Freeform It has been directly positioned as the most "relevant" novelty within the list of functionalities that have been presented with iOS 16.2. A collaborative tool that will allow you to share all types of files, notes and content in real time, ideal for improving the productivity of your team or the performance of your students.
We teach you what Freeform is, how it works and why this iOS and iPadOS tool can change your life. Take a look with us at all its features and how you can get the most out of it on your iPhone and iPad in the easiest and simplest way you could ever have imagined.
If you still don't know all the juicy new features that iOS 16.2 has brought to your iPhone and that iPadOS 16.2 has brought to your iPad, it's a good time to take a look at the content that we have created previously so that you don't miss anything at all. .
However, as is almost always the case, an illustrative video is the best option to learn how to use this type of tools, that's why we head this article with a video that will help you understand and manage all Freeform functions, join our youtube channel and help us to continue offering you the best content.
Freeform, Apple's collaborative tool
First let's talk about the Freeform desktop, In it, as in Notes or Reminders, we will find a good list of options. On the right we will see all the whiteboards, while on the left we will have four categories: All whiteboards, recent, shared and favorites.
We can either opt for an icon view or a list format view, as already happens in other iOS applications. Needless to say, the app supports the iPadOS split-screen format, For that we simply select the icon (…) located in the upper central part and move the window to the place where we want. Once we have the split screen we can alter the size and the way we interact with it.
Real-time editing possibilities
Now we focus on the content editing tools that it offers us freeform, just open a new board. We start with the brushes.
We have different options to choose between pen, marker, marker, wax and paint, in addition to the typical ones available in applications such as Notes. This brush selector has integrated buttons and we can also slide it along the screen, to place it in the area where it facilitates the creation of the content.
By clicking on the button (…) within the brush settings we will be able to adjust the automatic minimization, the pencil settings selector and the drawing with the finger.
The other option we have is to add notes, next to the brush selector. ANDn these notes we can enter text easily and quickly. In addition, we will choose the size of the note with the classic enlargement or reduction gestures that have been present in iOS since its birth.
In another vein, by long pressing on the notes we will be able to choose the color of the note from Apple's usual palette of pastel tones, the font both in its size and in its layout, although not in terms of its typology, and finally various options for copying, style and even accessibility.
We continue with the shape creator, specially designed for diagrams and idea trees. Pressing will show us various basic, geometric, predetermined object and even animal options. In addition, we will have at our disposal a list of arrows that will allow us to compose these schemes easily.
Once the figure is selected, we will be able to modify both its size and its color, the latter through a long press on the object in question. If we want it that way, one of the most interesting options is to create an outline of different typologies throughout the object or figure, which will allow us to interact with it more efficiently or create typology labels for each of these.
We are not going to spend too much time on the text editor because we already know it with more or less success from other native iOS applications such as Notes. This text editor will have all the fonts we can imagine, present in Apple's usual iWork office suite. In addition, we can change the size, color, direction and even the line spacing easily and quickly.
Last we have the possibility of managing a lot of content and for this there is the option of files. In this we will be able to select between photographs or videos, the camera, the document scanner, or we will directly insert it through a link or the files application.
Both the videos and the links will create their own previews and we can play them without any problem.
The key is to share everything
To be able to share Freeform content in real time, we have the button "to share" at the top right. This is where the option of inviting our colleagues quickly from messaging applications will open up, or creating a faster and more accessible invitation link.
Be that as it may, it is necessary that we activate the synchronization of Freeform with iCloud, In this case, being a first previous release of iOS 16.2, we have found that this option was still disabled. However, and presumably, with the arrival of the official version, the automatic synchronization of Freeform with iCloud will be activated by default.
We hope you found all this content about Freeform interesting, which you already know is will interact in real time with all users who are invited to collaborate on the same whiteboard.
Excellent application and explanation.