.

To automatically snap content in the frame to a grid, enable the Grid option in the context menu. To switch back to the free-form layout, choose the Freeform option.

When you drop a new object into a frame, it is arranged along with the other objects in the grid. This is a real time-saver for those who often add new content to their boards and need to keep them in order. Resize the frame to change the position of objects in the grid.

Please note that links, comments and other frames cannot be snapped to a grid

Navigating between Frames

Quickly jump from one frame to another, reorder and modify your frames on the Frames Panel. Click Frames in the left-hand lower corner to access it:

Using the Frame Panel

⚠️ The option to re-order frames in the sidebar is not available on touch devices (in the tablet app and in browser).

Hiding Frames

Set up by: board owners
Available for: Education, Team, Consultant, Business, and Enterprise plan

The option to hide frames will allow you to control what content is revealed to your collaborators and audience during workshops and meetings. By using the feature you can make sure that meeting participants are not being distracted by specific board objects or keep some content private until the right moment. Hiding frames is extremely helpful when it comes to designing meetings and organizing workshops step-by-step.

How it works for board owner

To hide a frame, click the eye icon on the frame's menu:

Hiding a frame

You can also hide a frame from the Frames toolbar:

Hiding a frame from the Frames toolbar

⚠️ Board owner can’t copy or duplicate a hidden frame until the frame is revealed.

⚠️ Please note that hiding a frame does not conceal comments on it. 

To reveal a hidden frame, simply click the icon on the context menu.

Revealing a hidden frame

💡 Splitting up content into multiple frames and revealing them one by one will allow doing a step-by-step sequence of reveals matching your meeting or workshop agenda.

Feel free to add hidden frames to visual notes to create a hidden step-by-step reveal of the session agenda. 

⚠️ When hidden frames are revealed on the board they won’t be revealed automatically in notes. Please refresh notes to reveal the frames.

How it works for board participants

As soon as a frame is hidden, your board participants will not be able to view its content. Instead, they will see a blanc frame with a closed eye icon. If users place an object on top of the hidden frame - it will go under the placeholder but will still be available for editing and dragging those objects out of the hidden frame.

Placing an object on top of a hidden frame

Presentation Mode 

Frames are of great help for showcasing your board. Add frames to structure the board content and switch on the presentation mode.

Click Presentation Mode to navigate smoothly between your frames on the board.

Activating the Presentation mode

💡 To change the order of frames in the presentation mode, change it in the Frames Panel

Click Present to enter the Full-screen presentation mode. The frames will be shown like slides without board tools and frame titles. Use arrows to navigate between the slides.

Full-screen presentation mode

Export

💡 Be sure to check the main article on board export

Frames can be exported as a PDF document, JPEG image or CSV file - all options are available in the Export menu in the upper left-hand corner of the board.

Export menu

✏️ You can export the whole board, choose a particular part or save single frames. If you need to export a single frame, select it, open the context menu and choose the needed export option. If you'd like to export several frames, select them and choose the corresponding option in the context menu. Please take into account some browser restrictions.

Exporting a frame to a CSV file

✏️ If you export the whole board in PDF, the order of the frames in the exported document is the same as in the Frames panel. You can change the order of the frames by dragging them.

Changing the order of the frames