Atomic Lab
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What’s new

Everything that’s changed in Atomic Lab, newest first.

Comments in the list read as they're written

  • The comments panel shows each comment as it reads: a thread's first comment keeps its line breaks, @mentions and tables, rather than running together on one line. Long ones fade out after a few lines; click to read the rest.
  • The same on cards: the comments listed in a card do too.

Tables in card notes and comments

  • Paste a table: copy cells from Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers and paste them into a card's note or a comment, and they become a table.
  • Or type one, the Markdown way: a header row like | Task | Owner |, then | --- | --- |, then a row per line. A colon in the dividing row aligns a column: :---: centres it, ---: puts it on the right.
  • On the card itself, the table is drawn across the card, with long cells cut short and a note of any rows or columns that don't fit. Open the card to see it all; click the note to edit it.
  • In comments, tables show as tables, @mentions and links included.

Recording a presentation of the board

  • Record a presentation of the board: while you present the board, Camera (C) shows your face, and on Pro and Team ● Record (R) records your voice and face along with where your view and pointer went. Stopping presenting stops the recording and asks what to do with it.
  • It plays back on the board itself: the view moves as yours did, and a red dot shows where you pointed. Moving around yourself pauses it; Play picks up where the recording is. Visitors to a published board can play it too.
  • Presenting ignores stray keys: while you present, letters no longer switch tools, so a slip of the keyboard can't start drawing on the board. While recording, Esc doesn't end the presentation either.

Your face, and recorded talks

  • Show your face: while you play a board's slides, Camera (or C) shows your camera in a round bubble over them. Drag it to whichever corner suits. Only you see it, and anyone you share your screen with.
  • Record a talk: on Team, ● Record (or R) records your voice, your camera if it's on, and every slide and build as you go. Pause and carry on, for up to an hour. When you stop, give it a title and save it to the board, download it, or throw it away.
  • Recordings live on the board: a saved talk appears under its first slide. Double-click it to play it back with the slides changing as they did, skip around with the scrubber, or download it from its right-click menu. Visitors to a published board can play it too.
  • Team storage: a Team workspace's boards hold up to 50 GB of images, audio and recordings. The Plan page shows what's used.

Slides on any board

  • Decks are now boards. Slides belong on boards, beside the ideas they come from, so there's one kind of page again. Every deck you made is a board with its slides on it, in the same order, and New board is back to one list of templates, the Talk outline included.
  • Add slides to any board: the new Slides button in a board's top bar opens the slide rail. + New slide puts a slide beside the one you're on, in a clear space, so it never covers what's already there.
  • Put slides anywhere: move a slide next to the sticky notes it sums up. The rail's order is the order they play in. While the rail is open, numbered arrows on the board show the way from each slide to the next. Dragging in the rail changes the order without moving anything.
  • ▶ Play appears as soon as a board has a slide, with builds, notes, the presenter view and Present to everyone, as before.
  • Published boards with slides have ▶ Play too. So do boards kept in your browser, without an account.
  • Present in the ⋯ menu and Export as PDF go slide by slide on a board with slides, and frame by frame on one without.

Decks

  • Decks: a new kind of page for slideshows. Choose New, then a deck: a blank one, or the Talk outline to start from.
  • Slides are made with the board's tools: sticky notes, shapes, text, cards, images, audio, connectors and drawing all work on a slide. All the slides sit in a column on one canvas, so you can drag things from one slide to another. Anything off the slides is scratch space that never shows.
  • The slide rail down the left shows every slide:
    • Click one to go to it, and drag to reorder.
    • + New slide adds one after the slide you're on. Each slide's ⋯ menu has Duplicate and Delete.
    • ↑ and ↓ move between slides.
  • Speaker notes and transitions: each slide has notes in the panel underneath, and a transition: fade, slide or none.
  • Builds: select something on a slide and choose Appear: Click 1 (or 2, 3…) in the toolbar, and it appears on that click while you present.
  • Play (or ⌘↩) shows the deck full-screen, sharp at any size. → and Space go forward, ← goes back, F is full screen and ? lists the keys. Presenter view (S) opens a window with your notes, the next slide and a timer.
  • Present to everyone: everyone playing the deck follows your slide and each click, and anyone can stop following to look around. Anyone on the deck's editor gets a Watch button.
  • Decks go everywhere boards do: folders, stars, search, sharing, templates, copies, trash and history. The workspace list can show just your boards or just your decks.
  • Published decks play as a slideshow at their link. Export as PDF gives a page per slide.
  • Playing needs a recent browser (Chrome or Edge 125, Safari 17.4, Firefox 126 or later). On an older one, you can present the deck on its canvas instead.

