Limelight
What is an Online Whiteboard?
An online whiteboard is a shared digital canvas where multiple people can draw, write, and organize ideas together in real time, from any location.
An online whiteboard provides an open, persistent canvas for sketching diagrams, jotting notes, and arranging sticky notes or shapes collaboratively. Teams use it for brainstorming, planning, and teaching, with changes visible to everyone instantly.
An online whiteboard differs from freehand annotation over an app, because the whiteboard is its own dedicated workspace rather than markup on top of existing content. It also differs from presentation software, which is built around slides rather than a free-form canvas.
Sometimes you do not want a separate canvas, you want to draw directly over whatever app is on screen. Limelight is a macOS menu-bar overlay whose freehand drawing (⌃⌥3) lets you annotate on top of any window, with a quick clear (⌃⌥C), plus a cursor spotlight (⌃⌥1) and keystroke display (⌃⌥2). Limelight is not a shared online whiteboard and stores no collaborative canvas; it is a live, on-screen drawing layer over your own apps.
Why Limelight
- ▸A shared digital canvas for real-time collaborative drawing and notes
- ▸Used for brainstorming, planning, and teaching
- ▸Differs from slide-based presentation software and from app overlays
- ▸Limelight draws over any app with freehand annotation, but is not a shared collaborative whiteboard
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FAQ
- Is Limelight an online whiteboard?
- No. An online whiteboard is a shared collaborative canvas. Limelight is a macOS overlay that lets you draw freehand directly on top of any app on your own screen, without a shared canvas or stored boards.
- What is the difference between a whiteboard and annotation?
- A whiteboard is a dedicated blank canvas, while annotation means marking up existing content. Limelight's drawing is annotation: it overlays freehand strokes on whatever app you are showing.