I start nursing school in January and this is definitely going to change the way I approach the content and study for exams/assignments. So excited to start using this.
Good Video! Thanks! 😃 I have played a lot with Freeform, still learned several things from you👍😊 What you have NOT mentioned, though, is the MASKING tool(s). You can for instance put a checkerboard photo with a giraffe symbol on top, select both, and then MASK .. presto you have a checkerboard colored giraffe 😊 Also good tool combined with the "cut out background" tool fom iOS16… you can mix and stack photo cutouts, and arrange with background and make lots of goodlooking stuff 😊 Also.. if you have been creative and made something good, you can just group it, click-and-hold… and then just drag that object to Photos app.. or message app.. or other apps 😊
That’s a good catch. I didn’t get this combination when playing around on the iPad. So for everyone reading. On an iPad you must put the shape on top of an image and then select both (image and shape), then use the … menu and select “Mask with Shape”. On the Mac it is hidden in the menubar “Format - Image - Mask with Shape”. Thanks for the update. Wish that TH-cam would let me make additions to a video, but no. Hope people will see this comment of yours. Thanks very much.
I've never heard someone pronounce "icon" that way... that's very cool and unique. Lol don't mind me, I love the differences in humanity. Thank you for the full demo boss man
This was very helpful! I couldn’t figure out how to select multiple items and move them together & this was the first video I found to actually explain it. I haven’t done much in this app, yet, but so far I’m really enjoying it 😊
I would say they both have different approaches. You have one infinite board with Freeform (and currently no folder structure to organize it) and with Good Notes and Notability you have the notebook / page paradigm which limits the size but gives you multiple pages per document. I would try both out and would consider which works better in which context. I.e. for taking notes in class I guess Good Notes is still better suited not for brainstorming a project the infinite canvas of Freeform is great. I think they all have their strengths and are best suited for certain approaches.
Interesting approach. Especially how you will feel about once Apple has implement its own journal app on all platforms. But for now it isn't as freeform as Freeform ;-)
The shapes are vector files, which is why they have holes and can be resized infinitely. Adding text to simple shapes to create labels is recommended, but not for complex shapes. I wish Apple add math text or math symbols in the shapes.
As far as I can see in the current betas of IPADOS 18, Apple will bring Math Notes to Freeform. But this will be more the ability to calculate input from your handwriting or within text fields, not so much adding math symbols as shapes. Sorry, I guess you need to either draw those by hand or import them from an external source.
Thanks for your video. I just started using Freeform to make art. I’ve drawn many objects & used many colors on my current piece, but because I used a color I don’t like on one part of it-but have already saved the piece (I guess) by virtue of closing it, is there a way to undo what I don’t like? The small undo button within the pencil tool menu only goes back so far. I’m a little nervous about using the undo button at top of screen because I don’t want to undo everything. Thanks.
The undo button only undos the last steps (one step with each click) but I suppose since you saved it, that your edits are not undoable any longer. If it is a color with an object you can simply select the object and change the color though.
May thanks for this very informative tutorial! Saved me a lot of time. Same remark for the second part. Great. Hope there will be a lot of updates of the app soon.
Thanks for your teaching the basics of Freeform that I have started exploring only recently. I have this problem: when I zoom the canvas to get my drawing precise, the canvas starts to shake and I am unable to accurately do work such as making the and lines of a diagram meet. Is there any fix to this shake when the canvas is zoomed? Regards and have a nice day.
Switching off the grid helped me with lag (you've already found this video). Never experienced a shake though. But most problems for me have been resolved by updating to the newest OS versions (IOS 17 and MacOS 14 Sonoma). If possible by your devices update to these versions.
@@patrickstoeckmann Thanks you for your speedy reply. I am afraid I am not able to proceed further than Ventura since my intel based iMac 27-inch model is a 2017 model.😒
I thought so. Unfortunately for you, Apple is bringing new features as well as most bug fixes to its included apps with new OS releases. So, you might not get these newer features as well as the fixes which might solve your problems then. You can try and see whether there is an OS independant Freeform version in the App Store for you (check in the App Store under Updates) but I doubt it. So, you have to live with what you currently have.
@@patrickstoeckmann Thanks for this advice. If it is God's will and I go for a Mac mini, would I be able to use my 2017-inch iMac as a display and get all the additional features and bug fixes?
@garudasomanna Unfortunately now. Apple doesn’t support using the iMac as an external Display any longer. So, if you go for a Mac mini you need also a new Display.
