How to use Whiteboard in Microsoft Teams

This guide covers how to start a Teams whiteboard, who can join it, where it is saved, and when drawing on your shared screen suits a lesson better. Microsoft’s pages were checked on November 1, 2026.

How to use Whiteboard in a Teams meeting

Whiteboard is a shared canvas: it opens as its own board that attendees draw and type on together. It is not a layer over your screen, so your slides and apps are hidden while it is shared.

1. Join the meeting.
2. In the meeting controls, select Share.
3. Under the Whiteboard section, select Microsoft Whiteboard. The board opens for everyone in the meeting.
4. Select Pen, choose a colour, then draw or write on the board.
5. Select Note or Text to add typed words, and drag objects to move them.
6. Select Stop sharing in the meeting controls when you are done.

Note: on a phone, join the meeting, select More options, then Share Whiteboard. These labels come from Microsoft’s Whiteboard-in-Teams page, which Microsoft marks as out of date, so a newer Teams build may word a button differently. Open the Share menu before class and look.

Where the board is saved after the meeting

• The board stays in the meeting chat, in a tab named Whiteboard, so attendees can open it again.
• New boards are stored in the OneDrive of the person who created them; Microsoft’s admin page lists that user as the owner.
• The board is not part of the meeting recording, according to Microsoft’s older page. Save a picture of it if you need it in the video.
• To keep working on an earlier board, Microsoft says you can now share a whiteboard you already made. Prepare it before the lesson.

Who can draw on a Teams whiteboard

If students are outside your school’s tenant, the board may not work for them, and the fix is an admin setting, not something you can change in the meeting. A fallback that needs nothing from the admin is to keep sharing your screen and draw over it (below).

Teams Whiteboard or drawing on your shared screen?

They solve different jobs. Pick by what the class needs to see.

If the class should write on your slides, see how to annotate in Teams: it lets participants request the pen on a shared screen. Microsoft describes it as running on Whiteboard tools (Microsoft Support).

Teaching on a laptop: mouse, pen or touch

Microsoft’s page lists the Pen, Note and Text tools but does not describe mouse input separately, so treat handwriting with a trackpad as something to test.

1. Open a board in a test meeting by yourself, then write a short line with the Pen.
2. If the line is shaky with a mouse or trackpad, use Note or Text for labels and keep the Pen for circles and arrows.
3. On a touch screen or with a stylus, write directly on the board.
4. Put the questions you will ask on a Note before class, so you are not typing mid-lesson.

When Teams Whiteboard can’t: draw over your lesson with SHARA

Whiteboard is the right first try for brainstorming and group work. These are the cases it does not cover, and where a free overlay does:

• You are teaching from something that already exists. A PDF worksheet, a website or a spreadsheet stays on screen and you draw on it.
• Your class is outside your organization. A screen share works for anyone in the meeting, with no board to be admitted to.
• You use Zoom or Google Meet. The same Pen and Laser work in every meeting app.
• You want a pointer that cleans itself up. The Laser trail fades after 2.6 seconds, so there is nothing to erase.
• You want a clean board for yourself. SHARA has a white, black or grid Whiteboard mode that covers the desktop. It is a Pro tool, included in the 14-day trial.

Set up SHARA for a lesson

1. Install SHARA free from the Microsoft Store. There is no account, and it waits in the background for a hotkey.
2. In Teams, select Share and choose your entire screen, then open the worksheet or slides.
3. Hold Ctrl+Space to open the Wheel at your cursor, choose Draw, then Pen or Laser.
4. Draw. Press Ctrl+Z to undo a stroke and Ctrl+Win+B to clear all ink.
5. Check one student sees your ink before class. A single-window share leaves it out; how to share your screen on Teams explains which share to pick.

The teacher guide walks through a full lesson, and the screen annotation page lists every drawing tool.

When SHARA isn’t the right fit

Use Teams Whiteboard when students need to write on the board themselves: viewers cannot draw on your screen with SHARA. It is also Windows only, and a managed school PC may block Store apps.

Teams Whiteboard: FAQ