Your Guide to Using Index Cards & Substorms in Stormboard
You’ve had a great meeting that has generated a bunch of new content and you need to organize it in order to take action — how do you do it?
With Stormboard’s index Cards!
Index Cards are similar to our text sticky notes, but they allow you to organize your ideas and notes in various, more detailed ways.
They can be used to list, group, and categorize information. You can also use them for Substorms — but we’ll get to that a bit later on in this article.
Index Card 101: How do you create an Index Card?
To create an Index Card, open a current Storm (what we call your digital workspace) or create a new Storm.
Double click anywhere in the Storm (tap the screen with your pen if you are using a Microsoft Surface Hub) or press the add button at the bottom of the Storm to create a new sticky note. Select ‘Index Card’ from the sticky note menu.
You will need to add a title to the Index Card in order to save it. Type the title on the red line (this is a faint red line, just like on a real Index Card). Click ‘Enter’ or the checkmark at the top of the note to save. Before it’s saved, it will look like the image below.
Once your Index Card is saved (after you press ‘Enter’ or the checkmark), it will resemble the image below. The title can be edited at any time by clicking once on the Index Card and clicking ‘Edit’.
Adding text to Index Cards
Like with a physical Index Card, you can write directly on each line of your digital card.
In order to do so, click under the title of the card. A highlighted rectangle will appear (see below). Type your text in that rectangle.
Press ‘Enter’ or click on the green checkmark on the right-hand side of the rectangle when finished.
The Index Card has infinite space, which means that there is no limit to the amount of text and notes that you can add. A scroll bar will appear to the right of the card if you have more text than can be shown on the face of the card.
Adding sticky notes that already exist to an Index Card
To add existing sticky notes to an Index Card, simply drag and drop your notes onto the card.
You can add any type of sticky note (Text, Image, Whiteboard, File, Video, even other Index Cards) to an Index Card.
Creating new sticky notes from lines of text on your Index Card
Every line that you create on an Index Card becomes a text sticky note that can be removed from the card and placed in a different area of your Storm.
To remove a note, click on the line of text and drag it out of the Index Card.
Deleting Index Cards
If you want to delete an Index Card entirely, click on the top of the card to open the sticky note menu and click ‘Delete’.
Resizing Index Cards
Click and drag the dotted gray triangle in the bottom right corner of the Index Card to make it longer or wider. This allows you to view the entire content of your Index Card at a glance.
How to change the color of your Index Card
Changing the color of an Index Card is just like changing the color of any other sticky note. Click the top of the card once (near the title) to open the sticky note menu and select the color that you would like to change the card to (see below).
Change your Index Card back into a text sticky note (and vice versa)
You can change an Index Card back to a text sticky note, but in order to do this, the index card must be empty (see how to remove notes from an Index Card above). Click on the title of the card once to open the sticky note menu and select ‘Convert to Text Sticky’. Your Index Card will be converted to a text sticky note.
On the flip side, if you would like to turn a text sticky note into an Index Card, click once on the note to open the sticky note menu and select ‘Convert to Index Card’.
Need help using Index Cards in your Storms? Contact us today to set up a demo, or to get more information.
Substorms 101: What is a Substorm and how does it work?
Index cards are so much more than just a place to group and list ideas. They are also, what we call, a Substorm.
What is a Substorm?
In basic terms, it is Storm within a Storm (aka a workspace within a workspace). Substorms allow you to see all of the content that has been grouped together on an Index Card in its own Storm. (Note: if you have a Business or Enterprise account with Stormboard, you have full access to Substorms.)
Index cards are the only place in your Storm where you can access your Substorms. The Substorms have the same features as the main Storm, so the Storm Administrator will be able to create a new template in a Substorm.
There is no limit to the number of Substorms you can have in a Storm. Create as many as your team needs!
If you don’t have a Business or Enterprise account with Stormboard but would like to try Substorms, contact us or visit our pricing page to sign up or upgrade your account.
How to access a Substorm
1. On the top of every Index Card there is an icon that looks like a cloud with an arrow pointing down — click on it.
2. You will be taken to a Substorm that will initially look something like this:
All of the lines of your Index Card will have become individual sticky notes that are stacked on top of each other underneath the title of your Index Card, which is now the title of the Substorm.
Substorms work exactly like any other Storm — you can move the sticky notes around, edit them, add more, and the Storm Administrator can perform the same actions, like changing and editing the template, organizing the sticky notes however they like, and so on.
Leaving a Substorm
If you have entered a Substorm through an Index Card, you can return to the parent Storm by clicking the name of the parent Storm at the top of the screen.
You can enter and leave a Substorm as many times as you need to!
Creating Reports in Substorms
Stormboard’s reporting feature can also be used with Substorms. Note that when you create a Report from your main/parent Storm, it will include all of the Substorm information as well.
If you want to create a Report just for a Substorm, enter the Substorm and create the Report of your choice.
Why use Index Cards and Substorms?
The main reason to use Substorms is for better organization.
For example, if you are part of a large company that has multiple departments who all need to be incorporated into one Storm (or meeting), creating Substorms for each department is a great solution.
Having a Substorm for your marketing department, for example, will allow them to keep their own notes and ideas in a separate space without having to create a whole new Storm that is separate from the rest of their team.
This way, they can easily navigate between their own Substorm and the larger group Storm. Their specific work won’t disrupt anyone else’s, but when the time comes to meet as a group, or if a manager needs to check-in, everything is in one place.
Another great way to use Substorms is to hold timelines or calendars in them. You might be working on a project with your team in a Storm, but need to also keep track of the dates and times when things will get done. Create a new Substorm and add a calendar section to it! Now you will be able to quickly access it to check on deadlines whenever you need to via your main Storm.
Index cards are also the perfect place to store ideas that you and your team are finished with but don’t want to delete, similar to an archive. If you have projects that have already been completed, move them into an index card. By doing this, you will still have them available if need be, but they will be grouped away from active or current ideas.
Get Started!
If you and your team would like a demo to help you navigate Substorms, contact us! Are you interested in using Index Cards and Substorms during your meetings? Sign up for Stormboard now!
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