Heptagonal is a pen-driven whiteboard for teaching maths and science. The title bar along the top holds the library button, the chapter title (click it to rename the chapter), the clock and date, the timer and calculator, the cloud sync status, Settings and full screen.

Below it is the toolbar: the eraser and four pens on the left, then text, Reduced TeX and sub-canvases, the maths and science menus, Import, saved objects, layouts, the presenting tools, the padlock and undo/redo. Select, Pan and Zoom, the view buttons, Page background and the side canvas sit on the right. The strip underneath shows options for whatever tool or object you're using.

Work lives in chapters, and a chapter must be open before you can see or change it — open one from the library. On a projector, choose a high-contrast theme under Appearance. Settings → What's New lists recent updates and any known issues.

Drag with Pan, or hold Space with any tool, to move the board. Scroll the mouse wheel to zoom towards the pointer, or drag a box with the Zoom tool to zoom into it. On a touch screen, pinch to zoom and drag with two fingers to pan.

Each page has a home view: the framing Home returns to, and the area exported to PDF. Frame the board as you want it and press Set home to update it; a faint dashed frame marks it (turn this off under Appearance → Canvas).

The page navigator in the bottom-left corner steps between pages and adds or duplicates a page. Page background sets that page's paper pattern, colour and grid size, with a live preview before you apply it.

Default keys: P for Pen 1 and 2, 3 and 4 for the other pens; E eraser; T text; S select; R 2D shapes; G graph; L laser pointer. Delete removes the selection and Esc deselects. ] or → goes to the next page, [ or ← to the previous one.

Always available: Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z redo, Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+V paste, Ctrl+D duplicate and Ctrl+A select everything (Cmd on a Mac). Hold Space to pan.

With a free account you can reassign most keys under Settings → Shortcuts, including graphics-tablet buttons. Tool tooltips show the current key.

Each pen keeps its own colour, thickness, line style (solid, dashed or dotted) and opacity — choose a pen and set them in the strip under the toolbar. Pen 4 starts as a translucent yellow highlighter. The colours offered across the app come from your tool palette, which you can redefine under Appearance.

The eraser removes the handwriting its cursor's corner touches. Placed objects such as graphs, diagrams and images are protected from it; select them and delete instead. On dark paper, pick a light pen: many diagram outlines and labels re-colour automatically, but ink keeps the colour it was drawn in.

The text tool makes a box where you tap, or drag to size one. Select a box to change its font, size and colour, add bold, italics, underline, alignment, superscript, subscript or lists, and use Ω to insert maths symbols. Maths typed between $ signs, such as $x^2$ or $\frac{1}{2}$, displays as formatted maths.

With Select, tap an object or drag a box around several. The strip under the toolbar shows the object's own options plus bring to front, send to back, flip, group, ungroup, lock, align to view, duplicate and delete; images can also be cropped. Right-click the board for copy, duplicate, delete, paste and page background.

Lock stops an object being selected or nudged by accident; the padlock on the main toolbar shows an unlock button over every locked item. Align to view moves the selection to a corner, an edge or the centre of the page's home view.

Ctrl+V pastes an image or text from your computer's clipboard, otherwise the last thing you copied in Heptagonal — copies can go onto another page. Right-click offers Paste from OS and Paste from Heptagonal separately. You can also drag an image file onto the board.

Work is organised as shelves, books, chapters and pages. Open the library with the button at the left of the title bar, then switch at the top between Library, which browses your shelves, books and chapters like folders, and Open chapters.

A chapter must be open before you can see or change it. Tap a chapter in Library to open it (Heptagonal asks first). It then appears under Open chapters, where the chapter you're in shows its pages as thumbnails — tap one to go to it, drag to reorder, or use + to add a page. Moving between chapters that are already open needs no confirmation.

Closing a chapter — the × on its card, or Close chapter in its ⋯ menu — saves it. Once more than six are open the count turns amber, because each open chapter is more to load and keep in sync.

Every item has a ⋯ menu (also right-click, or a long press on a touch screen) to add items, rename, copy and paste, move or copy a page to another chapter, a chapter to another book or a book to another shelf, export to PDF and delete. The + at the top of the Library view adds a shelf, book or chapter wherever you are.

To act on several items at once, tap the select button (or Shift- or Ctrl-click) to tick them, then copy, move, export or delete them together. Pages can be selected the same way under Open chapters.

Lock chapter makes a chapter read-only so it can't be changed by accident; unlock it from the same menu. Closed chapters can still be renamed, moved, copied, locked or deleted, but their pages can only be changed once the chapter is open.

