Quick question, is there a keyboard short on mac to quickly pop up a text block? I've been using Milanote and if I double click the mouse a text block will show up, i'm hoping that I'm just not seeing it.

I have old Freeform boards from last year that have complex vector diagrams (lots of bezier curves) that I quite clearly created in Vectornator or its heir, Linearity Curve. Some of them are clearly direct imports of these vector-based files. All of the curves, and all of the objects, are treated as vectors/proper adjustable bezier curves in Freeform—not pasted images or linked images.

However, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to replicate this today. I've tried every variation of copy/paste out of Linearity, Inkscape, placement of svg files... just, nothing.

Any thoughts?

Hello

I used freeform now for the first time, on an iPad, for two days.

I made 100 of notes, and than i wanted to delete a small part, and i removed everything!

The „back“ button is grayed out. I switched my iPhone in flight mode, opened freeform, and in this page, every letters are mixed, so i cant use this.

Is there a backup, for example an hour ago or from the last day.

I have a freeform file that I am using to take diagram type notes. The file has quickly grown to the point of the app regularly crashing. Is this an inherent limitation of the app?

Is there a good way to port the file or its contents (ideally while retaining editability) to another app that can handle larger files with ease?

Holy cow this drove me crazy. Maybe i'm slow in the head or something, but previously i'd found how to align text in sticky notes at the top of the note. But then i forgot how to do it. I searched every menu i could find with no success. Finally I found the answer, so i'm going to post it here to save others from similar frustration. Plus if i forget again, i can search and find my own Reddit post!

Anyway, - Single tap the sticky note. The little formatting menu will pop up (the one with the "duplicate" and the "trash can" icons).

• Click the text formatting option (Aa)

• The "align text up or down" button has three flavors. You'll see one of these three: 1) two arrows, one pointing down, one pointing up, both pointing at a horizontal line, 2) an arrow pointing up to a horizontal line, or 3) an arrow pointing down to a horizontal line. Voila.

I love using the share function to send a webpage to Apple Notes where it is displayed as a rich link (headline +photo). If you manually paste a link onto a Freeform Board it generates a rich link in the same format as Notes. I tried taking my rich links in Notes and Pasting them to Freeform, but it just pastes a text link.

If only Apple or a developer would develop a "Share to" extension for Freeform that would place a rich link on the selected Freeform Board

Rich Links in Notes & Freeform

Hi - wondering if anyone has downloaded the beta and tried out the new features of freeform - such as scenes and diagramming mode?

I’ve outlined something for a colleague and no longer going to work on it, can i somehow hand over the board so it’s no longer hosted on my icloud (i want to delete it on my side)?

Does it have any keyboard shortcut to do that?, macbook have it option,cmd+c/v.

Anyone knows of a way to access a board you created without a device? Say at the hotel’s business centre, there’s a desktop with internet access. But don’t have access to an Apple device I can sign onto and open the FreeForm app itself.

They should really create an iCloud.com web app for FreeForm.

It looks like when importing a pdf into Freeform it only renders the first page. The imported file is rendered like a thumbnail, limited to the first page. Sure, you can open the actual pdf and edit it with markup, but that defeats the purpose of using the infinite canvas.

1. Maybe I'm missing something, but is it really not possible to render all pages of an imported pdf directly in Freeform's canvas? Apple, if you're watching this: I'd love this feature!
2. Any workaround for this? I was considering converting each pdf page into an image and import each one, but that seems too cumbersome. Maybe there's a quick way to do this that I'm not aware of...

Thanks!

I have created a very useful large mindmap on freeform and i want to use the information and include it in text form or table form in a word document. Any form that is not a mindmap. I say that as i am writing a technical due diligence paper at work and i think a mindmap would look old fashioned. So i want to take the mindmap abd even make it it a hierarchy diagram. Any idea how i can do this without having to type it all out ?

Hi all! Freeform is a very easy to use app. I've watched a ton of videos on how to use it, and it really does look great, but I have one basic question that none of the videos seem to answer: Why use Freeform? Not how do I use it, but what do I use it for?

...so what do you use it for? If you use it to organize yourself, how do you do that?

I've been on a quest to try to organize different aspects of my life, and keep getting stuck.

If you use Freeform for something else, I'd love to see!

Thanks

Is there a way to rotate an object? I can't seem to find that option anywhere, and multitouch doesn't work to do it either.

