Customizing diagram shapes
In Whimsical boards, there are many diagram shapes which can be customized in different ways. This article covers the different options and how to use them.
You'll find diagram shapes in the toolbar, or you can search for a specific shape by typing the slash key:
They are:
- Rectangle (square)
- Pill
- Oval (circle)
- Diamond
- Parallelogram
- Flipped Parallelogram
- Trapezoid
- Triangle
- Hexagon
- Cylinder
- Sequence Diagram actor
- Annotation
- Line
- Bracket
- Cloud
- Star
After adding a shape to your board, you can always change it to be a different shape while preserving the customizations you've made (color/border etc):
Size
The first and most obvious way to customize a shape is to change its size. Just drag any of the sides or corners, and you'll see the exact width and height in pixels as you make adjustments.
Read this article to learn how auto-alignment and the grid impacts sizing shapes.
Tip: When resizing clouds or stars, the edges are regenerated for a splash of randomness:
If you do want multiple identical clouds or stars, resize them first before copying them.
Color
Change the color of any of your shapes with this option in the context bar:
After you've set the color of a specific shape (like cloud in this example) any more of the same shapes you add will be the same color. E.g. any other clouds I add to this board 👆will be pink.
The colors available in this palette come from the board's theme.
Check out this article to learn about custom themes and colors.
Border style
There are three outline options to choose from:
- Fill - where the entire shape is solidly colored and there is no distinct border
- Border - where the border is solidly colored and the shape's fill is a lighter version of the same color
- Dashed border - Same as above, but the border is dashed
You can also make a shape completely transparent - leaving only its outline visible:
Tip: If you want a shape to have a different colored border, you can place a slightly larger shape behind it and then group them for this effect:
Or, offsetting two shapes of the same size, can make for a groovy 3D block effect:
This is best used sparingly 😉
Rotation
You can rotate shapes at 90 degree increments:
Note: it's not currently possible to rotate shapes to more specific increments (e.g. 45 degrees)