Whiteboard Minimap, Zoom and Navigation: A Teacher's Guide

To move around a large online whiteboard, zoom with the + and - buttons in the bottom-right corner, pan with the Pan tool or the mouse wheel, and turn on the minimap to see the whole board at once. In Educastic, zoom runs from 25% to 400%, and a Board settings button decides whether the mouse wheel scrolls or zooms.

A board fills up fast in a real lesson. You start a worked example at the top, a student asks a question, you sketch a diagram to the right, and twenty minutes later the first example is off screen. Good navigation is what lets you go back to it in two seconds instead of thirty.

This guide covers every way to move around Educastic's whiteboard and when each one is the right choice in class.

What are the whiteboard's navigation controls?

Educastic's whiteboard has four navigation controls: zoom, pan, the minimap and full screen. Each one answers a different question a teacher has mid-lesson.

The Zoom Tools and Full Screen buttons on the left rail appear when the teacher has enabled those tools for the session. The zoom control in the corner is always there.

How do you zoom in and out on the whiteboard?

Click the + button in the bottom-right corner to zoom in and the - button to zoom out. Each click changes the zoom by 10 percentage points, and the number between the buttons shows the current level, starting at 100%.

Educastic's whiteboard zooms from 25% to 400%. Zoom changes only the view, not the objects, so zooming in and back out never makes your drawings smaller or shifts them. Math paper backgrounds (grids and dots) stay aligned with your ink at every zoom level, which matters when students plot points.

You can also hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and turn the mouse wheel, or pinch on a trackpad. Wheel zooming is smoother than the buttons, which helps when you want to land on an exact spot.

Tip: zoom is personal. Each participant zooms their own view, so a student on a small laptop can zoom in on your working without changing what anyone else sees.

How do you move around the board (pan)?

Pick the Pan (Move Resources) tool on the left rail and drag the board to move it. You can also pan without changing tool: by default, turning the mouse wheel or swiping with two fingers on a trackpad moves the board up and down, and Shift with the wheel moves it sideways.

On tabs you add during the class, panning is shared: when you move the board, the view moves for the other participants on that tab too, so everyone stays on the same part of the page. On the Home tab, panning only moves your own view.

What does the settings icon next to the zoom do?

The sliders icon to the right of the zoom percentage opens Board settings, a small panel with two options:

1. Scroll behaviour. Choose Scroll (the mouse wheel moves the board, Ctrl and the wheel zooms) or Zoom (the mouse wheel zooms the board). Scroll is the default. In either mode, Ctrl or Cmd with the wheel, and a trackpad pinch, still zoom.
2. Minimap. A switch that shows or hides the minimap, described as an "Overview of the whole board".

Both choices are saved in your browser on that device, so a teacher with a mouse at school and a trackpad at home can set each machine the way they like. Press Esc or click outside the panel to close it.

How do you use the minimap?

The minimap is a small card that shows everything on the current tab, with the part you can see on screen outlined and the rest dimmed. Click or drag on the map to move your view to that spot.

1. Click the sliders icon next to the zoom percentage to open Board settings.
2. Turn on the Minimap switch.
3. Click or drag on the map to jump to any part of the board.
4. Drag the card by its header if it covers your work. You can also focus the header and use the arrow keys, and double-click the header to put the card back in its corner.
5. Click the close button on the card (Hide minimap) when you no longer need it.

The minimap is off by default, and the card's header also shows your current zoom percentage. Moving the view from the minimap works like a pan, so on added tabs the class follows you.

When should you use each control in a lesson?

Use zoom for reading, pan for making space and the minimap for finding your way back.

• Reviewing a worked example. Turn on the minimap, click the example from the start of class and talk it through, then click back to where you were.
• Marking up a dense worksheet. Zoom in to 150% or more on the question you are explaining, as in annotating a PDF in an online class, then zoom out to show the whole page.
• Running out of space. Pan to empty board rather than erasing; the earlier work is still there for questions.
• Presenting. Go full screen so students see the board without your browser tabs.

What are the limits?

Zoom is anchored at the top-left corner of the board rather than at your pointer, so after zooming in you may need to pan to the area you want. Zoom stays on each person's own screen and is not shared with the class. Learners use the zoom control too, but they need board access from the teacher to pick tools such as Pan.

For a tour of every other tool on the board, see the online whiteboard tools guide.

Frequently asked questions

How far can I zoom on the Educastic whiteboard? From 25% to 400%. The current percentage shows between the zoom buttons in the bottom-right corner.

When I zoom in, do my students see the same zoom? No. Zoom changes only your own view. Panning is shared on tabs you add during the class.

Can I make the mouse wheel zoom instead of scroll? Yes. Open Board settings with the sliders icon next to the zoom and choose Zoom under Scroll behaviour.

Where is the minimap? Turn it on with the Minimap switch in Board settings. It is off by default and remembered on your device.

Does zooming change the size of my drawings? No. Zoom is a view change only, so objects keep their size and position.

Try it on your next board

Open the Educastic online whiteboard, fill a board with a lesson, then turn on the minimap and jump between examples the way you would in class.

Try the whiteboard free