Docs.
Getting started
A board is a shared surface for notes, references, and works-in-progress. It lives at a link. Anyone with the link can open it — no install, no account required to view.
To create a board, sign in and click New board on your dashboard. The board opens immediately. Give it a name by clicking the title at the top.
Boards save automatically. Keep the tab open while you're working — live presence (cursors, edits) is only active while the tab is open. When you close the tab and come back, everything is still there.
The toolbar
Select
Click elements to select them. Drag to move. Hold Shift and click to add to the selection. Drag on empty space to box-select multiple elements.
Freehand
Draw with your mouse or stylus. Strokes are smoothed automatically. To draw with less smoothing and more precision, turn off smoothing in the toolbar options while the freehand tool is active.
Line, Curve & Polygon
Press L or click the line tool to start. Each click places a waypoint; double-click to finish. Press Esc to cancel.
Three toggles appear in the toolbar while you draw:
- Arrow — adds an arrowhead at the end (or both ends). The arrowhead is grouped with the line and moves with it.
- Curve — smooths the waypoints into a spline instead of straight segments. The midpoint handles on curves sit on the rendered curve, not the chord.
- Close — joins the last point back to the first to form a closed polygon or loop. Closing a polygon draws all edges, including the final one. You can also close automatically by double-clicking on or near the first waypoint.
Closed shapes get a semi-transparent fill by default. Edit the fill color from the style strip while the shape is selected or in vertex-edit mode.
Rectangle
Press R or click the rectangle tool. Click and drag to draw. Hold Shift while dragging to constrain to a square. Press Esc to cancel mid-draw.
Text
Click anywhere on the board to place a text element. Type to add content. Use the toolbar to change font, size, alignment, and color. Oppalin detects URLs in your text and underlines them automatically — click the link to open it.
Image
Drag an image file from your desktop onto the board to place it. Or press I to open the file picker. JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP are supported. Images can be resized and repositioned like any other element.
Working on a board
Moving and resizing
Select any element and drag to move it. Drag the corner handles to resize. By default, images and text scale proportionally. Hold Shift while dragging a handle to resize freely without maintaining aspect ratio.
Snap guides
When you move or resize elements, snap guides appear to align edges and centers with other elements on the board. Press F2 to toggle snap on or off. When snap is active, the toolbar button is highlighted.
Context menu
Right-click any element to open the context menu. Options: Copy, Cut, Paste, Duplicate. Paste places the element near its original position.
Undo and redo
Press Ctrl Z (or ⌘ Z on Mac) to undo. Press Ctrl Shift Z (or ⌘ Shift Z) to redo. Undo and redo work in multi-user sessions — each collaborator has their own undo stack.
Deleting elements
Select one or more elements and press Delete or Backspace.
Vertex editing
Double-click any line, arrow, curve, or polygon to enter vertex-edit mode. The shape switches from its normal transform box to individual vertex handles you can drag freely.
- Move a vertex — drag its handle to reshape the path.
- Insert a vertex — click the small dot that appears on each edge midpoint. On curves, the dot sits on the spline so inserting preserves the curve shape.
- Delete a vertex — right-click a vertex handle.
- Auto-close — while drawing a polygon or curve, double-click near the first vertex to close the shape automatically.
Click away or press Esc to exit vertex-edit mode. The shape returns to its normal scale/rotate handles.
Double-clicking a rectangle converts it to a freely editable quad — all four corners become independent vertex handles, and the style strip lets you adjust stroke width, stroke color, and fill.
Version history
Oppalin saves a snapshot of your board automatically as you work. You don't need to do anything.
To view or restore a previous version, open the board menu (the ··· icon near the board title) and select Version history.
- Free plan — 7 days of history.
- Pro plan — 30 days of history.
Restoring a version replaces the current board state. The action can be undone immediately after, but it is not saved to history itself.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| V | Select tool |
| B | Freehand tool |
| L | Line / Arrow / Curve tool |
| R | Rectangle tool |
| T | Text tool |
| I | Add image (opens file picker) |
| Delete / Backspace | Delete selected elements |
| Ctrl Z / ⌘ Z | Undo |
| Ctrl Shift Z / ⌘ Shift Z | Redo |
| F2 | Toggle snap guides |
| Shift + resize handle | Free deform (disables proportional scale) |
| Shift + rotate handle | Snap rotation to 15° increments |
Limits
- Mobile editing. Oppalin works on modern mobile browsers. Some advanced interactions (e.g. multi-touch resize) are optimised for desktop — a mouse and keyboard give the best experience.
- Keep the tab open for live presence. Cursors and real-time updates are only active while the tab is open. Closing the tab disconnects you from the session — your changes are saved, but others won't see your cursor.
- Image uploads. Individual images are limited to 10 MB. Supported formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP.
- Boards per account. Free plan: 3 boards. Pro plan: unlimited.
FAQ
I lost work. Can I get it back?
Check version history first — open the board menu and select Version history. Snapshots are saved automatically every few minutes. If the board is older than your plan's retention window, the history may not go back far enough.
I shared a link but my collaborator can't edit.
Make sure the board is set to Edit link in the share modal, not View link or Private. The access level can be changed at any time — the link stays the same.
An image won't upload.
Check the file size (limit is 10 MB) and format (JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP). If the image is within those limits and still won't upload, try refreshing the page and dragging it onto the board again.
I can't see my collaborator's cursor.
Live cursors only appear while both users have the board open in an active tab. If the tab is in the background or the browser has throttled it, presence may not update. Ask your collaborator to click on the board to confirm they're connected.
Undo isn't working as expected in a shared session.
Each collaborator has a separate undo stack. Pressing undo only reverses your own changes, not someone else's. This is intentional — it prevents one person's undo from overwriting another person's work.