Unfortunately no. You can edit shapes and therewith create new shapes on a Mac (only) using the menu Format - Shapes and Lines - Make Editable, but you can't add these to the shape library. What you could do as a workaround is create a board, call it "Shape Templates" and collect them there. Then you can copy paste them into your other boards. Not really elegant and I hope Apple adds this functionality, since Numbers for instance has the ability already to add shapes to its library.
Well, you took the words out of my mouth. Not that much. The detailed answer will come in my next video, which is just a few hours away and will talk about the No. 1 Freeform killer app (Hint: It is not Pages).
Thanks for another great tutorial Patrick. I have reviewed most of the first three presentations multi-part series on Freeform and can now see the pros and cons of when this app will be useful for my purposes. I wish I had watched your first presentation on Freeform before attempting my first project. and only board to date, and I spent far too much time before realizing that another app may have been better for that purpose. One of your first points on Part One addresses the iCloud synch that - as far as I can tell most of the other presenters do not address - and I got into trouble with not knowing this, and could figure out specifically how to when I tried to save and share my 3 hour project. You explain this clearly - but unfortunately after the fact for me. To make matters worse, upon attempting to open the board this morning, the project has now disappeared and I cannot find any record of it on my iPad or MacBook. Do you have any ideas on how on might find boards that have disappeared, and store future projects?
I am really sad to hear that you have so much problems with Freeform. I agree it isn‘t suited for all purposes yet and I hope Apple will improve not only on the feature set but also on the backend side. AFAIK you can only recover recently deleted boards from within Freeform. Once you delete a Freeform board there will be an entry on the left sidebar „Recently Deleted“ where you can restore for up to 30 days. If you don‘t see your board there I have no means to help you. Could it be that there was a hickup with different iCloud accounts used on different devices (I as a long time user have 2 Apple IDs one for iCloud and one for purchases). Sometimes when setting up a new device In forget the second account and will not get my iCloud data synced on this device until I fix it. Other then that I have no clue how to help you. You should open up a support ticket with Apple.
@@patrickstoeckmann thanks so much for getting back. I'll look for that sidebar entry. However, if I don't find that, I'll accept it. Given that I only expected a first attempt or draft, and in the process I got carried away with the success I wasn't expecting to have so early on, I can only blame myself going that far in without checking how to save and share. I should have known better, after having a similar experience with a video editing app a few months ago. If I don't find a way to restore it, I'll chalk this up to another learning experience. I've moved over to Procreate for the time being, as my current project is primarily a design sketch photo markup.
I think Procreate is way better suited for that purpose. I think knowing about the underlying paradigm of an app is often crucial, but neglected. That is why I created a video about Apples Numbers being a valid replacement for Freeform for some purposes, because you get 95% of Freeform features but you also get stuff like real file organization and tons more. You can check it out here th-cam.com/video/uGCTp6-Qv6I/w-d-xo.html but I think Procreate is better suited for your purpose.
Hot to get to the color picker? If you tap on a shape, you‘ll get the context menu. There you press on the colored dot to the left which shows the current color. You get a selection of colors and in the lower right of that menu, you have the button that allows you to pick any color.
Hi Patrick. When using the drawing tools pencil or crayon with Apple Pencil on iPad how do I draw a straight line, but not by using the line shape? In Apple notes it’s possible to hold down a drawn line to make it straight. Thanks
I'm having a problem trying to sketch with my iPad and bringing it into my MacOS Freeform board. It works but the drawn sketch is brought in mirror reversed and tilted 90 degrees. Any ideas on why this is happening and how I can get this in properly formatted? Appreciate any guidance.
@@patrickstoeckmann It's still doing it. Any handwriting I do on my iPad looks fine on the iPad but is mirrored and reversed when brought into the board on my MacBook. Can't see any options to undo the issues once it comes into my Mac. This only seems to happen if I'm working on my Mac and try to add handwriting. If I create the board on my iPad and then access via iCloud all handwriting looks correct. Odd! I updated to the latest versions of MacOS and iPadOS but the problem still remains. I'll reach out to Apple and see if I can find a resolution. If you have any thoughts, please share. Thanks.
Hello Sir, Have a question. In freeform in my ipad , i wanted to save the thickness of pencil and color as my default for all the new future projects i will work with . How can i do that ? Is there any option for that ?
@@patrickstoeckmann oh Okay, thanks a lot for your reply. In case you read my message 😊, any idea how to arrange and organize all files in freeform, as there are no FOLDERS structure. Its a complete mess of all the files created in freeform, feels very difficult to find as i have too many files.
@@RameshKumar-ng3nf Ne, there is no good option. this is the biggest gripe I have with Freeform. You can name the board including project name or something and then search for it. That's all. Otherwise you are bound to the time-based sorting or result to favoriting your most used boards.
