When you need to take notes, sketch projects, brainstorm with others, create mood boards or map ideas without constraints, look no further than Freeform, the new digital whiteboard Apple friendly.
Every Freeform project has an infinite canvas to give you plenty of room to explore your research, ideas, inspiration, story structure, and more. It’s easy to import any type of file into the large canvas, syncing is a snap with iCloud, and you can visually collaborate with up to 100 people on each board.
Freeform was released on December 13, 2022, with iOS 16.2, iPad OS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1, so you’ll need those software versions (or newer) to run it. While new software updates come with a ton of new featuresApple’s latest productivity tool for creating multimedia notes and collaborating is one of the biggest changes with the new software.
Discover everything you can do with Freeform
Freeform emphasizes the ability to work with your team. Create boards, work on projects, take notes and brainstorm together while sharing progress via FaceTime and posts. You can create unlimited boards, edit their titles, set some as favorites, and easily duplicate them.
There are many tools available in Freeform that can be used to create versatile and valuable tables. They understand:
- Sticky NotesThey look like sticky notes on paper, and you can use them to add temporary or permanent entries to your board. You can choose from seven preset sticky note colors and adjust the size, style, and text formatting of each note separately.
- ShapesThese fall into several categories: Basic, Geometry, Objects, Animals, Nature, Food, Symbols, Education, Arts, Science, People, Places, Activities, Transportation, Work, and Adornments. The library has over 700 shapes for anything you might need.
- text zone: This can be used to add text to your table, and it’s one of the tools you’ll use most often. Tap the Add Text button to create a text box, then tap the text box once to show options or tap twice to enter/edit text. You can choose from many different fonts and style your text using bold, italic, and underline formatting options. There is also an alignment tool and bulleted, numbered or dotted lists.
- drawing toolsThese allow you to draw whatever you want in different styles and colors. Use your finger or a apple pencil on compatible devices and unleash your creativity.
- Attachments: You can further customize your canvas by adding links, scans, photos, videos or files from your device. You can place any important document directly on the canvas and annotate it to highlight important details.
You can undo any move by tapping the top left undo button. Long press the undo button to reveal the redo option.
The app’s home screen is a simple menu with four sections: All Boards, Recents, Shared, and Favorites. After you delete a board, a Recently Deleted section appears. There is a button to add a new board at the bottom, but once you tap on any section to view available boards, the new board button moves to the top right corner. Next to it is the ellipsis (•••) menu that reveals additional viewing and sorting options, as well as options to select multiple boards or organize them into groups.
Freeform on macOS
Freeform is also available on MacOS Ventura 13.1 and later, making collaboration easy. The interface is pretty much the same, with tools at the top instead of the bottom. You can view your boards on the left and share them using the share button in the top right corner.
Sharing and collaboration options
The availability of the Freeform app on all Mac devices makes it perfect for collaborations, which is one of its main features. Everything you and your collaborators (up to 100 people per board!) do appears instantly on the canvas, making it easy to collaborate in real time. You can share a board via FaceTime, email, or by sending a link, and you’ll see edit updates in the designated message thread.
When you tap the share button, you can edit sharing options and change who has access and whether they can make changes and invite others.
Customize freeform in settings
Go to Settings -> Freeform to choose the preferred language for the Freeform app and to set alignment guides. You can switch to center guides, edge guides, and spacing guides, making it easy to line up your elements so they look neat on the board. You can also allow or deny access to Freeform at Siri and search and its specificities.
Disadvantages of Free Form
While many users call Freeform one of the best recently released apps, it definitely has its downsides. After reading user reviews and using the app on my own for a while, here are some of its main issues.
- Limited to Apple devices and no browser support. All collaborators must use Apple devices to access Freeform. Many people use a combination of Apple and Windows or Android devices. If that’s you, you can open Freeform on your iPhone or iPad but not on your Windows PC. The larger the team, the more frequently this will happen, making it impossible for the whole team to work together smoothly. Even if they have an Apple device, they might not have the latest software required to run Freeform.
- Tables cannot be organized into folders. There are default folders for All Boards, Recents, Shared, and Favorites, but that’s it. This isn’t a problem right away, but it can become one if you find yourself with a lot of tables and want to organize them for work, personal life, etc.
- Limited dark mode support. It’s a whiteboard app, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise. UI elements will conform to dark mode, such as toolbars, but the canvas itself will remain white.
- No model. Templates would make it easier to use Freeform to its full potential. The empty whiteboard and a ton of editing options can feel overwhelming when you don’t know where to start.
- No color gradient for shapes. There is no way to add a color gradient to shapes, only solid colors, although you can change its opacity from 0-100%.
Overall, Freeform is a good canvas app with lots of potential, but it can also be improved. Try it yourself and let us know if it makes your work life easier.
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