Apple Freeform: How To Make It (Really) Useful

Apple Free Form is the most underrated app on your iPad. That's why in this video, I wanted to show you how to make it really useful, going over the most useful tips, tricks, and hidden features that I can assure you you didn't know

about. Let's start everything off by

about. Let's start everything off by saying that Free Form isn't Apple Notes or reminders. It's also not trying to be

or reminders. It's also not trying to be a drawing app either. It's basically an infinite board to plan, to think, to develop, to design. It's perfect for creatives, for students, or for anybody

that has an idea. In this video, I'll show you my free form of my studio renovation. I basically dropped

renovation. I basically dropped everything here. As you can see, there

everything here. As you can see, there are links from Instagram. There are

screenshots from Instagram. There are

random photos from online. These photos

I took myself. There are markups. There

are sketches. There's handwritten text.

There's sticky notes. And there's

basically a lot a lot of inspiration in here. So the way that free form works is

here. So the way that free form works is you basically just zoom out, you move and then you kind of find your notes, your sketches. But there is a tiny

your sketches. But there is a tiny hidden feature which is this thing right here. So you can actually have scenes.

here. So you can actually have scenes.

Now free form scenes are highly underrated and it's the best way to stay organized with such big boards. Over

here I've got three different scenes. So

I can tap on igloo and it will move me directly to my igloo section. If I tap on a set, it will bring up my inspiration of my favorite sets. And if

I want to move over to my decoration scene, it will zoom out and it will bring me to my decoration inspiration.

Now, Free Form does not do this automatically, at least not as of now.

Now, let me show you how it works so you can do it as well. So, this part of my free form right here is basically all the different decoration and couches and inspiration that I want to add to my

studio. So, all you got to do is tap on

studio. So, all you got to do is tap on scenes and then tap on add scene. As you

can see, it automatically already added a scene. If we tap on that, it will show

a scene. If we tap on that, it will show up as scene 4. So now, if I zoom out and I tap on scene 4, boom, it will

automatically zoom in. Now, if you tap on these little three dots, you can one, print a scene or two, export this scene as a PDF. Now, this is extremely useful

because imagine you have a massive, massive board like me. I can now save this scene to my files. Boom. I can tap save. I can now go on my files app just

save. I can now go on my files app just like that. So, as you can see, scene 4

like that. So, as you can see, scene 4 is a PDF that is saved on my files now.

As you can see, PDF. And now what's cool about this is that even though it's still a PDF and it's not a free form anymore, I can still tap on this and it

will still be a physical link that I can still open, which is incredibly useful.

Inside of files, you can obviously still mark up everything that you could kind of do in Free Form, but it's a PDF that anybody can open. Now, going back to Free Form, something else that I wanted to show you about scenes is how to

rename your own scene. So, if you tap on these little three dots, you'll see rename scene. Boom. I can tap on here.

rename scene. Boom. I can tap on here.

So now I can write sofa and lamps inspel for example. Boom. Just like that. If I

for example. Boom. Just like that. If I

tap on the edit button, I can also reorder my own scenes. And I can also hit export all scenes to PDF just by tapping on that. What's also nice about scenes is that you've got these little

two arrows right here which will basically jump over from one scene to the other to the other until the other.

Very, very handy. Next up, let's talk about grids and guides, which will truly make your free form not only more useful, but also more beautiful and more organized at the same time. So, this

little button right here on the bottom right, this one will deactivate. Let me

go ahead and zoom it in for you just so you can see. It will deactivate the grid and it will activate it just like that.

Now, there's a lot of people that think that this is just aesthetic. But here's

kind of another little hidden feature.

If you tap on these little three dots and tap on alignment settings, there's also snap to grid. And what this will basically do is it will snap. Do you see how it snaps and it's giving me like

perspective lines knowing when everything is centered and everything?

This will make everything just so much more clean for you since you know exactly how to snap your own images so you can align both images perfectly well. So you can keep everything a lot

well. So you can keep everything a lot more organized. And what's nice about

more organized. And what's nice about grades is that once you're done organizing everything, you can kind of just get it rid of it and everything will look incredibly well organized.