@@patrickstoeckmannThanks so much for your reply 🙏. Sure, noted your tips on this . Will try it. And i have learned a lot from your channel. Have a good day 😊
Well, everone has different priorities. I’ll talk about importing media a bit in Part 2, but that is not a real priority for me as a work tool. But yes, you can.
Documents? What about document collaboration? What file types are supported? Do the edits/collaborations exist in a a copy within Freeform? Or, do edits in freeform update the original document? Can you pull a document out of FreeForm and share that, by itself?
Not really working. You can drag files into or import them into Freeform, but then all you can do is either look them or copy/paste them to a local storage, edit them there and re-import them into Freeform. I tested it with PDF and a Numbers Document and all edits I did on the Mac and the iPad (opening the documents with Numbers or PDFExpert) don't get transfered back into Freeform automatically. Even opening the PDF in Preview on the iPad and applying Highlights won't transfer to Freeform. So, the short answer is - it is currently not for collaborating live on documents. You need to store the files locally, edit them there and re-upload them to Freeform.
@@patrickstoeckmann Makes sense. Thank you. So, now I am understanding that Freeform is a virtual location in which collaboration can occur and not a document mgmt system like I had thought it might/could be. Per David's reply, this model makes sense considering that the document links can be shared/pasted in Freeform.
You can create a link by sending a message or mail from the Share menu. Once the first participant is invited, you can copy the link from the Collaboration menu (under Manage Shared Boards). Currently there is no support for the shortcuts app, so you can’t create a shortcut for it. Hope this will be coming soon.
Very interesting video. Thanks for that. I did notice that the extra laptop added was named PC8 but after rearranging it next to PC7 it automagically seemed to change name to PC9 :)
Oh no, you found a continuity error. Actually that did not happen via the system, but by me cutting the video at this point, and then forgetting to rename PC9 back to PC8.
It gets automatically installed when you upgrade your MacOS to MacOS 13 (Ventura) or the new MacOS 14 (Sonoma). It is not available for older OS versions.
No. Currently you can only put a large black shape in the background and lock it. This might be enough, but even in dark mode, the canvas in Freeform is always white.
It really depends. GoodNotes is a way more mature product. But its paradigm is that of a paper sized medium. Yes you can create large canvases, but the paradigm is actually based around notebook and paper-sized pages. Good Notes PDF handling is way better in my opinion. Freeform is a great tool for quick brainstorming and easy collaboration. And it is free. But if you are willing to pay for it Good Notes is a real good choice. I would test and compare for your specific needs though.
No, only macOS 13.1 or newer and iOS / iPadOS 16.2 or later supported. No chance for Windows or even older Apple OS versions. And not in the browser either.
When I tap the share button on my iPad I always get the message Try again later. document has not synced yet, please wait before attempting to share. Not sure how long that takes to sync?
Maybe something of with your ICloud connection. Works for me fine within seconds. Make sure all your documents are synced to iCloud. Try to create a new document in iCloud Drive and see whether that gets synced and you can access it on another device or through iCloud.com website.
You could try to disable and re-enable the iCloud Sync for Freeform on all devices. But if other apps (i.e. Numbers or so) sync fine with iCloud, then you need to file a report. Sorry for you.
I get it. At this time I would prioritize Notes for all notes which fit the page paradigm (i.e. they fit on a page and don't need an infinite canvas). Notes is way more stable, has most features I am still missing on Freeform (folders, tags, great text support, etc.) and it is available on more devices. Once Freeform has developed a bit more and you will have updated your devices anyway - it might be ready to be your primary Notes app - but currently it is an app to use besides Apple Notes for you.
26:30 Kinda strange. I bought drawing tablet for mac exactly for this. Shame on apple if they don't enable drawing with attached graphic tablet. Every other app like Miro still allow you to use that inputs.
Please check this once you have access to the app. I don't have any drawing tablets to test it. But I guess Apple will go in the direction to only support iPads for this.
My main beef, and why i will be using Milinote for my projects, is that it doesn't allow me to have folders or boards within boards. This is essential as usually one board simply isn't enough for my projects. It's ok though, but Milinote is better for the creative organiser.
You need to be on iOS or iPad OS 16. Then it should be installed automatically. Otherwise you can download Freeform from the App Store if you have iOS / iPadOS16.
You can‘t group select them with the lasso-tool, you can however group select them by long pressing with the finger on the canvas and then drag selecting them. This will select all kind of objects (Handwritten, Shapes, Images, Text, etc.).
