In June 2022, Apple teased Freeform, its new whiteboard app. During the WWDC22 keynote, the company highlighted some of its features, mentioning that it would ship later in the year as part of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura.
For those unfamiliar, think of it as a canvas to jumpstart your creativity and plan ahead. Supports text, doodle, and inserting media and files. However, there is much more you can do to generate ideas. This is a complete guide to this application built into your great iPhone, versatile iPad, or powerful Mac.
The Freeform app works similarly and syncs across all three operating systems. Therefore, we will only demonstrate it on the iPad, as it makes more sense on this device. Those using iPhone or Mac can enjoy the same feature set, minus Apple Pencil support. Let us begin!
Free Form Requirements
To use the Apple Freeform app, you’ll need at least one device that meets the following criteria:
- An iPhone with iOS 16.2 or later.
- An iPad with iPadOS 16.2 or later. The use of an Apple Pencil is recommended, but not required.
- A Mac with macOS Ventura 13.1 or later.
The different sections of the application
By default, the Freeform app has four sections: all boards, recent, SharedY favorites. In the app, even though they are called boards, and can simply be infinite blank space to express yourself. If you remove a board, you get a fifth recently deleted section. You can also create as many boards as you need.
- all boards– As the name suggests, this section displays all the boards you’ve created in the Freeform app. You can view boards as icons or in a list. You can also sort them by name, date, etc.
- recent: This section includes a list of dashboards that you have recently created or modified. Similarly, you can choose from icons or a list and sort them according to your preferences.
- Shared: Considering that many people use Freeform to collaborate with others, Apple has included a Shared section. Here you can see all the boards in which other users participate. You can also change the view type and sorting.
- favorites– If you have many boards and want to highlight the ones you use often, marking a board as a favorite will add it to this section. This section supports sorting and changing view type.
- recently deletedNote: As you may have guessed, when you delete a board, the Freeform app moves it to this section for 30 days. After 30 days, the app permanently removed it. Of recently deleted: You can immediately recover or delete a certain board if you prefer not to wait a month.
These five sections are available in Freeform on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. If you enable iCloud sync for Freeform through the Settings app, your boards will stay up to date across all sections on your compatible Apple devices.
Free form configuration
Before we get to the actual creation of the dashboard, let’s tackle the setup of the Freeform app real quick. Heading into the Freeform section of the Settings app, you’ll see three buttons: center guides, edge guidesY spacing guides. There’s also a fourth, if you’re an iPad user who relies on an Apple Pencil, called Select and scroll.
The three guides are for alignment purposes and optionally help you position the different items on a board. The fourth gives you the option to use the Apple Pencil to select objects and scroll around the board. If you disable it, you can still use your finger to perform these tasks.
Now, let’s go back to the Apple Freeform app. The first step is to create a new board. To do this, click on the Pencil icon highlighted on the screenshot. hey! You have created your first board. Feel free to play with it. When you’re done, click the behind button in the upper left corner. This will take you back to the main page. all boards section.
From here, you can long press on the board you just created to Rename, Favourite, Double, Shareeither Erase it’s. All of these options are pretty self explanatory, but I’ll dive into the Share option to clarify a point.
when you touch Share, you can invite other Apple users to collaborate on the selected board. You can edit the type of access and permissions through the option just above the list of applications. If you prefer to share the dashboard as a static file, click Export as PDF in the background, after choose the sharing app of your choice. This way, you share the actual board and not an invitation to view or edit it.
Now that we’ve covered all the basics, we can go ahead and see what we can actually do inside a dashboard.
Unleash your creativity on a Freeform board
When you enter or create a board, you’ll see a simple blank space with guide dots (optional) all over it. This is where your next big life project could start. The first tool has a Pencil icon. Clicking on it brings up Apple’s wide variety of brushes and pens. You can then select the brush type, color, and more for freestyle drawing. You can use it to connect two notes, draw, illustrate, and more.
Next to that, you will find a Note icon. Clicking on it will insert a yellow sticky note on which you can write text and drag it. It is ideal for those who want to highlight a certain point next to a different element on a board. It is catchy, simple and practical.
Continuing, you find the shapes icon. Through it, you can insert circles, arrows, lines, 3D objects, animals, food, etc. Shapes are divided into 16 categories: Essential, Geometry, Objects, animals, Nature, Food, symbols, Education, Letters, Sciences, People, Places, Activities, Transportation, To workY Ornaments. There’s also a Search to help you find something specific without going through endless lists. Once you insert a shape, you can edit its color, size, position, and more.
After that is a Text icon. Clicking it inserts a text box with flexible fonts, styles, colors, and sizes. This tool is great for writing descriptions or titles on a board, rather than a note that you’ll want to delete later. In the latter case, I’d recommend using the aforementioned sticky note feature for better visibility and easier deletion/editing.
Lastly, in terms of insertable elements, there is a Attached file icon. By clicking on it, you can insert photos, videos, new media, and document scans via camera, web links, and virtually any file format. This means that you can literally insert any object on a board freely.
Apart from the insert buttons, you will find a Undo button (psst, hold to reveal the Redo menu), a Share and a button to create a new board. By default, the dashboard is at 100% zoom. You can zoom in up to 400% and zoom out up to 10%. A board also has no borders, so no matter how much your ideas expand, you can still move around and cover new blanks. The zoom percentages mentioned are the only technical limits that could make it difficult to see all the elements on a very large dashboard.
That is all! This is everything you need to know about the Freeform app on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. You can use it to plan ahead, share ideas with colleagues or friends, or maybe just for artistic reasons. In Freeform you decide how you want the application to be, not the other way around.
What will you use the Apple Freeform app for? Let us know in the comments section.
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