Workshops

  • Follow someone: click a person's avatar at the top of the board and your view follows theirs, until you move it yourself. They see an eye on your avatar.
  • Present: choose Present in the ⋯ menu and everyone on the board follows your view. ← and → step through the board's frames, one at a time. Anyone can stop following and join back in.
  • Timer: editors start a countdown everyone can see (1, 3, 5 or 10 minutes), pause it or add a minute. It chimes when time's up.
  • Voting: editors start a vote and choose how many votes each person gets. Everyone on the board, viewers included, clicks sticky notes and cards to vote. Votes stay hidden until the vote ends. Then the counts appear on the board, and Add results to the board writes them down.
  • Reactions: send 👍 ❤️ 😂 🎉 👏 or 🤔 from the ☺ button. It floats up on everyone's screen.
  • None of this is saved, and visitors to a published board don't see it.

Finding and organising

  • Search all your boards:
    • The search box at the top of every page looks through every board you can see: titles, sticky notes, shapes, text, cards and their checklists, frame titles and comments. Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K) to get to it from anywhere, a board included.
    • Words match from their start, and case and accents don't matter. A result opens the board with what matched selected.
  • Starred boards and folders:
    • Star a board with ☆ to keep it under Starred. Stars are just for you.
    • Folders are shared with everyone in the workspace. Make one with + New folder, then drag boards onto it or use a board's ⋯ menu.
    • Deleting a folder keeps its boards.
  • Save as template: in a board's ⋯ menu. The template appears in the New board dialog for everyone in the workspace, without the board's assignees, due dates or comments.
  • Export as PDF: one page for each frame, in reading order, or the whole board on one page.

My tasks and reminders

  • My tasks:
    • My tasks in the header lists every card and checklist item assigned to you, on every board you can see, across all your workspaces.
    • Tasks are grouped into Overdue, Today, Next 7 days, Later and No due date. Each shows its board, its column and its checklist progress, and links straight to the card.
    • Tick checklist items right there. They're ticked on the board, live for everyone on it.
    • Something leaves the list when it's ticked, archived, deleted or unassigned.
  • Due-date reminders:
    • On the morning something of yours is due (from 8:00 in your time zone), you get one email listing everything due that day.
    • If it's still open the next morning, you're reminded once more.
    • Complete checklists and archived cards aren't reminded. Turn reminders off on your account page.

Faster pages

  • Every page now downloads only what it needs.
    • The start page downloads about a third of what it did.
    • Boards download about an eighth less, and their code arrives alongside the page instead of after it.
  • If a page's code can't be downloaded, on a flaky connection for example, the page says so and offers Try again.
  • Comments:
    • The comment box is ready to type in every time you click with the comment tool. Before, it sometimes needed a click first.
    • Typing @ no longer offers you yourself.
  • Blog: new post, "Comments on the board: feedback right where the work is".

Comments

  • Comments on the board:
    • Press ⇧C, or use the speech bubble in the toolbar, then click anywhere to pin a comment there. A comment pinned to a sticky note, card or any other object moves with it.
    • Each pin is a thread: reply, edit or delete your own comments, and resolve the thread when it's done. Resolving takes the pin off the board.
    • The comments button in the board bar opens a list of every thread, open or resolved, and counts the ones you haven't read.
    • A card's editor lists the threads on that card, and its Comment button starts one.
    • Copy link in a thread's menu gives a link that opens the board at that thread.
  • Who can comment: anyone who can open a board, including people who can only view it on a Free workspace. Visitors to a published board don't see comments.
  • @mentions: type @ in a comment to pick someone who can see the board.
  • Emails:
    • You're emailed when someone mentions you, replies in a thread you've commented in, or assigns you a card or a checklist item.
    • They're collected for about 10 minutes and sent as one email, without anything you've already seen.
    • Turn each kind off on your account page, or unsubscribe from any of these emails in one click.
  • What's new: a page listing every release, at /changelog. The start page, the blog and your account page link to it.

Fixes

  • Archived cards that escaped their column go back into its archive, or are restored if there's no column above them. They're fixed when an editor opens the board.
    • The cause was a tab left open across a deploy. Its older code laid archived cards out as ordinary cards, and the column then dropped them.
    • Archived cards now stay in their column wherever they're stored.
  • Tabs left open across a deploy now reload before they can join a board, rather than editing with old code. They show "Atomic Lab has been updated. Reloading…".

Arranging

  • Align and distribute:
    • Line up two or more objects by their left edges, centres or right edges, or their tops, middles or bottoms. Space three or more evenly, across or down.
    • Use the selection toolbar, or Alt+A, H, D, W, V or S, and Alt+Shift+H or V.
    • A group moves as one, a frame moves with what's in it, and cards in a Kanban column stay put.
  • Groups:
    • ⌘G groups the selection and ⇧⌘G takes groups apart.
    • Clicking any member selects the whole group, and a second click selects just that member.
    • Copies of a group make a group of their own.
  • Lock:
    • ⇧⌘L, the toolbar or the right-click menu locks objects so they can't be selected, moved, edited or erased. Clicks and the marquee pass through them, and a padlock shows on hover.
    • To unlock, right-click the object and choose Unlock. The empty board's menu has Unlock everything.
  • Find on a board:
    • ⌘F searches the board's text: sticky notes, shapes, text, card titles, notes and checklists, frame titles and audio titles. Case and accents don't matter.
    • Enter and Shift+Enter move between matches, and the view follows. Esc closes the bar and selects the match shown.
    • It works on view-only and published boards too.