Not really. You can only insert the video as a link. In the iWorks apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) you can insert a web video and play it back in the app, however if you move the cursor away, playback will stop. However I take notes from videos using either Split Screen or Stage Manager on the iPad and have the video in Safari on the left and the notes (in either app - Apple Notes or Obsidian or Freeform or Pages) on the right side. Works great for me.
It‘s Apple, of course it works (at start) only on their devices. That is their main business. What did you expect. Which boards app are you referring to?
Currently no embedding, but you can create a link to a board and put this in another board to quickly open it. Of course all members on Board A need also access to Board B if they want to jump.
That's right. As I said in the video, it is in Beta, but will come out soon. So you can use the video to look forward to it. Better bookmark it though for when it comes out and you want to go through the Freeform Mastercourse again.
I have noticed no lag at all on my docs when writing in Freeform. What kind of machine are you using? Does it happen with a blank new canvas right from the start?
I have used it on the iPad Pro 3rd gen and had no real lag there. Could be that my boards are smaller (i.e. not that many media or anything which is RAM intensive).
I agree that Goodnotes is an excellent program, but I think both of them serve different purposes. Good Notes is great for taking notes and even sharing them, but its paradigm is different than Freeform. You need to select a paper size, because it build upon the notebook / sheet analogy. But freeform is built on the infinite canvas analogy. I don't say one is better than the other, it all depends on the context. And, Goodnotes is a matured product while Freeform will come out with V1 in a few days. Let's see where they are in 3 or so years.
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I start nursing school in January and this is definitely going to change the way I approach the content and study for exams/assignments. So excited to start using this.
That sounds great. Hope it will be a great aid for your learning.
Good Video! Thanks! 😃 I have played a lot with Freeform, still learned several things from you👍😊
What you have NOT mentioned, though, is the MASKING tool(s).
You can for instance put a checkerboard photo with a giraffe symbol on top, select both, and then MASK .. presto you have a checkerboard colored giraffe 😊
Also good tool combined with the "cut out background" tool fom iOS16… you can mix and stack photo cutouts, and arrange with background and make lots of goodlooking stuff 😊
Also.. if you have been creative and made something good, you can just group it, click-and-hold… and then just drag that object to Photos app.. or message app.. or other apps 😊
That’s a good catch. I didn’t get this combination when playing around on the iPad. So for everyone reading. On an iPad you must put the shape on top of an image and then select both (image and shape), then use the … menu and select “Mask with Shape”. On the Mac it is hidden in the menubar “Format - Image - Mask with Shape”. Thanks for the update. Wish that TH-cam would let me make additions to a video, but no. Hope people will see this comment of yours. Thanks very much.
I've never heard someone pronounce "icon" that way... that's very cool and unique. Lol don't mind me, I love the differences in humanity. Thank you for the full demo boss man
Wasn’t aware. Maybe a bit of my German pronunciation came through. Now I have to rewatch my own video - lol.
This was very helpful! I couldn’t figure out how to select multiple items and move them together & this was the first video I found to actually explain it. I haven’t done much in this app, yet, but so far I’m really enjoying it 😊
Glad I could help you with that.
This is an amazing tutorial!! Thank you very much. I hope in FreeForm there will be more features added in the near future.
I hope so too! It has lots of potential, but also needs some more love from Apple.
Well can we say we don’t need apps like notability and goodnotes now?
I would say they both have different approaches. You have one infinite board with Freeform (and currently no folder structure to organize it) and with Good Notes and Notability you have the notebook / page paradigm which limits the size but gives you multiple pages per document. I would try both out and would consider which works better in which context. I.e. for taking notes in class I guess Good Notes is still better suited not for brainstorming a project the infinite canvas of Freeform is great. I think they all have their strengths and are best suited for certain approaches.
This definitely doesn’t replace note taking apps like notability and Nebo. It’s a great whiteboard app.
For me it can replace concepts, but good notes is very particular
@@Sw33tBabyRays you could use apple notes
Very helpful! Thanks for this video!
Glad I could help.
Indeed a masterclass.. best iv seen so far. Thanks for sharing ✌🏻
Wow, thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Curious to try this as a journal with pictures and other media. Thank you for the tutorial.
Interesting approach. Especially how you will feel about once Apple has implement its own journal app on all platforms. But for now it isn't as freeform as Freeform ;-)
Great content and presentation. Will try it out
Thanks. Have fun with it.
The shapes are vector files, which is why they have holes and can be resized infinitely. Adding text to simple shapes to create labels is recommended, but not for complex shapes. I wish Apple add math text or math symbols in the shapes.
