Apple's New Secret Weapon, Freeform | A Complete Walkthrough! | iOS & iPadOS 16.2

With the new iPadOS and iOS 16.2 Beta updates, Apple finally released freeform! Wanted to do a quick rundown of the experience and how it all works!

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Time Stamps

0:00 - Intro
0:55 - Devices Used
1:17 - FreeForm iCloud Settings That Must Be Turned On
1:50 - FreeForm Home Page navigation
2:10 - New Board
2:18 - Light Mode vs Dark Mode
2:40 - FreeForm Board Navigation
2:56 - FreeForm Tool Bar
3:31 - Add and Format Text
3:52 - Add Media Types
4:18 - Percentage Scaling max and min
4:44 - Renaming Board
4:52 - Sharing Freeform Board
5:15 - Live Collaboration Demo
5:39 - New Paint Tool
6:41 - Adding Image From Folder
7:15 - Deleting images from board
7:32 - Changing Post it Color
7:45 - Facetime Calls on Board
8:05 - Print Freeform board
8:11 - Export as PDF
8:20 - Annotate PDF?
8:50 - Adding a Link

#m2ipadpro #ipados16 #freeform

[lawrencemorales]

This is going to be HUGE for me as a college math professor for when I need to do online office hours. I will share my Freeform app window on my Mac and use my ipad and pencil to write/draw. I currently use ExplainEverything, but this is going to be MUCH easier. Freeform needs tithe ability to import a window to a live web se like EE, and well as the ability to import PDFs files as images that can be marked up in FreeForm, but I have found ways around those limitations already. Total game changer for me.

[shamalakable]

Taking notes in Freeform with the Apple Pencil is excellent, there is just enough stabilization, whereas scribble or even procreate has a steep learning curve to make your writing neat. Also with highlights/images/colour blotches you have the ability to move the layers from back to front! It’s awesome so far.

[jngarrettart]

Thanks for covering this. This is the app I’ve been most interested in since Apple’s announcements in June. I’d love to use it to brainstorm/organize my projects, and I’m also hoping to use it to sketch with friends. 🐬

[kyleh]

I’m impressed with how easy this app is to use. I hardly use my Apple Pencil. But will definitely use it with this.

[lindsaymccracken]

I’m excited for it to be released. I plan on using it for school and seeing how I like it compared to other note taking apps. Great breakdown video! 🐬🐬🐬

[Harvester]

I went back to the beta just to try this. It was the key feature aside from external display that I was looking forward too. Going to be using it for mind mapping.

[JohnBrissenden]

I’m not a beta person, but Freeform is the feature I’ve been most interested in since WWDC. Thank you so much for posting this. I suppose my question is about collaboration. I work in a university, and you would not believe (okay, maybe you would) how far behind the curve most of my coworkers are when it comes to tech. I’d be very interested to know from you and other commenters how the collaboration features work with people on Windows, or without an iCloud account.

[loganmahoney]

I want to know how well this integrates with other native apps. Can you import apple notes, can you insert a calendar, can you have a reminders list on a board. Very important features.

[markdc]

This is the app I have always wanted Apple to make! Other apps have some similar tasks but none bring them all together in an easy to use, intuitive format like Freeform. Look forward to using this.

[ioannidisj]

It reminds me of MS Onenote which it the most versatile application of this kind. Free form is in the right direction, but it lacks of a lot of functionality, but maybe for a free app is ok I guess. Don’t forget that there are a lot of paid apps in the apple ecosystem and many companies will lose a lot of revenue if Apple launches a similar or better application free embedded in the operating system. Some functionality I would love to see is the ability to save different canvas in separate folders and the support for additional languages in the text recognition.

[LeandroViscome]

When you annotated over the image or PDF file, the annotations was applied to the canvas and not right in the image itself, right?

I got a little bit confused about this behavior… 😅

[casey.rob.]

This is going to make note taking exactly what I’ve wanted for a while. I’m a freeform note taker, so this will obviously be perfect for me.

[georgebarron]

Looking forward to this app. Can you add tables?

[dillipinaction]

Good work. Does the pdf document exist as a separate object? Can it be highlighted? Is its text selectable?

[WorkItJ]

I completely forgot about this feature but now that you have refreshed my memory, I will be using this once it’s out of beta. I did watch until the end.

[kjell.adrian.haaland]

🐬 Would love to see Apple mesh Freeform with notes 🤩 Hope it’s at least possible to insert a freeform document inside of the notes app in the near future. It’s gonna be a powerful tool regardless.

[LoganSpurgeon]

I already have a Freeform wish list of things they need to improve on but it’s so good

[doublinx]

Finally, a onenote competitor
I've been waiting for this forever

Now people will actually clone this instead of Evernote

[FritsJanSmit]

Great. And what about pasting links or files? Also curious about sharing from other apps with FreeForm. So let's say I am watching a YouTube movie or reading a webpage and want to add it into a FreeForm project? Does it, like notes, convert handwriting to text?

[hamstrichhamstrich]

Would love to see the features of Paper 53 being integrated into free form.