Turn a page or a whole chapter into a reusable template with Save as template… or Save chapter as template… in its ⋯ menu. Blank pages can't be saved as templates. With Pro, your templates sync to your account, so they're on every device you sign in on; use Refresh in Templates & shared to pick up ones saved elsewhere.

Use one with New page from template… in an open chapter's menu, or New chapter from template… in a book's menu — these appear once you have a template of that kind. The Templates button at the foot of the library lists them all: tap one to preview it, or use its ⋯ menu to add it to the current chapter or book, choose where it goes with Add to chapter… or Add to book…, rename it or delete it. Choosing a chapter that isn't open opens it. Templates are kept on this device only.

With cloud sync, chapters keep earlier versions automatically as you work. Choose Version history in an open chapter's ⋯ menu to see them by date and time, and restore one to step back. Your current version is kept as a snapshot before a restore, so a restore can itself be undone.

Pick a shape from the 2D shapes menu — triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagon to octagon, circle, ellipse or arrow — and drag on the board to draw it, then change its fill, outline, thickness and opacity in the strip below the toolbar.

The 3D shapes menu adds cuboids, cubes, square- and triangle-based pyramids, triangular, trapezoidal and L-shaped prisms, cylinders, cones and spheres. Select a solid and use Faces to shade individual faces, including hidden ones, or Unfold to open it into its net and Fold to close it again (all except spheres).

The number lines & axes menu stamps number lines (0 to 10, −5 to 5, −10 to 10, 0 to 1 in decimals, or blank) and coordinate axes (two sizes, first quadrant, or blank). Custom, at the foot of each list, sets your own range and step — x and y can step differently — and whether numbers and grid lines show.

Table / grid in the same menu adds a table of up to 12 rows and columns with an optional header row. The times-table grids button stamps a blank grid of 2 to 15 rows and columns, with optional shaded headers, ready to write on; change its size or headers later from the selection strip.

The diagrams menu has fraction bars and bar models — set the number of parts and bars, then tap parts to shade them — and fraction circles from halves to eighths.

Manipulatives behave like the classroom sets: algebra tiles (±x², ±x and ±1); base 10 blocks and place value counters, where Exchange swaps one piece for ten of the next value down, or ten identical pieces for one of the next value up; and Cuisenaire rods, singly or as a full 1–10 set, with optional unit marks and numbers.

The diagrams menu also has two- and three-circle Venn diagrams (tap regions to shade them), tree diagrams with 2–5 branches and up to four stages, a blank pie chart, and statistical charts — bar charts, pie charts, line graphs and scatter graphs — built from data you type or paste into an editor with a live preview. Select a chart and choose Edit data to change it.

Angle diagram opens a builder for points, lines and marked angles, with presets for the common angle facts: angles on a line and round a point, complementary and vertically opposite angles, parallel lines and triangles. Angles can be shown, hidden or marked unknown; tap an angle on the board to reveal or hide its value.

The spinner & dice button adds a spinner with 3, 4, 5, 6 or 8 sectors, or one or two dice. Select one and tap it to spin or roll; Probabilities… lets you bias the outcomes.

The layouts menu places ready-made scaffolds: four-quadrant and first-quadrant coordinate grids, bar-chart and line-graph axes, a place value chart, hundred square, ten frames, fraction wall, two-way table, clock face and Cornell notes, which fills the page's home view.

Plans & elevations adds a worksheet frame — plan, front and side elevation boxes with an isometric dot panel — to draw into. Put one on a page and save the page as a template to reuse it.

Choose the graph tool and drag a box on the board to place a graph, then type equations such as y=2x+1, y=|x| or x^2+(y-2)^2=25. Add more equations to compare them on the same axes.

In the graph's settings, set the x range and let y fit automatically or set it yourself. Inequalities such as y<2x+1 are shaded, either where they all hold or each one separately, with dashed boundaries for < and >. Ink drawn on a graph while it's active moves with it.

The geometry menu toggles a protractor, a ruler and an orienteering (baseplate) compass: choose one to place it in the middle of the view, and choose it again to put it away. Drag the body to move it and use its handles to rotate or resize it.

Compasses draw real arcs in the current pen colour and thickness: drag the needle leg to move them, the pencil leg to set the radius and the pencil tip to sweep an arc. Lift the pencil to turn them without drawing.

Tracing paper places a transparent sheet with Move, Draw, Rotate and Reflect modes — rotate about a pin you position, or reflect in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal mirror line you can drag. Its bar can undo the last stroke, clear the drawing or delete the sheet. Instruments and tracing sheets aren't saved with the page; arcs drawn with the compasses are.