As far as I can see in the current betas of IPADOS 18, Apple will bring Math Notes to Freeform. But this will be more the ability to calculate input from your handwriting or within text fields, not so much adding math symbols as shapes. Sorry, I guess you need to either draw those by hand or import them from an external source.
Great presentation and coverage. Looking forward to 16.2!
Just a few more days (hopefully not weeks).
Thank you for the great tutorial
Glad I could teach you something new.
Thanks for your video. I just started using Freeform to make art. I’ve drawn many objects & used many colors on my current piece, but because I used a color I don’t like on one part of it-but have already saved the piece (I guess) by virtue of closing it, is there a way to undo what I don’t like? The small undo button within the pencil tool menu only goes back so far. I’m a little nervous about using the undo button at top of screen because I don’t want to undo everything. Thanks.
The undo button only undos the last steps (one step with each click) but I suppose since you saved it, that your edits are not undoable any longer. If it is a color with an object you can simply select the object and change the color though.
This app working with Apple note app will be the terminator of all note apps 😅
It could, but unfortunately currently when you copy stuff over from Freeform to other apps only an image will be copied, which is less than ideal.
Excellent detailed explanation 🎉
Thank you very much for watching.
May thanks for this very informative tutorial! Saved me a lot of time. Same remark for the second part. Great. Hope there will be a lot of updates of the app soon.
Thanks for watching. Yeah, I am also looking forward to new updates.
Thanks for your teaching the basics of Freeform that I have started exploring only recently. I have this problem: when I zoom the canvas to get my drawing precise, the canvas starts to shake and I am unable to accurately do work such as making the and lines of a diagram meet. Is there any fix to this shake when the canvas is zoomed? Regards and have a nice day.
Switching off the grid helped me with lag (you've already found this video). Never experienced a shake though. But most problems for me have been resolved by updating to the newest OS versions (IOS 17 and MacOS 14 Sonoma). If possible by your devices update to these versions.
@@patrickstoeckmann Thanks you for your speedy reply. I am afraid I am not able to proceed further than Ventura since my intel based iMac 27-inch model is a 2017 model.😒
I thought so. Unfortunately for you, Apple is bringing new features as well as most bug fixes to its included apps with new OS releases. So, you might not get these newer features as well as the fixes which might solve your problems then. You can try and see whether there is an OS independant Freeform version in the App Store for you (check in the App Store under Updates) but I doubt it. So, you have to live with what you currently have.
@@patrickstoeckmann Thanks for this advice. If it is God's will and I go for a Mac mini, would I be able to use my 2017-inch iMac as a display and get all the additional features and bug fixes?
@garudasomanna Unfortunately now. Apple doesn’t support using the iMac as an external Display any longer. So, if you go for a Mac mini you need also a new Display.
Are there any ways you can add additional shapes? Can you create your own shapes and add them into the shape library?
Unfortunately no. You can edit shapes and therewith create new shapes on a Mac (only) using the menu Format - Shapes and Lines - Make Editable, but you can't add these to the shape library. What you could do as a workaround is create a board, call it "Shape Templates" and collect them there. Then you can copy paste them into your other boards. Not really elegant and I hope Apple adds this functionality, since Numbers for instance has the ability already to add shapes to its library.
I'm very ready for Freeform.
Great. Just a bit waiting.
great, thorough overview!
Thank you.
Very helpful, Thx👌
Glad to hear that!
Great video excellent content, new subscriber, keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing
Thank you very much. I will keep up producing more great videos ;-)
This is a great demo - thanks! Quick question, aside from an infinite canvas, do you know how Freeform is different than just a shared Pages document?
Well, you took the words out of my mouth. Not that much. The detailed answer will come in my next video, which is just a few hours away and will talk about the No. 1 Freeform killer app (Hint: It is not Pages).
Thanks for another great tutorial Patrick. I have reviewed most of the first three presentations multi-part series on Freeform and can now see the pros and cons of when this app will be useful for my purposes. I wish I had watched your first presentation on Freeform before attempting my first project. and only board to date, and I spent far too much time before realizing that another app may have been better for that purpose. One of your first points on Part One addresses the iCloud synch that - as far as I can tell most of the other presenters do not address - and I got into trouble with not knowing this, and could figure out specifically how to when I tried to save and share my 3 hour project. You explain this clearly - but unfortunately after the fact for me. To make matters worse, upon attempting to open the board this morning, the project has now disappeared and I cannot find any record of it on my iPad or MacBook. Do you have any ideas on how on might find boards that have disappeared, and store future projects?