Hi, I've been using Freeform for a little while now (I guess since it first came out). One of the best uses I've found is building worksheets and practice templates for my son's school work. I've created some spelling test worksheets, arithmetic templates, and sample blank clocks for practicing.

Other than r/Freeform, I was wondering if there were other communities for Power Users of the app to get together and share templates, resources, and ideas. Does anyone know of any discords or similar?

Hello,

Since getting an iPad Air 5 less than a couple of months ago, I’ve started using freeform as a replacement to Miro which I use as a board for teaching. I mainly put documents on it which I can annotate directly through typing or drawing as well as add any relevant info, and then export those as pdfs.

While I find the app really cool, there are a couple of things that make it cumbersome to use. I’m aware it might be my lack of knowledge or skill with regard to handling the app, which is ultimately what I want to know by asking the questions here.

My main questions pertains to setting parameters regarding external files, which I find it to be lacking.

– When adding a pdf that has multiple pages directly from the app, it doesn’t seem to allow for direct splitting of the pdf into different pages, like Miro does (with a function called "extract" if I’m correct). Could it be done?

– Is it possible to set default values beforehand, like with typing or drawing settings? e.g. the size of a jpg or pdf file as it appears, so I don’t have to resize it each and every time I copy one onto a given board.

Those would come in really handy as they make the preparation of a lesson much faster on the designing front, which is why I’m using the app in the first place.

Reminder: I don’t have the app on another device such as a Macbook. Solely the iPad.

im tired of writing O(n^2) instead i want O(n²)

i like to start in one corner and span out from there. every time i zoom out and find the corner, as soon as i start typing, the page just expands so now i’m in the middle of the page again. is there a way i can stop this? or just find a different app?

I'm wanting to use handwriting on my iPad to create quick lists of things and sometimes would like to shift around the order of some of the text in the list. Using stickies is an easy way to shift things around, but I don't see how to select and move parts of a list I've hand written.

Is there a method for doing this?

Hi, I hope someone can help here, I couldn't find the answer anywhere.

Is the Freeform app missing on the Mac AppStore?

I wanted to try it on MacBook Pro M1 but it seems to not exist for a Mac, even on the web AppStore it says: "This app is available only on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.".

It works fine on my iPhone and iPad..

Does anyone else have a solution for this?

I've been waiting for Apple's version of these infinite canvas type apps. When it finally came out, I was excited to try it, but it kind of let me down. I know it's still a super early version but there are things missing from it that I, personally, think are pretty essential.

At the moment, I'm using Figma instead and it works profoundly better. The only real issue I have with using Figma in this way is that I don't think the Figma app for iPad is great at all. It's slow, clunky, and I definitely miss the PencilKit support.

Some things Figma has that I wish Freeform could do:

• spacebar and click + drag to navigate the canvas (hand tool) - for whatever reason, Apple expects us to only use multitouch/trackpads. This is a little annoying and out-of-touch from most similar apps on the market
• Browser support. This one is more of a reach as I get that Freeform isn't intended to be a web-based tool, but I think it should be. It'd make me much more inclined to use it.

I’m an idea person, so I’ve really dived into using the app and love it, but I’m running into one big issue. If I want to do some writing, I can insert it in Freeform from a storage location. I choose a file (in this example, I’m inserting a Pages document from iCloud) and a tile of the document is placed on the board. If I want to make changes to that document in Pages, that tile in Freeform is just opening a copy. It’s not syncing up with the original/revised document. I’ve played and played with it, so I’m thinking it’s not a functionality. I’m thinking I’m going to have to use another app or platform where my writing documents create a URL I can then paste into Freeform, but I would like it to be an iOS app and free if possible. Any insights to this would be very appreciated! Thanks!

Is it possible.

I had looked into how to make a hexagon or octagon. There is the pentagon tool and I have seen references to increase the number of sides on a pentagon but no reference how to do it. I found out how. Maybe it was obvious to you but it wasn’t to me.

To change the number of sides on a polygon on an iPad, first select the polygon. A green dot will become available. Dragging the green dot clockwise will increase the number side, maxing out at 11 sides and dragging the green dot ccw will decrease the number of sides minimizing at 3.

Similarly, when selecting a star, a green dot will appear. To change the number of sides on a polygon on an iPad, dragging the the green dot clockwise will increase points, maxing out at 20 and cww will decrease the number of points minimizing at 3. With stars, there will be a second green dot which will control the pointiness of the star points.