Biology, Chemistry and Physics each have a toolbar menu, and all three include the apparatus builder for laying out experiments from pieces of equipment.

Biology has labelled animal, plant and bacterial cells and a motor neuron, with labels you can hide. Chemistry has the periodic table, element cards and electron shell diagrams (GCSE or A-level style), a chemical equation builder, a skeletal molecule builder, ready-made molecules, and organic rings and mechanism symbols such as curly arrows. Physics has a circuit builder, a full set of circuit symbols, the solar system and the phases of the Moon.

Double-click a builder diagram or chemical equation to reopen its editor.

Reduced TeX typesets maths, diagrams and chemistry with a curated subset of LaTeX. Choose Σ on the toolbar, drag a box on the board and type the contents — wrap maths in $…$ — then compile a preview and insert it. The editor's Guide tab lists what's available, including TikZ, pgfplots, circuitikz and chemistry packages.

Compiling runs on Heptagonal's server, so it needs an internet connection and Pro or organisation access; snippets already placed still show offline. Select one and choose Edit, or double-click it, to change it.

The laser pointer draws a trail that fades in under a second, so you can point without leaving marks. The spotlight dims everything except a circle you move around, with an adjustable radius. A reveal cover (the crossed-out eye on the toolbar) is a blind you drop over an answer and resize; tap its eye to reveal what's underneath, and again to hide it.

The timer and calculator open from the title bar. The countdown timer floats as a heptagon you can drag, or docks into the toolbar; add time with +10s, +1m and +10m, and switch the end chime on or off under Appearance → Canvas. The calculator is modelled on the Casio fx-991CW (ClassWiz), so a class can follow your key presses on their own handsets: the keys sit where they do on the calculator and open the same menus — HOME for its thirteen apps (Statistics, Table, Equation and the rest), SETTINGS, CATALOG, TOOLS and FORMAT. It takes textbook-style input, gives exact fractions, surds and multiples of π, and is worked with its own buttons, leaving the keyboard for the board. Drag it by its body, and use the A-A button to change its size.

The side canvas, from the button at the far right of the toolbar, opens a drawing panel beside the board for rough working, with its own undo, clear and paper settings. Drag its edge to resize it, or all the way right to close it; the target button in its header makes new objects land there. Each chapter remembers whether it was open and how wide, but drawings on the side canvas aren't saved — treat it as scrap paper.

A sub-canvas (Pro) is a separate drawing surface tucked behind a small heptagon on the page — somewhere for a worked example or extra working. Add one from the toolbar, then double-click it (or select it and choose Open) to expand it, give it a title, and close it to tuck the work away. It's saved with the page; pages can't be changed while one is open.

Saved objects give you 15 slots for things you reuse — a favourite diagram, a set of instructions, a labelled grid. Select something and press the bookmark button in the selection strip to save it to a slot, then use Saved objects on the toolbar to place it on any page in any chapter. Slots are kept on this device; × clears one.

The Import button on the toolbar brings work in. Import PDF adds each page of a PDF as a new page in the current chapter, which must be open — ready to annotate over worksheets or past papers. Import PowerPoint makes a new chapter with one page per slide: text, shapes, tables and pictures become editable objects, and equations become editable maths where possible. Complex layouts may not match exactly, so check slides before teaching from them. Both are also in the ⋯ menu of chapters, pages and books.

Insert image places a picture (you can also paste or drag one in). Insert sound adds a speaker button for a clip under 8 MB — select it to play, pause or stop. Insert questions browses ready-made question sets by strand and topic, with answers and worked solutions where available, and places your choice across the page; Copy image puts it on your clipboard instead. Insert animation adds a short looping concept animation, which needs an internet connection to play.

Export PDF is in the ⋯ menu of every page, chapter, book and shelf, and works on several ticked items. It opens your browser's print window — choose Save as PDF — with one A4 landscape sheet per page showing that page's home view on white. Text boxes export as plain text, and animations show their first frame.

Download chapter file and Download book file save a self-contained copy, images included, that you can bring back on any device with Import chapter from file… (in a book's menu) or Import book from file… (in a shelf's or the library's menu). Imports arrive as new, closed items and never overwrite anything.

Settings → Account & Sync → Library backup saves or loads your whole library as one file (free account needed); loading replaces everything currently in it. A backup refers to images rather than containing them, so they only reappear where they can still be reached — on this device or through cloud sync. To move work to another computer with its images, use book or chapter files.

Your work is always saved on this device first, so the board keeps working without a connection. With Pro or organisation access it also syncs to the cloud, so you can carry on from another computer. The status in the title bar shows Synced, Unsynced, Syncing… or Offline — tap it to sync now. Changes upload after about ten seconds' pause, or every 30 seconds while you keep working.