I am really sad to hear that you have so much problems with Freeform. I agree it isn‘t suited for all purposes yet and I hope Apple will improve not only on the feature set but also on the backend side. AFAIK you can only recover recently deleted boards from within Freeform. Once you delete a Freeform board there will be an entry on the left sidebar „Recently Deleted“ where you can restore for up to 30 days. If you don‘t see your board there I have no means to help you. Could it be that there was a hickup with different iCloud accounts used on different devices (I as a long time user have 2 Apple IDs one for iCloud and one for purchases). Sometimes when setting up a new device In forget the second account and will not get my iCloud data synced on this device until I fix it. Other then that I have no clue how to help you. You should open up a support ticket with Apple.
@@patrickstoeckmann thanks so much for getting back. I'll look for that sidebar entry. However, if I don't find that, I'll accept it. Given that I only expected a first attempt or draft, and in the process I got carried away with the success I wasn't expecting to have so early on, I can only blame myself going that far in without checking how to save and share. I should have known better, after having a similar experience with a video editing app a few months ago. If I don't find a way to restore it, I'll chalk this up to another learning experience. I've moved over to Procreate for the time being, as my current project is primarily a design sketch photo markup.
I think Procreate is way better suited for that purpose. I think knowing about the underlying paradigm of an app is often crucial, but neglected. That is why I created a video about Apples Numbers being a valid replacement for Freeform for some purposes, because you get 95% of Freeform features but you also get stuff like real file organization and tons more. You can check it out here th-cam.com/video/uGCTp6-Qv6I/w-d-xo.html but I think Procreate is better suited for your purpose.
The “color picker” part was so fast I couldn’t tell how you did it. Can you tell me how?
Hot to get to the color picker? If you tap on a shape, you‘ll get the context menu. There you press on the colored dot to the left which shows the current color. You get a selection of colors and in the lower right of that menu, you have the button that allows you to pick any color.
Hi Patrick. When using the drawing tools pencil or crayon with Apple Pencil on iPad how do I draw a straight line, but not by using the line shape? In Apple notes it’s possible to hold down a drawn line to make it straight. Thanks
So far I have no answer for this. In Apple Notes, I always use the ruler for that. But that tool is missing in Freeform. Sad!
I'm having a problem trying to sketch with my iPad and bringing it into my MacOS Freeform board. It works but the drawn sketch is brought in mirror reversed and tilted 90 degrees. Any ideas on why this is happening and how I can get this in properly formatted? Appreciate any guidance.
I am sorry. I never had this problem so there is nothing I can tell you to resolve this.
@@patrickstoeckmann It's still doing it. Any handwriting I do on my iPad looks fine on the iPad but is mirrored and reversed when brought into the board on my MacBook. Can't see any options to undo the issues once it comes into my Mac. This only seems to happen if I'm working on my Mac and try to add handwriting. If I create the board on my iPad and then access via iCloud all handwriting looks correct. Odd!
I updated to the latest versions of MacOS and iPadOS but the problem still remains. I'll reach out to Apple and see if I can find a resolution. If you have any thoughts, please share. Thanks.
Hello Sir, Have a question. In freeform in my ipad , i wanted to save the thickness of pencil and color as my default for all the new future projects i will work with . How can i do that ? Is there any option for that ?
Unfortunately no. You have to do that for each board anew.
@@patrickstoeckmann oh Okay, thanks a lot for your reply. In case you read my message 😊, any idea how to arrange and organize all files in freeform, as there are no FOLDERS structure. Its a complete mess of all the files created in freeform, feels very difficult to find as i have too many files.
@@RameshKumar-ng3nf Ne, there is no good option. this is the biggest gripe I have with Freeform. You can name the board including project name or something and then search for it. That's all. Otherwise you are bound to the time-based sorting or result to favoriting your most used boards.
@@patrickstoeckmannThanks so much for your reply 🙏. Sure, noted your tips on this . Will try it. And i have learned a lot from your channel. Have a good day 😊
To rotate just hover near the corner and you'll get a rotate cursor....
No, that didn’t do the trick, but pressing CMD you get a rotate cursor on the Mac.
If you put two fingers on an object (iPad) and WAIT for a little bit… then a tiny square with "0˚" will show up. Then you can start rotating 😊
@@oljobo Exactly this is shown in the video already and works on iPad and iPhone, but the CMD + click is the way to do it on a Mac.
Incredible that all channels show the same thing......they show if videos, audios and videos can be entered...
Well, everone has different priorities. I’ll talk about importing media a bit in Part 2, but that is not a real priority for me as a work tool. But yes, you can.
