Enter the license key from your Gumroad purchase email to activate KanWrite on this device. You only need to do this once.
KanWrite is a handwriting-first kanban board — a Visual Task Board. Every card is a writing surface — use your stylus or finger to write and draw. Typed text and handwriting can coexist on the same card! Everything saves automatically in your browser with no sign-on. (Export in ⋯ lets you save all your work if you get a new computer.) Read more in the tabs below — cool features like Lasso!
Tap ＋ New board in the sidebar to create a board. Click its name in the board header to rename it. Each new board gets a Welcome card explaining the app.
When you put a card in the Card Box, it's automatically routed by which column it came from:
Hover a Card Box card and tap ↩ Restore to send it back to its original board.
Completing a card (swipe right, or the ✓ Complete button) sends it to the Completed 202x board, filed under the current month's column. On January 1st a new Completed 202x+1 board is auto-created. These boards are read-only — your handwriting is preserved forever. Hover a completed card to restore it to an active board.
Go to ⚙️ Settings → Delete a Board. Card Box and Completed boards are protected and cannot be deleted. Deletion is permanent — all cards on that board are lost.
Tap the T button on any writing pad to show the text layer. Type your notes — the text is rendered onto the canvas underneath. Tap T again to hide the textarea and draw on top of your typed text. Both are saved together. The card thumbnail on the board shows both your handwriting and typed text in split zones.
The Label is a short typed title that appears under the card thumbnail on the board. Tags are searchable keywords — type one and press Enter. Card Color sets the accent stripe on the left edge. Urgency controls sort order when sorting by urgency.
Open any card and scroll to the bottom of the editor. Under Move to Another Board, choose a destination board and then a column. The card is moved immediately on Save.
If a card has content in its Full Notes section (handwriting or typed text), a small 📋 icon appears on the right side of the card title row on the board. This lets you know there's more to read without opening the card.
Inside the Full Note, tap the lasso button (the loop icon, just left of the T button). It turns purple. Now draw a box around any handwriting or typed text you want to pull out. The moment you lift your pen — poof! — that selection instantly becomes a brand-new card in the same column, and a little celebration appears on screen.
It works for both handwriting and typed text. The box is a rectangle so the captured writing fits the card face shape neatly. This is the fastest way to break a page of notes into separate task cards.
Open any card and set a date & time in the Reminder field. When the time arrives, a toast notification appears in the app. If you've enabled browser notifications (via ⋯ → Enable reminder alerts), a system notification fires even if the app is in the background — as long as the tab is open.
Type any of these phrases into the card's Label field and the Reminder date auto-fills at 8:00am on the appropriate day:
today → today at 8amtomorrow → tomorrow at 8amsoon → 3 days from nownext week → 6 days from nowtwo weeks → 14 days from nowthree weeks → 21 days from nownext month → 30 days from nowremember → 7 days from nowThe phrase can appear anywhere in the label — "Call dentist tomorrow" works just as well as "tomorrow: dentist". If you manually edit the reminder date after it auto-fills, your manual choice is respected.
Tap the 🔔 button in the topbar to see all upcoming and overdue reminders across every board, sorted by date. Overdue reminders are highlighted in red. Tap any reminder to open that card.
Every card has a small ribbon bookmark in the top-left corner. Tap it to fill it red — the bookmark state is saved with the card. Tap 🔖 Focus in the topbar to dim all non-bookmarked cards to 18% opacity, leaving only your bookmarked cards fully interactive. Tap Focus again to restore normal view. Long-press the Focus button (hold 600ms) to clear all bookmarks across all boards after confirmation.
Tap ⇅ Sort in the topbar to activate sorting. A dropdown appears with four modes:
Tap Sort again to return to manual order.
The search box in the topbar filters cards across all columns of the current board in real time — matching against typed labels and tags. Handwritten content is not searchable (it's stored as vector strokes), so adding a typed label to handwritten cards makes them findable.
KanWrite awards points for activity to help you see your own productivity at a glance. Tap the gold pts pill in the topbar to open the Points & Awards drawer.
Seven award tiers unlock as your total points climb. Each triggers a gold toast notification when first earned:
If the points system isn't your thing, uncheck Show Points & Gamification above. The gold pill disappears from the topbar and award notifications are suppressed. Your point history is preserved — you can re-enable it any time.
Permanently removes the board and all its cards. This cannot be undone.