Now, if you tap on these little three dots and tap on alignment settings again, you can also activate or deactivate the center guides or maybe you want to turn on the edge guides.

What I personally highly recommend is to turn all of them on. So that will basically, as you can see, it will show you a bunch of guides so you can know how to place any image to the right

spot. Next up, let's talk about building

spot. Next up, let's talk about building structure, adding all sorts of shapes, sticky notes, headers, and some features that you probably didn't know about. So

if you grab your Apple Pencil, let me go ahead and start with this first. You can

obviously add your own handwritten text inside of Free Form. It's basically the most useful use case of Free Form, adding images and your own handwritten text. You can obviously also draw your

text. You can obviously also draw your own shapes, but did you know that if you draw a shape, for example, and hold on it, it will automatically create that

perfect shape as well. This works for the star. This works for a circle. This

the star. This works for a circle. This

works for a square. This works for any different shape like a rectangle, a triangle. And they're sometimes not

triangle. And they're sometimes not perfect, but let's say you want it like this or you want one at a specific angle. all of them will work and it will

angle. all of them will work and it will create it for you just like that. It

definitely is a lot of fun. Now, you can obviously draw your own shapes, but there is a specific shape um little folder inside of Free Form and there's everything inside of here. So, you can

add there are objects like clothing, like kitchen supplies, there's animals, there's nature, there's trees, there's food, symbols, which these are really, really useful as well. Especially these

ones right here. If you're a student, you're probably going to love this one.

Education, if you want to add your own essays, maybe essays that you probably failed, maybe your own notes, all inside of here. Arts, science, people, places,

of here. Arts, science, people, places, activities transportation work ornaments, the list goes on. Now,

something you might not know is if you add a shape, for example, let let me pick a shape. For example, this strawberry right here, and then I'll place it right here. First off, you can obviously change the color by simply

selecting on it and then choosing. And

then maybe you want no fill and you only want an outline, which the outline can have a bunch of different widths like this one. You can make it a more

this one. You can make it a more handdrawn looking one, which is a style that I really, really did used to like back in the day. Now, here's the tip that you probably didn't know about. If

you double tap on that shape, you can actually draw inside of that shape.

Let's say you're doing a nutrition class. So, you want to write a title

class. So, you want to write a title like it's already recognizing it, nutrition. You can now have your own

nutrition. You can now have your own little strawberry that says nutrition.

You can make it bigger or smaller. You

can also change the style of the text.

You can make it way bigger. You can make italic. You can make it bold. You can

italic. You can make it bold. You can

center it to the left, etc. Even change the font right here. This comes in very handy to make your notes way much more beautiful. And here's another tip that

beautiful. And here's another tip that will probably blow your mind as well.

You see that we just created this own style. And now if I want to replicate

style. And now if I want to replicate this style to this apple, it will be quite complicated because you kind of have to lose a little bit of time. But

here's a tip that you'll love. You can

grab this strawberry, tap on these little three dots, tap on style, and then tap on copy style. And then you can come over here and tap on paste style.

And just like that, you'll be able to copy and paste your own style. So you

can keep on replicating that style to a bunch of different ways. By the way, if you're finding value out of this video, you can obviously hit that subscribe button for more content like this. Going

back to the strawberry for just a second, this is also a very, very highly underrated button right here, which is the duplicate button. If you really like a style or if you like something you

did, you can either copy the style or literally just copy and duplicate the whole thing completely. Now, my next tip isn't inside of Free Form. It's actually

an accessory that will transform your iPad to make it feel like you're writing or drawing in a piece of paper. You've

seen me talking about Paperlike before, but their brand new Paperlike 3 gives you way sharper screen quality and a way smarter application. So, Paperlike is a

smarter application. So, Paperlike is a screen protector that will make you feel like you're writing on a piece of paper.

I mean, just listen to it.

And here's an iPad without Paperlike.