Documents? What about document collaboration? What file types are supported? Do the edits/collaborations exist in a a copy within Freeform? Or, do edits in freeform update the original document? Can you pull a document out of FreeForm and share that, by itself?
Not really working. You can drag files into or import them into Freeform, but then all you can do is either look them or copy/paste them to a local storage, edit them there and re-import them into Freeform.
I tested it with PDF and a Numbers Document and all edits I did on the Mac and the iPad (opening the documents with Numbers or PDFExpert) don't get transfered back into Freeform automatically. Even opening the PDF in Preview on the iPad and applying Highlights won't transfer to Freeform. So, the short answer is - it is currently not for collaborating live on documents. You need to store the files locally, edit them there and re-upload them to Freeform.
You can paste a share link to a board that grants anyone with the link permission to edit or view the file, note, etc.
@@patrickstoeckmann Makes sense. Thank you. So, now I am understanding that Freeform is a virtual location in which collaboration can occur and not a document mgmt system like I had thought it might/could be. Per David's reply, this model makes sense considering that the document links can be shared/pasted in Freeform.
@@DavidChilstrom Thank you... is there a share sheet action to share a collaboration link to the Freeform app? Or, is copy/paste still the only way?
You can create a link by sending a message or mail from the Share menu. Once the first participant is invited, you can copy the link from the Collaboration menu (under Manage Shared Boards). Currently there is no support for the shortcuts app, so you can’t create a shortcut for it. Hope this will be coming soon.
Isit possible to transfer my *_Notabilty_* notes and my *_Mindnodes_* maps in *_Freeform_* ?
Only as an image or PDF
Very interesting video. Thanks for that. I did notice that the extra laptop added was named PC8 but after rearranging it next to PC7 it automagically seemed to change name to PC9 :)
Oh no, you found a continuity error. Actually that did not happen via the system, but by me cutting the video at this point, and then forgetting to rename PC9 back to PC8.
HELLO How can Intall Freeform in my macbook pro, to have all this pulldown menus.
It gets automatically installed when you upgrade your MacOS to MacOS 13 (Ventura) or the new MacOS 14 (Sonoma). It is not available for older OS versions.
Thanks for your great video. 🤩 We need a connector tool like Figma Jam or Omni. Working with Apple's connector is a big pain and waist of time.
Well if your use case needs these tools, you should definitely go for them. I don’t see Apple connecting to them soon though.
Can white change to blackboard?
No. Currently you can only put a large black shape in the background and lock it. This might be enough, but even in dark mode, the canvas in Freeform is always white.
Free form or good notes
It really depends. GoodNotes is a way more mature product. But its paradigm is that of a paper sized medium. Yes you can create large canvases, but the paradigm is actually based around notebook and paper-sized pages. Good Notes PDF handling is way better in my opinion. Freeform is a great tool for quick brainstorming and easy collaboration. And it is free. But if you are willing to pay for it Good Notes is a real good choice. I would test and compare for your specific needs though.
Does collaboration support people using microsoft windows? I mean can you invite people with other than mac platforms ?
No, only macOS 13.1 or newer and iOS / iPadOS 16.2 or later supported. No chance for Windows or even older Apple OS versions. And not in the browser either.
@@patrickstoeckmann thanks for the quick reply and the great presentation
When I tap the share button on my iPad I always get the message Try again later. document has not synced yet, please wait before attempting to share. Not sure how long that takes to sync?
Maybe something of with your ICloud connection. Works for me fine within seconds. Make sure all your documents are synced to iCloud. Try to create a new document in iCloud Drive and see whether that gets synced and you can access it on another device or through iCloud.com website.
@@patrickstoeckmann I mean I can share it fine on my iPhone but it won’t let me share it on my iPad
Still sounds like an iCloud problem. It works on my iPhone, iPad and Mac (all of them on the latest betas).
@@patrickstoeckmann same here, might have to file a report in the feedback app
You could try to disable and re-enable the iCloud Sync for Freeform on all devices. But if other apps (i.e. Numbers or so) sync fine with iCloud, then you need to file a report. Sorry for you.
I am torn between this app and notes. I can use notes across all my devices. Freeform will not work on my 2017 MacBook :(
I get it. At this time I would prioritize Notes for all notes which fit the page paradigm (i.e. they fit on a page and don't need an infinite canvas). Notes is way more stable, has most features I am still missing on Freeform (folders, tags, great text support, etc.) and it is available on more devices. Once Freeform has developed a bit more and you will have updated your devices anyway - it might be ready to be your primary Notes app - but currently it is an app to use besides Apple Notes for you.
