5 Best Microsoft Whiteboard Alternatives
Working from home is quickly becoming the norm in all industries. Some organizations allow their employees to work from home permanently. And while you’re working from home, brainstorming with your team can be tricky. The whiteboard is one of the tools that teams would find useful when collaborating remotely. Although Microsoft Whiteboard is a solid choice, there are people who may want to try different options. This is why I will be sharing some of the best Microsoft whiteboard alternatives in this article.
Microsoft Whiteboard integrates with Teams, also by Microsoft, but not everyone uses Teams. What about other users who use Zoom, Duo, Meet or other platforms? These whiteboard apps will help, and most of them are available for Windows and other platforms.
Let’s see them.
1. DrawPile
DrawPile is a free open source whiteboard application available on Windows, macOS and Linux platforms. There is no mobile version available. At its heart, DrawPile is a sketching tool with collaboration features. Inviting is another story. You will need to share your external IP address and password for this. DrawPile offers a clever guide on how to host a collaborative session.
It offers a unique ability to record your screen while you collaborate with others on the whiteboard. This can help to understand the process and usable for reference later. You can save it as a video or as a series of images. The application is completely free.
2. Draw.Chat
One of the main features of Draw.Chat is the messaging function where you can send text messages to other participants. You can also send audio and video messages, which are even cooler than text explanations. Recently, the developers of the application added a video conference function.
Draw.Chat comes with many drawing tools that may be too much for alternative Microsoft Whiteboard researchers, but many will find these options useful. The best part is that no registration is required and you get 10MB of cloud storage where you can save whiteboards for a month before downloading them. There are many keyboard shortcuts to make your life easier.
Two cool features include the ability to draw / highlight on maps and annotate PDF files. The app is completely free and you can create multiple whiteboards at the same time.
3. Miro (earlier RealtimeBoard)
Miro is a platform-independent professional whiteboard application that works on desktop computers and smartphones. You can start with a blank whiteboard or choose a template to suit your needs. The Miro user interface is very neat and many elements can be added to a whiteboard.
You can drag and drop each item where you want. In addition, you can zoom and pan the map. Team members can chat with each other using text, audio and video, or simply share the screen inside Miro. You can also connect many third party apps like Slack, Drive, Teams, Trello, etc. There is a Miro market for all kinds of plugins for additional functionality. Corporate users will be happy to know that there are administrative controls for users authorized to control the workflow.
Miro has a free plan for up to 3 whiteboards and a few basic things to try. Meanwhile, the paid version at $ 8 / month unlocks several features such as greater team support, collaboration, private whiteboards, etc.
4. Explain everything
Explain that everything works much like the whiteboard option in Zoom or Meet, where you’ll create a whiteboard and send an invitation code to others. There are no desktop apps, but it works on any browser and has dedicated mobile apps. It was created to help teachers and others who give presentations explain how things work. It also supports audio and video recording.
You’ll create a whiteboard, then draw, add shapes and other elements, while explaining how things work. You can share the finished video with anyone. This does not mean that you cannot invite people and collaborate with them in one whiteboard. You can also do this, but those who were unable to attend the whiteboard sharing session can watch the video instead. Video can be created using a mixture of multimedia file types like PDF files, audio or video messages, and of course, all of the elements that you will use on the whiteboard itself.
Besides the video format, you can also save the whiteboard in PDF format or in some common image formats. Like Miro, this Microsoft whiteboard alternative integrates with many cloud storage applications. It’s free for up to 3 projects, and the price starts at $ 7 a month.
5. OneNote
Some Reddit users suggest using OneNote as an alternative to the Microsoft whiteboard. OneNote is a popular note-taking app, also from the house of Microsoft. You can take notes in a variety of formats such as text, audio and video, share and collaborate on a single note, and there is a handy toolbar with drawing tools.
Although it is not a traditional whiteboard application, there are advantages to using OneNote. You can create detailed notes, lists, draw, save, share, collaborate and later search this sea of notes to easily find what you’re looking for using keywords or tags. We covered OneNote is a big detail on GT before. Check our catch.
Integration whiteboard
Did you know that video conferencing applications like Zoom have a built-in whiteboard function? Unlike OneNote, which was designed primarily for taking notes, Zoom was designed for video conferencing and collaboration first. This is another way to use a whiteboard outside of what we shared above.
There are many other Microsoft Whiteboard alternatives, and which one you use will depend on your needs and your use case. I suggest you try a few, preferably the free version, and choose the one that best suits you.
Then:
Have I caught your eye with the Zoom whiteboard feature? Click the link below to find out how the Whiteboard function works in Zoom.
Last updated on May 28, 2020
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