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Importing to Whimsical

Importing content into Whimsical lets you consolidate your work into one fast, collaborative platform. While there’s no bulk import feature for entire boards, Whimsical’s simple interface makes it quick to transfer your most important content.

Importing board contentCopied!

We don’t currently offer a general-purpose board importer for files from other diagramming tools, but there are several ways to bring content into Whimsical:

  • You can upload an image of content you have created elsewhere. We support JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, WEBP, SVG, and AVIF file formats.
  • You can import text directly into boards as mind maps.
  • You can paste Mermaid code directly into boards to create flowcharts or sequence diagrams.

Text import for mind maps Copied!

To automatically turn text into a mind map, copy the text and paste it into Whimsical.

  1. Copy a list from a notepad, or a Google doc
  2. Select the main node of a mind map and hit paste

Paste Mermaid code as a flowchart or sequence diagramCopied!

You can paste Mermaid code to Whimsical to turn your Mermaid diagrams into Whimsical flowcharts or sequence diagrams.

Pro tip: Try this custom GPT to convert images of your existing flowcharts into Mermaid code - perfect as a starting point to import diagrams from other board tools.

This should make it easier to bring in diagrams from other tools or documents and continue working on them in Whimsical.

You can currently import the following Mermaid diagrams:

  • graph
  • sequenceDiagram
  • flowchart

Turn a photo into a Whimsical diagramCopied!

Got a whiteboard full of ideas or a hand-drawn sketch? You can photograph it and use AI to bring it into Whimsical as an editable diagram.

Using the Whimsical MCP (with Claude or any MCP-compatible AI):

  1. Take a photo of your whiteboard, sketchbook, or sticky notes.
  2. Open your AI tool (e.g., Claude) and attach the photo.
  3. Ask it to turn the content into a Whimsical diagram.
  4. The AI will create it directly in Whimsical via the MCP connection.

Using the Whimsical app for ChatGPT:

  1. Take a photo of your whiteboard or sketch.
  2. Open the Whimsical app for ChatGPT and attach the image.
  3. Ask ChatGPT to convert the image into a Whimsical diagram.
  4. The app will generate the diagram, and you can open it in your Whimsical workspace.

This works with flowcharts, wireframes, sticky note layouts, and most hand-drawn diagrams. Anything you can photograph or capture as an image can become something you import to edit and share.

Importing docsCopied!

You can import Markdown files directly as docs.

Drag and drop one or more .md or .markdown files onto any folder or section, and Whimsical will create a new doc for each file. The filename becomes the doc title, and any YAML frontmatter at the start of the file is converted into callout blocks at the top.

This works in folders and sections, not on boards or inside existing docs. Files larger than 1 MB are skipped.

Summary

  1. Importing to Whimsical
  2. Importing board content
  3. Text import for mind maps
  4. Paste Mermaid code as a flowchart or sequence diagram
  5. Turn a photo into a Whimsical diagram
  6. Importing docs