If you upgraded to macOS 13.1 or iPad or iOS 16.2 and noticed a new little app floating
about, and wondered huh?
This video is for you.
Hey friends!
I’m Tasia Custode and welcome back to my YouTube Channel where I share tech tips and
app reviews.
This video is all about the Apple Freeform App.
Let’s go!
So first things first, what is Freeform?
And no, we arent talking about the TV network.
Freeform is a digital whiteboarding app, available on iOS, iPad OS and macOS, that launched in
December of 2022.
This app takes brainstorming and collaboration to the next level.
You can jot down and draw out ideas on an infinite canvas and collaborate in real-time.
So now that we know what the freeform app is, let’s dive into how to use it.
So, first, here’s how to use Freeform on iPhone and iPad.
Luckily for us, using Freeform in iPhone and iPad is virtually the same, with the one exception
being the iPad app supports apple pencil, whereas on iPhone, you’re going to be using
your finger to sketch on screen.
So let’s jump into my iPhone for a Freeform tutorial, then we will go over how to use
freeform on Mac.
When you first open the Freeform app on iPhone or iPad you should have essentially the same
whiteboard page layout.
If for some reason you don’t have a board open, from your All boards screen, tap on
the create board icon in the top.
It looks exactly like the new note button you’re familiar with in the Notes app.
So since we’re on iPhone, let’s work our way from left to right through the buttons
along the bottom of the board.
If you’re following along on iPad, no worries, your buttons will just be at the top of your
board rather than the bottom, and they are just in a different order, but they are the
exact same buttons I promise.
So, on iPhone, In the bottom left is a little sticky note button.
Tap that once to add a sticky note to your board.
You can double-tap on it to add text to the sticky note.
This is really helpful if you want to leave a note for someone your’re collaborating
with.
And of course adjust the font and formatting of the sticky note from here too if you want.
When you’re all done, just tap done in the top right.
If you want to move the sticky note around simply tap on it and drag and drop to where
you want.
Or, with it selected, you can resize it by dragging the blue dots on the corner of the
note.
If you tap on the note once, you’ll had additional options along the bottom.
Here, you can change the color of the sticky note, adjust the font from here, duplicate
the sticky note, delete the note, or if you tap the three dot menu icon, you’ll have
all kinds of other options, including adding a description for assistive touch technology.
Gotta love these accessibility features.
So now let’s add some shapes to our board.
If you tap on the shapes icon in the bottom, you can add pretty well any shape you can
think of.
If you don’t want to search through all the categories at the top, and there are many,
you can use the search feature in the top left to search for the shape you want.
So maybe I want to add a crown.
Just tap on the shape you want to add and it’ll be added to your board.
And just like we learned with the sticky note, you can adjust the size and move it around
your board, and if you tap once on it you can change the color and access all those
extra editing features as well.
By the way, just tap off of a selected object to bring up your bottom buttons again.
The button in the bottom middle of your board is the text button, so this is what you’ll
tap to add text to your board.
Again, you’ll double-tap to enter the text you want.
And the exact same formatting options apply here too, as we saw with the sticky note.
We can tap off of the text to bring our bottom buttons back or tap once on the text box to
bring up those additional editing features along the bottom.
So, you can quickly adjust the size of the font here too if you wanted.
So I’m actually going to tap to select the text box and I want this text to sit at the
top of my board, above the other objects on my board.
So, because this is an infinite whiteboard, I’m not contained to the constraints of
my screen size, oh no, I can just drag this up above the sticky note here, and my board
will expand as far as I’m dragging.
I mean, you could literally just keep dragging to infinity if you really want…
But who has time for that?
Instead, let’s move on to our markup button.
The markup button is what you’re really going to take advantage of if you’ve got
an apple pencil and want to sketch out images or ideas in your freeform app on iPad.
Just like you’re used to from the markup button, you can select a pen, marker, highlighter,
or eraser here, and once you’ve tapped to select a pen or marker, you can tap again
to adjust the thickness.
And of course, you can adjust the color of the marker here too.
Then it’s up to you so start free hand writing or sketching as you wish.
So, again, on iPhone, you’re going to be using your finger to do this.
And by the way, if you want to move your canvas while you’re using the markup tool, just
use two fingers to drag the canvas.
If you don’t like a line you’ve just sketched, you can tap the undo button in the top left.