Archiving cards

  • Archive cards in Kanban columns.
    • Right-click a card and choose Archive, or Archive 3 cards with several selected. The card editor has an Archive button, and a column's menu has Archive all cards.
    • Archived cards collapse into an "Archived · 12" row at the foot of their column. Click it to show them as strips (colour, title, checklist progress), newest first, or to hide them again. Everyone on the board sees the same.
    • Restore (in the right-click menu or the card editor) puts a card back at the end of its column. A column's count is of its live cards.
  • Deleting a column deletes its archived cards; its other cards stay. "Stop stacking" restores the archive first.

Fixes

  • Older browsers:
    • Safari before 16.4 and older Chrome-based browsers drew boards with errors. Atomic Lab now works on Safari and iOS 15.4+, Chrome and Edge 99+, and Firefox 102+.
    • Anything older is asked to update, rather than getting a board that half works.
  • Error reports now record only errors from Atomic Lab's own code. Scripts that Facebook's and Instagram's in-app browsers add to pages were showing up as ours.
  • Blog: the new post's image is a smaller JPEG.

A new blog post

  • Blog: new post, "From blank board to a task list in a few minutes".

Audio and a new start page

  • Audio clips on the board:
    • Record from the microphone (up to 10 minutes), or add MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, WebM or FLAC files.
    • Each clip is a small player you can move, resize and rename. Anyone who can see the board can play it, including visitors to a published board.
    • Right-click a clip to download it.
  • Storage: a Free workspace's boards can hold 1 GB of images and audio. Team has no limit. The Plan page shows what's used.
  • A new start page that sells the product: a screenshot of a real board, feature rows, the templates, pricing for Free and Team, answers to common questions, and a Pricing link in the header and on the blog.
  • New images and audio clips are selected as soon as they're placed, so you can move them while they upload.

The blog

  • A blog at /blog, with an RSS feed and link previews.
  • Five posts: Kanban columns, publishing to the web, speed, privacy and pricing, and boards kept in the browser.

Ready to launch, Kanban columns, publish to web

  • Ready to launch:
    • Privacy and terms pages.
    • Manage your own account: change your name or email, sign out other devices, download your data, delete your account.
    • Rename and delete workspaces, and a trash that keeps deleted boards for 30 days.
    • Links to Atomic Lab show a preview when shared.
  • Kanban columns:
    • Cards stack and snap into place in a column, which opens a gap as you drag a card over it. Columns in a row share one height.
    • "+ Add card", Alt+arrow keys to move cards, "Add column to the right", and "Stack cards as a column" for existing frames.
  • Publish to web:
    • A read-only, live link anyone can open without an account. Search engines are kept out unless you allow them.
    • Board thumbnails in link previews and board lists.
    • Visitors can report a board, and admins can unpublish it.

Clean-up of unused Free workspaces

  • Automatic clean-up: Free workspaces nobody has used for a year are deleted, after warning emails 30 and 7 days before.

Open sign-up, plans and billing

  • Sign-up and the start page:
    • Anyone can sign up with a magic link and gets their own Free workspace.
    • A start page for visitors.
    • Boards that work without an account, kept in the browser and moved into your account when you sign up.
  • Free and Team plans:
    • On Free, one person edits.
    • Inviting a teammate starts a 14-day Team trial.
    • Stripe Checkout and the billing portal.
    • A lapsed Team goes read-only, without deleting anything.
    • Account and billing emails.

Cards

  • Cards with a title, note, checklist, assignees and a due date. Two people ticking different items at once both keep their ticks.
  • The Kanban template is rebuilt on cards.
  • A right-click menu on the board: clipboard, duplicate, arrange, open or edit, export and delete.

Multiplayer and more to draw with

  • Real-time multiplayer:
    • Everyone's edits, cursors and selections appear live, and changes made offline are sent on reconnect.
    • People are disconnected when their access is removed.
  • More content: connectors, a pen and eraser, images, and frames.
  • Polish:
    • Keyboard shortcuts with a help overlay, and a minimap.
    • PNG and SVG export, copy and paste between boards, and board templates.
    • Version history.
  • The Atomic Lab name and logo.

Text, sign-in and saved boards

  • Text: rich text editing (bold, italic, links, bullet lists) on sticky notes, shapes and text. Text is cached so large boards stay smooth.
  • Sign-in by emailed magic link.
  • Workspaces: members, invites, and boards that are saved.

The engine

  • An infinite canvas that pans and zooms smoothly, built for 10,000 objects on a board.
  • Drawing: sticky notes and shapes; selecting, moving, resizing and rotating; snapping.
  • Undo and redo.