How to copy from Excalidraw to WhimsicalCopied!Link to this section

1. Open your Excalidraw drawing and select what you want to bring over.
2. Copy it with Cmd + C (Mac) or Ctrl + C (PC).
3. Open a Whimsical board and paste with Cmd + V (Mac) or Ctrl + V (PC).

This also works with older versions of Excalidraw and with apps that have Excalidraw built in, like the Obsidian Excalidraw plugin.

Import your whole Excalidraw+ workspaceCopied!Link to this section

To bring over many scenes at once, use the Excalidraw importer in Settings > Integrations. It imports Excalidraw+ scenes as boards, using an Excalidraw API key:

• A workspace API key imports your workspace's shared scenes.
• A personal API key imports your own private scenes.

Import shared scenesCopied!Link to this section

In Excalidraw:

1. Go to Workspace settings > MCP/API keys.
2. Under Workspace API/MCP keys, create a new API key. It only needs read permissions.
3. Copy the key and save it somewhere safe. Excalidraw only shows it once.

Then in Whimsical:

1. Go to Settings > Integrations and open the Excalidraw card.
2. Paste your key and click Start import.

Keep the tab open until the import finishes. When it's done, you'll see how many boards were imported and which scenes, if any, couldn't be.

Your scenes land in a new Excalidraw import folder in your shared section, with a folder for each Excalidraw collection.

Import private scenesCopied!Link to this section

Only the owner can import their private scenes, so each team member runs their own import with a personal API key.

1. An Excalidraw workspace admin turns on Enable personal MCP/API keys in Workspace settings > MCP/API keys. This only needs to be done once.
2. Each team member opens Personal MCP/API keys in their Excalidraw user account and creates a key.
3. In Whimsical, they paste it into the Excalidraw importer, the same way as for shared scenes.

Private scenes land in an Excalidraw import folder in that person's Private section, so they stay private.

What comes acrossCopied!Link to this section

This applies to both copy and paste and the Excalidraw importer.

ObjectsCopied!Link to this section

• Rectangles, diamonds and ellipses, with their labels
• Text
• Sticky notes, in the closest Whimsical sticky color
• Arrows, which become connectors that stay attached to their shapes and keep their labels, arrowheads, curves and elbows
• Lines. Two-point lines become connectors, and lines with more points become drawings.
• Pen drawings
• Frames, which become sections holding everything inside them
• Groups, including nested groups
• Images, with their crops and flips
• Web embeds (like YouTube), which become Whimsical link cards
• Diagrams made with Excalidraw's Mermaid-to-Excalidraw tool

FormattingCopied!Link to this section

• Arrowheads, including ERD endpoints like one, many and zero-or-one
• Dashed lines
• Text alignment and text size. Excalidraw's Small, Medium, Large and Extra large sizes map to matching Whimsical sizes.
• Colors, matched to the closest color in your board's palette

LimitationsCopied!Link to this section

• Fonts aren't carried over. All Excalidraw fonts, including the handwritten one, are shown in our Dinsical font.
• Colors are matched, not copied exactly. Transparency is dropped too, so shapes paste fully opaque. You can update your color theme to match your brand.
• Rounded rectangles become regular rectangles.
• Shapes and images snap to the nearest right angle. Text, sticky notes and frames paste upright.
• Filled drawings lose their fill. The outline stays.
• Some links are dropped. Links to other Excalidraw elements or to Obsidian notes don't come across.
• AI-generated embeds are skipped, and so are sticky note authors and dates.
• Images need to be part of the copy, and up to 100 images load per paste.
• If you're on the Free plan, imported objects will count toward your free object limit.

Frequently asked questionsCopied!Link to this section

Do I need to export my Excalidraw drawing first?Copied!Link to this section

No. Copy objects in Excalidraw and paste them into a Whimsical board, or use the Excalidraw importer to bring over Excalidraw+ scenes. There's no file to export.

Does this work with the Obsidian Excalidraw plugin?Copied!Link to this section

Yes. It also works with older versions of Excalidraw and other apps that have Excalidraw built in.

Do images come across from Excalidraw?Copied!Link to this section

Yes, with their crops and flips, as long as they're part of what you copy. Up to 100 images load per paste.

Is my Excalidraw API key safe?Copied!Link to this section

Yes. It stays in your browser and is never sent to Whimsical's servers or stored anywhere. A key with read permissions is all the importer needs.