Blog · 7 January 2026

How to use Pinterest secret boards as a swipe file

How to make a secret board on Pinterest, use sections to sort a swipe file, cut down the AI pins in your feed, and know when Pinterest stops being the right place.

TLDR

• New board: switch on Keep this board secret when you create it.
• Existing board: open it, three dots, Edit board, switch on Keep this board secret.
• Use sections inside a board as your folders: Ads, Landing pages, Packaging, Type.
• Fine for images. Bad for pages, emails, and anything you want to search by its words.

Make a secret board

On the web:

1. Click your profile picture, then the + (or Create board).
2. Name it, and switch on Keep this board secret.
3. Click Create.

In the app: tap your profile, then +, then Board, and switch on Make this board secret.

For a board you already have: open it, tap the three dots, Edit board, and switch it on.

Secret boards don’t show on your profile or in search. Only you and collaborators you invite can see them.

Sort it with sections

Inside a board, add sections (open the board, +, Section). Treat them like folders: one board called Swipe file with sections for Ads, Landing pages, Social, Packaging, and Type. Pins can move between sections later.

Save from anywhere

Install the Pinterest Save button browser extension, or use the share sheet on your phone. Pinterest grabs an image from the page, so for a landing page, screenshot the part you want first and upload that.

Fewer AI pins

Your feed (and your search results) will be full of AI images. Pinterest labels some AI-generated pins and has a setting to see fewer of them in certain categories. It helps a bit. It doesn’t fix it. That’s most of what Pinterest alternatives for designers sick of AI slop is about.

Where it stops working

• Everything is an image. The page’s copy, the font, the colours as hex codes, gone.
• No search inside pins. You search pin titles and descriptions, and you never wrote any.
• Links die. The image stays, the page it came from moves on.
• The feed is right there. You open your swipe file to work and end up 40 pins deep into kitchen renovations.

If that’s you, a dedicated swipe file keeps the page itself, its colours, its fonts, and the text in your screenshots. Savepad is free for 150 saves. Pinterest alternatives has more options, and the best swipe file tools compares it with the rest, and the design swipe file post has a setup for designers.

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