At some point in your life, you’ve probably used a whiteboard or even a blackboard as a way to brainstorm ideas.
You’ve scribbled words, drawn pictures and connected dots to help bring those moments of brilliance to fruition.
For many, a whiteboard is a crucial collaboration tool. Apple knows this and has finally integrated such a feature into its three operating systems. This feature is called Freeform and is built into the latest versions of macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.
If you are a visual collaborator, you will love this app.
Also: The best collaboration apps
Freeform promises to be the exact whiteboard app you’ve been looking for because it removes the need to use a third-party service. When working with Freeform, the canvas expands as content is added. This infinite canvas gives you unlimited flexibility when collaborating with other brainstormers. Freeform also includes:
- A variety of brushes.
- Apple Pencil support.
- Support for PDFs, photos, videos, audio, documents, links, sticky notes, shapes, diagrams, etc.
- Drag and drop from other apps.
- Quick Look gives you a preview of your content without leaving the board.
- Content can be locked in place.
- Collaborate with up to 100 users.
- FaceTime is integrated.
Freeform is free and is installed by default on the operating system.
Also: How to take notes on your iPad with an Apple Pencil – 3 very easy ways
I’ll warn you though that Freeform is currently problematic and until Apple fixes a broken issue, you’ll find the app less than effective. You might, however, be one of the lucky ones to avoid the problem.
What is Freeform and why should it be your next creative brainstorming tool?
Requirements
To use Freeform, you will need one of the following versions of your Apple operating system:
- macOS 13.2
- iOS 16.2
- iPad OS 16.2
To sync your boards across your devices, you’ll also need to turn on iCloud syncing (more on that in a bit).
When you first open Freeform, you’ll be prompted to optionally turn on iCloud sync. To do this, click Go to Settings, click Apple ID, then click iCloud. In the resulting window, scroll down until you see the Freeform icon and click the ON/OFF slider until it is in the ON position. Because this app is so new, on my MacBook Pro it was listed as Unknown. When prompted, click Merge. More on this matter in a moment.
Enabling Freeform for iCloud Sync.
Image: Jack Wallen
Note: Enabling iCloud sync not only allows you to access your boards across the device, but also allows you to share boards. Without turning on iCloud sync, you can’t share boards.
Once you’ve set up iCloud syncing, close the settings and you should then be back on the main Freeform window.
The first thing you might want to do is click Untitled in the top left corner and give your table a name.
Also: The 5 Best Note-Taking Apps for iPad
After naming your board, you can click on any of the items at the top of the board to start adding sticky notes, shapes, images, links, text, lists, and more.
Creating a table in Freeform is quite simple.
Image: Jack Wallen
The only thing you might find is that the drawing tool only appears on devices with a touchscreen. So if you’re using a MacBook or iMac which does not include a touch screen, you will not be able to use the drawing tool. This limits what you can do on a non-touchscreen device, but if you don’t need the sketch option, you’ll find plenty of elements that can be added and manipulated.
Share a board
This is where things get risky. Even with Freeform iCloud Sync enabled, my machine rebooted and other apps syncing fine with iCloud, I was unable to share a board. After some quick research, it appears to be a known issue. My gut tells me it has something to do with Freeform being listed in iCloud sync settings as “Unknown”, which actually seemed to be the problem.
When upgrading from macOS to 13.2, there’s a little thing called “Terms of Service” for iCloud that you need to agree to before any synchronization with your devices. To accept these TOS, open Settings and click on the notification under Update Apple ID Settings.
Also: How to Transfer Files from Android to MacOS Easily
You should see a pop-up where you can scroll through the terms and accept. Once you’ve done this, iCloud sync settings will automatically change from Unknown to Freeform. Disable Freeform, re-enable it, click Merge and the sync should start working. If not… Apple, are you listening?
Solve these problems
Hopefully, once Apple fixes the Freeform sync issues, this app will help take your collaboration to the next level. Until then, unfortunately, Freeform has an issue that makes the tool less useful. At least you can fire up the tires from the app, so you’re ready when it comes time to collaborate.