Closing a chapter is a save point: Heptagonal waits for it to reach the cloud. If you're offline or signed out then, it offers to download a copy of the chapter instead; the changes still upload later as long as the browser tab stays open. A dot under Open chapters, or a Not uploaded badge in the library, marks chapters with changes waiting to upload.

If a chapter you changed was also changed elsewhere in the meantime, nothing is overwritten: the other version keeps the name, and your changes are saved beside it as a dated copy, such as “Algebra (your offline edits, 5 Oct)”. If your sign-in lapses, your work stays on this device until you sign in again. Signing out saves your work to the cloud first, then resets this device to a blank workspace — useful on shared classroom computers.

If your school has an organisation account, choose Publish to org… in a chapter's ⋯ menu to put a copy in its shared library. Your own chapter stays yours, and the two copies are independent.

To see what colleagues have shared, press Templates at the foot of the library and open the organisation tab. Tap a chapter to preview its pages. Its ⋯ menu copies it into your library: Copy to book… lets you choose the book, or copy it straight into the one you're working in. The person who published a chapter, and organisation admins, can also rename or delete it from the same menu; deleting removes the shared copy for everyone but not copies people have already taken.

Organisation admins manage members under Settings → Admin. New members get an email link to set their password and have Pro features while they belong to the organisation. Removing a member permanently deletes their account and cloud library, so ask them to save book files or a backup first.

Without an account you have the whiteboard: pens, text, eraser, laser, spotlight and reveal cover, the timer, calculator and side canvas, themes and paper backgrounds, a library and templates on this device, imports, and PDF export. A free account adds your own colour palette, custom shortcut keys and library backup files.

Pro adds the maths and science menus (shapes through physics), graphs, geometry instruments, Reduced TeX, sub-canvases, saved objects, cloud sync and version history. Start or manage a subscription under Account & Sync; organisation members get Pro features through their organisation, plus shared chapters.

Appearance offers 14 colour themes and a custom theme, top-bar text size, optional labels under the tool buttons, and switches for the home-view frame and the timer chime. With cloud sync, your theme, palette, shortcuts and most display settings follow you to other devices.

What we collect. If you create an account, we store the email address and display name you provide, and the chapters, pages and settings you choose to save to the cloud. Drawings and documents you create are stored so they can sync across your devices.

How we use it. Your data is used solely to provide the service — to sign you in, save your work, sync it between your devices, and process subscription payments. We do not sell your data or use it for advertising.

Where it is stored. Account data and saved work are held using our hosting and authentication provider (Netlify). Payments are processed by Stripe, which receives the information needed to take payment; we never see or store your full card details.

Cookies & local storage. We use your browser's local storage to keep your work available offline and to keep you signed in. We do not use third-party advertising or tracking cookies.

Retention. We keep your data for as long as your account is active. You can delete your saved work at any time, and you can request deletion of your account and associated data by contacting us.

Your rights. You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data. To do so, use the Contact tab or email info@heptagonal.app.

Acceptable use. Heptagonal is provided for lawful educational use. You agree not to misuse the service, attempt to disrupt it, or use it to store or share unlawful content.

Your content. You retain ownership of the chapters and drawings you create. You are responsible for the content you produce and for keeping your own backups (see Library backup).

Accounts. You are responsible for activity under your account. Keep your sign-in details secure.

Subscriptions. Pro features require an active subscription or a granted access role. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled; you can cancel at any time from the Account tab, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Any free trial converts to a paid subscription unless cancelled before it ends.

Availability. The service is provided "as is" without warranties. We aim for high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted access, and we are not liable for loss of data — please keep your own backups.

Changes. We may update these terms; continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

Roles. Where you use Heptagonal in a school or organisation, you (or your institution) act as the data controller for any personal data you enter, and we act as the data processor, processing it only to provide the service and on your instructions.

Sub-processors. We use trusted providers to deliver the service, including Netlify (hosting, authentication and storage) and Stripe (payment processing). These providers process data on our behalf under their own data-protection commitments.

Security. Access to stored work is scoped to your account, and payment data is handled by Stripe, a PCI-DSS compliant provider. We take reasonable technical measures to protect your data, though no online service can be guaranteed perfectly secure.

International transfers. Our providers may process data outside your country; they maintain appropriate safeguards for such transfers.

Data subject requests & breaches. We will assist with reasonable requests relating to access, correction, or deletion of personal data, and will notify you without undue delay of any personal-data breach affecting your data. Contact info@heptagonal.app.