There's no sound. It makes your handwriting better. And drawing simply

handwriting better. And drawing simply feels more natural. like you've done it all your life. The mounting and the way that it works, it's with its nano dot surface technology. It's basically tons

surface technology. It's basically tons of tiny microscopic little dots at just the right amount of resistance. And the

image quality that you'll get from the matte screen protector will still look sharp and very clear. It's not like those random matte screen protectors that you'll see online because those

will literally destroy your Apple Pencil tip. Paper 3 is made for the Apple

tip. Paper 3 is made for the Apple Pencil. In fact, it's less than 0.095

Pencil. In fact, it's less than 0.095 095 mm thick, which is literally under Apple's limits of official screen protectors. There's no weird delay

protectors. There's no weird delay input. Everything is just extremely

input. Everything is just extremely precise. But my favorite thing about the

precise. But my favorite thing about the Paperlike 3 is how you install it with its new butterfly application system.

So, there's tons of things that come inside of the box from a Paperlike Artist postcard to stickers to obviously their installation kit. You've got a QR code that will come with some instructions, which comes with this

helper tool, which will help you remove bubbles, helps you align the corners perfectly, and it's got this little pointy thing, which will basically allow you to slide through the different layers. It comes with a pack of two

layers. It comes with a pack of two inside of the box. You can try it out for yourself because if you don't like it, there's an 100 day, 100 satisfaction, or money back guarantee.

So, if you want your iPad to feel like a real notebook, if you want your iPad to feel like paper, whether you're a student or an artist, you can obviously hit the link down below in the description to pick up the brand new Paperlike 3. Thank you Paperlike so much

Paperlike 3. Thank you Paperlike so much for sponsoring this portion of this video. Now, let's go back to the Free

video. Now, let's go back to the Free Form tips. Another highly underrated

Form tips. Another highly underrated shape in Free Form is this right here.

It is the sticky mouth because it's what free form truly is, right? It's a super versatile little shape that one, a lot of people don't know this surprisingly,

but you can make it larger and smaller.

You can do it however you want. You can

double tap to enter text and type in glass door. So, I can type in glass

glass door. So, I can type in glass doors. I can tap on this. I can change

doors. I can tap on this. I can change the color of the sticky note to whatever I want. I can also change the size of

I want. I can also change the size of the text. There's always a lot of people

the text. There's always a lot of people not knowing what this feature does, which is connectors. Now, connectors is also one of the most underrated features inside of free form, which will

basically bring up, do you see these little arrows right here? So, you can see if I disable them and enable them, they pop up. I can zoom in so you can see them more clearly. What that will

basically allow you to do is grab this and connect it to another shape. And you

can do these to as many as you want. And

you can keep on connecting all of them.

Now, you don't have to connect them to a specific shape. You can basically just

specific shape. You can basically just bring them on to whatever you want. And

then that will offer you to create another shape as well. For example, just imagine I did this. So, I can now double tap. So, I can write dimensions of set.

tap. So, I can write dimensions of set.

So, I can now know 180 mm, 165 mm, and 195 are the dimensions set. I can

connect all of them right there. You can

probably imagine how useful this can be to your nodes, to your free form. The

people who use this the most are by far the ones that do a lot of mind mapping.

So you can add an idea, a branch and then sub branches within that branch or flowcharts or maybe even for planning.

You can also customize the connectors.

So if you tap on a specific connector, it will bring up a couple options. For

example, this one right here. So you can customize the angle so it's a little bit more squiggly depending on what you want. You can also add your own arrows.

want. You can also add your own arrows.

So if you tap on line ends, take a look at this. You can change and customize

at this. You can change and customize the way that your line ends. Maybe you

want arrows, maybe you don't want anything, or maybe you want this little um beginning to end one. If you tap on this first arrow right here, that will basically allow to change the outline

and the width and the color of your connector. So, if you tap on color,

connector. So, if you tap on color, boom. You can change it to green. You

boom. You can change it to green. You

can also make it dotted or handdrawn, which once again is the style that I personally love the most. You can see kind of fades in just like a brush.

Moving over to attachments. Now, there's

a lot of attachments, a lot of things you can drop inside of free form. You

probably already know that you can tap on choose photo or video. So, I can add maybe a house that I liked inside of free form for my inspiration. It will

basically just be dropped over here.