Or massive bonus tip for you, if you’re working on iPhone and you want to undo or
maybe redo an undo you just did, just shake your phone, and tap.
Don’t mind if I do.
Yes, really.
I use this feature all the time in my notes app when I accidentally cut text I meant to
copy.
You’re welcome.
But back to our free form app.
Our last button in the bottom right is what you’ll tap to add photos or links to your
board.
So, you can either take photos from here, which is so handy, or you can add photos or
videos from your camera roll or folders, or even scan documents and add links.
They’ve stuck a lot of options in this last button for us.
So, I’ll add a photo of me and my niece from a Habs playoff game in 2021 -
Was it all a dream?
Nope, photos or it didn’t happen, right?
But you get the point here of all the things you can add to your board, and all the ways
you can collaborate with others.
But before we collaborate, I think it’s important to name our board, so we’re not
sharing some untitled board with someone.
So, from the board itself, tap on the three dot menu icon near the top right.
Here, you can rename the board, by tapping on rename.
So name it whatever makes sense for you.
Like maybe it’s a project name or client name, whatever works best for your organization.
Then just tap on done.
Now let’s tap on that three dot menu icon again.
Here, you can also duplicate this board, favorite it, export or print it.
But the quickest way to share your board is to tap on the share button at the top.
From here, you can text it to your collaborators, email it, or even add it to a quick note from
here.
A big strength of collaborating with others is that, your board can be edited by all collaborators
at the same time, and you’ll all see in real-time the edits that are taking place.
Plus, you can start your board on one device say, your iPhone and then pull up that board
on your iPad.
And by the way, if you’ve created a board on one device and it’s not showing up on
another device, it’s because you have to sync your Freeform app.
So here’s how to sync freeform across your devices.
From your settings app, tap on your Appe ID at the top, then tap on iCloud . Underneath
‘apps using iCloud’ tap on show more.
From here, make sure sure Freeform is toggled on.
Now, the board we just built on iPhone is available on iPad where I can not only view
it on this screen size instead, but I can edit it from here as well.
So, maybe I’ll move this picture to the right here.
Perfetto.
So, now that you now how to access your Freeform boards on all your apple devices and how Freeform
works on iPad and iPhone, let’s take a look at how to use Freeform on Mac.
When you first open your Freeform app on Mac, things will look pretty well the same as your
iPhone and iPad versions, but there are some minor diferences here.
You can click on the create new board button or double-click to open the board your’re
working on.
Now, some of your buttons at the top are the same here, like your sticky note button, text
button and image button.
However, when you add text using the text option, there is no need to double click to
add text to the text box, you can just simply start typing.
Another difference is found in the image add button.
You can actuall add a sketch from here on Mac.
And to add something from your folders, that’s just moved out to its own button at the top
on Mac.
Just like you can on iPhone and iPad, you can adjust the size of any of your objects
on Mac as well, by dragging those blue dots in the corners.
And with an object selected, you can change the color as well.
But the biggest difference of all is the fact that you obviously can’t use your finger
or apple pencil to sketch on Mac.
In fact, as of the publishing of this video, there is no way to even use your mouse to
draw in the freeform app on Mac…which is, well, odd, to say the least.
So, maybe in the future that will change, but for now, all you can do is draw lines
with the pen tool.
To locate the pen tool, click on the shapes button in the top.
Here, click on the pen icon in the right.
You can double click points to toggle between straight and curved lines.
Or you can drag a midpoint of a line to divide it and add a new point.
Now before you get too bummed about not being able to freehand sketch in the freeform app
on mac, remember, any freeform drawing you do in the iphone or iPad app, will sync over
to your board on Mac.
To share a Freeform board on Mac, click on that share icon near the top right.
Here, you can message it to someone, mail it, or create an invite link that collaborators
can use to join your board.
So if you take anything away from this, really think of Freeform as an additional tool to
help you and your teammates collaborate in real-time on projects from no matter where
you are in the world.
If you’re a visual learner or love to hold visual brainstorming sessions, Freeform is
a great tool have.
So, that’s how to use Freeform on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Now I want to hear from you!
Have you used the Freeform app?
And if so, what are your favorite features?
Let everyone know in the comments below!
As always, thank you for watching.
If you liked this video, I want to know!
Give it a like, a share, or leave that comment below!
You can click here to subscribe to my Channel and here and here for even more apple app
content.
Do it, what’s one more video?
See ya next time.