26:30 Kinda strange. I bought drawing tablet for mac exactly for this. Shame on apple if they don't enable drawing with attached graphic tablet. Every other app like Miro still allow you to use that inputs.
Please check this once you have access to the app. I don't have any drawing tablets to test it. But I guess Apple will go in the direction to only support iPads for this.
Loving it so far. Missing the ruler guide though. It’s a big part of my workflow. Thanks for the video
Yeah me too. That was actually the first thing I spotted when I used it. Hope they will add it soon.
My main beef, and why i will be using Milinote for my projects, is that it doesn't allow me to have folders or boards within boards. This is essential as usually one board simply isn't enough for my projects.
It's ok though, but Milinote is better for the creative organiser.
Oh yeah, this is also one of my main complaints. I hoped that they would add folder by now. Still hoping they will add it soon.
Is it possible to convert handwriting into typed text?
Unfortunately not yet.
hover over the item and press command to maneuver it on mac
Sorry, I am not sure what you are referring to. Can you elaborate?
@@patrickstoeckmannto move items around freely like in a circular motion on Mac book, you hover the mouse over one of the corners and press command.
Hey I cant find that tool that you wrote hello
You need to be on iOS or iPad OS 16. Then it should be installed automatically. Otherwise you can download Freeform from the App Store if you have iOS / iPadOS16.
Would you know if they have a record feature?
Not within Freeform, but you can always record your screen on Mac or iOS/iPadOS.
When using freeform, can collaborators watch it in real time?
Yes
@@patrickstoeckmann so it’s great for tutoring? Thanks
Exactly, that would be a good application for Freeform.
Hey in my freeform I cant find Pencil with A
It only appears on supported iPad models, when you use an Apple Pencil.
It's super frustrating that you can't group-select text & shape objects on iPad by circling them with the lasso tool, like you can do with doodles.
You can‘t group select them with the lasso-tool, you can however group select them by long pressing with the finger on the canvas and then drag selecting them. This will select all kind of objects (Handwritten, Shapes, Images, Text, etc.).
para mi si es prioridad ver un video mientras tomo notas de el ......en onenote si se puede hacer eso
Not really. You can only insert the video as a link. In the iWorks apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) you can insert a web video and play it back in the app, however if you move the cursor away, playback will stop. However I take notes from videos using either Split Screen or Stage Manager on the iPad and have the video in Safari on the left and the notes (in either app - Apple Notes or Obsidian or Freeform or Pages) on the right side. Works great for me.
It’s not like the boards app no use for marking and only works on apple Devices 😢
It‘s Apple, of course it works (at start) only on their devices. That is their main business. What did you expect. Which boards app are you referring to?
Can you inbed or link one board in another?
Currently no embedding, but you can create a link to a board and put this in another board to quickly open it. Of course all members on Board A need also access to Board B if they want to jump.
iPad iOS 16.2 is not available in the UK yet so can’t download Freeform let alone use it.😏
That's right. As I said in the video, it is in Beta, but will come out soon. So you can use the video to look forward to it. Better bookmark it though for when it comes out and you want to go through the Freeform Mastercourse again.
A video on an app no one can use yet.. fantastically dumb!?
Well lots of people can actually use it (if they signed up for the Betas) and lots of other people want to get informed what’s ahead.
How to fix the lag while writing in freeform app
I have noticed no lag at all on my docs when writing in Freeform. What kind of machine are you using? Does it happen with a blank new canvas right from the start?
@@patrickstoeckmann no after using for an hour
@@patrickstoeckmann ipad pro 4th gen
I have used it on the iPad Pro 3rd gen and had no real lag there. Could be that my boards are smaller (i.e. not that many media or anything which is RAM intensive).
all the mastercourse is great. then at the of the day you cant export the whole image as pdf. wtf apple.
You can. Under the … menu you have the option to export as PDF.
@@patrickstoeckmann
… Goodnotes is still better 💀
I agree that Goodnotes is an excellent program, but I think both of them serve different purposes. Good Notes is great for taking notes and even sharing them, but its paradigm is different than Freeform. You need to select a paper size, because it build upon the notebook / sheet analogy. But freeform is built on the infinite canvas analogy. I don't say one is better than the other, it all depends on the context.
And, Goodnotes is a matured product while Freeform will come out with V1 in a few days. Let's see where they are in 3 or so years.
The beginning explaining stuff everybody knows... that is funny.
You would be surprised how many people don’t know a lot of the fundamentals.
What a scam - no drawing tools on Mac.
These are tied to iPhone or iPad. So no support for external Non-Apple drawing devices.