4 Tips For Choosing a Whiteboard Surface-2009

In case you haven't noticed, the plain old cheap whiteboard is quickly becoming a thing of the past. If you have found yourself in the market for a whiteboard for your office, you may have discovered that there are many features and options out there. You can choose features such as web and PDA interactivity, premium surfaces that don't ghost, and high-quality frames. It is enough to make your head spin just trying to figure it out. In the following article, we will try and help to guide you through some of the features that are currently available in whiteboard surfaces. Hopefully, this article will help you decide which whiteboard surface might be the best for the needs of your office.

1. Erase-ability: Depending on how frequently your whiteboard is going to be used, you will definitely want to pay some attention to how clean the board erases. For light, low-profile use, such as in break rooms or factory floors, melamine is an acceptable surface. Melamine is the least expensive marker board surface. However, it will require the use of cleaners on a fairly regular basis for best performance. If you are looking for a whiteboard that will be used more frequently, it is recommended that you purchase a board with a porcelain writing surface. Porcelain boards erase cleaner and require much less cleaning. At the top end, there are surfaces such as Quartet's Magnetic Total Erase system that not only erases completely, it features a magnetic surface for added flexibility for your presentations.

2. Durability: Again, the consideration here is how frequently and under what conditions your whiteboard will be used. Many of the lower-end surfaces such as melamine can scratch and dent easily with even moderate use. If you are going to be using the board frequently, or are going to be moving the whiteboard around much, you really should invest in a higher quality surface such as porcelain. There are some boards on the market that guarantee that their surfaces will never dent, scratch, stain, or ghost, and you may be wise to seek them out. Especially if durability is a concern.

3. Flexibility: As we mentioned above, magnetic surfaces can increase the scope of your presentations. There are also higher end boards that feature grid patterns that make writing in a straight line and drawing graphs or diagrams much easier. The grids are very subtle and are usually not visible or distracting for your audience.

4. Interactivity: At the forefront of whiteboard surfaces is the interactive marker board. One example of this type of board is the Quartet Idea Share Computerized Whiteboard. It features a gray porcelain surface and fully integrated electronic imaging technology. This type of board really pushes the envelope when it comes to collaboration and flexibility. You can use an interactive marker board to host web-based meetings, print, share, or save data to a computer or even connect your board to certain kinds of PDAs.

There are, of course, many other things to consider when you are shopping for a whiteboard, such as portability, appearance, and available accessories. However, these four features should provide you with a good starting point when choosing a dry-erase marker board for your organization.

By Jeff McRitchie