Since I've got my connectors already, it's already recommending me if I want to connect it to something. Now, you

obviously already know that you can drag and drop photos, but a very cool and useful use case inside of photos is this right here. If you hold on an object

right here. If you hold on an object like my Christmas tree, it will automatically map it automatically. So I can grab only the tree, not the whole image, but just

the tree. And then I can drop it inside

the tree. And then I can drop it inside of my board. So for referencing, imagine I really like um this Christmas tree, which this one's mine. So I can mark something up. Maybe I really like my

something up. Maybe I really like my ratatouille one. So I can Oh, by the

ratatouille one. So I can Oh, by the way, the arrow, if you hold like that, it will transform it into a clean one.

Maybe you wanted to know that as well.

Type in Ratatouille.

Boom. You get the point. Removing a

background for free form comes in very handy. It's not only photos that you can

handy. It's not only photos that you can add inside of your board. If I drop a video inside of my board, I'll also be able to do that, which will then later

allow me to play that video inside of the board as well. As you can see, it even comes with sound as well. And I've

also shown you that you can add links inside of Free Form. Something also very useful, imagine I really like this table right here from Safari. What most people

would do is copy the link and then paste it and boom, just like that. It works.

And you can do that as well. But a tip that I'm going to give you is if you tap on share, make sure to scroll over to the right where it says more and make

sure to add free form as your favorite.

If it's not over here on the top, I personally have mine in favorites obviously, but for you, it will probably here at the bottom. You simply tap on the plus and it will add it to your favorites and then you can bring it up

to the top. What that will basically allow you to do is whenever you like something, you can easily tap share, tap on free form, select the board that you wanted to save it to, and automatically

once I'm back in free form, it will automatically be saved to my board.

Apart from photos and videos and links, you can also generate your own images if you don't find the right one. Christmas

house. Let's type that in to see what generates. That looks pretty cute, but I

generates. That looks pretty cute, but I don't want it sketch. I kind of want it to generate it in an animation format.

Boom. Just like that. That generated it quite quickly. I can tap on plus and

quite quickly. I can tap on plus and that will automatically save me an image. So I can bring it up next to my

image. So I can bring it up next to my Christmas tree and then I can add Christmas. Apart from image playground,

Christmas. Apart from image playground, you can add your own stickers. You can

attach files as well. When you do attach something like a PDF, you can also have a quick look on it. And what's great about adding PDFs inside of Free Form is

that you can mark up and study, highlight specific parts of your document. And once you save it, it will

document. And once you save it, it will already be marked up inside of there. So

when you open that document again, it will still be marked up for students.

Total total game changer. A lot of people use Free Form to drag and drop all of their invoices. Imagine I just made my own house. I can add all of the invoices and receipts that I've had from

the house within my board. And I can even scan my own documents directly from here. Now, once you're happy with your

here. Now, once you're happy with your board or once you're ready to start collaborating, I wanted to show you also the way that that works. So, you

basically simply need to tap on the share icon, this one right here. And

then you can send it via iMessage. You

can send it via AirDrop. You can even create your own custom link of that free form board. And then before you do that,

form board. And then before you do that, you've got two different options. One,

do you want to send a copy of this board to someone else or do you want to decide to collaborate on with your friends and family? That person will then be able to

family? That person will then be able to join and then make changes. Now, you can highly customize this however you want.

For example, this board, I've got four different people on here, but only me, the owner, can make changes. These

people right here can only view my board, not make any changes. But then,

if you scroll to the bottom where it says share options, then you can decide, okay, only people you invite have access or anyone with the link. And then once those people have access, can they make changes or can they view only? If you're

working on a school project, then you want everybody collaborating, you can do that. Or if you have a beautiful board

that. Or if you have a beautiful board that you don't want anybody messing around with, you can probably make the view only permission. There's obviously

so many more tips and features that I could tell you. So if you want a part two of free form how to make it really useful, be sure to let me know in the comments. Subscribe if you found this

comments. Subscribe if you found this video useful or you can keep watching more of my how to make it really useful videos. And I'll catch you in the next

videos. And I'll catch you in the next one. Peace.

one. Peace.