At a glance
Brooke Tierney spends sixteen minutes making the case that Freeform is Apple's most underrated app, and then proves it by walking the entire toolbar end to end. Her framing up front: Freeform is not a replacement for Apple Notes, it is the complement to it, the tool that picks up exactly where Notes falls short, especially anything involving the Apple Pencil. She calls it a digital whiteboard she now carries across every Apple device, good for a blank canvas, a flowchart, a vision board, or mind mapping. This page rebuilds her full tour in order: the interface and its gaps, the infinite board and every toolbar item on it (Pencil, text, shapes, sticky notes, tables), links and media, Scenes, flowcharts with connectors, math solving, the two way bridge to Apple Notes and Reminders, a travel use case, live collaboration, and exporting. Every menu, toggle, and setting she opens is captured here, including the honest gaps she flags in the same breath (no folders, no tags, no pinning).
| Area | Apple Notes | Freeform |
|---|---|---|
| Canvas | Paginated, scrolling notes | Infinite, zoomable blank whiteboard |
| Apple Pencil | Restricted to certain areas; can't draw over typed text | Draw anywhere, over shapes and text, no restrictions |
| Organization | Folders, tags, pin a note | No folders or tags yet; only Favorite (its own tab), no pinning |
| Heavy typed notes | The right tool; full text editing | Text boxes work but not built for long typed notes |
| Structure tools | Checklists, basic formatting | Shapes, connectors and flowcharts, tables, math solving, Scenes |
| Best for | Long typed notes, lists, reference material | Whiteboarding, sketches, mind maps, visual boards, scratch work |
Freeform's pitch: the complement to Apple Notes
Tierney opens with the thesis: if you are not already using Freeform, you should be, because it is one of Apple's best newish apps and it fills in the gaps Apple Notes leaves, particularly around the Apple Pencil. She thinks of it as a digital whiteboard available across all her Apple devices. Any time she needs a blank canvas, whether that is a flowchart, a vision board, or mind mapping, Freeform is now her default.
The interface: boards, panels, and what's missing
Opening the app, the layout mirrors Apple Notes: a side panel on the left, all of your boards listed on the right, with a toggle between tile view and list view. Tierney is upfront about where the interface falls short. The side panel lacks the organization options Notes users are used to. There is no way to create folders to group boards, no tags, and, notably, no way to pin a board. The only option is to mark a board as a favorite, which moves it into a separate favorites category. She hopes folders and tags get added as Apple keeps building out the app.
The blank board: an infinite whiteboard
Opening a board for the first time shows an essentially infinite blank canvas. You can zoom out or zoom all the way in, and the background dot grid scales with you, the dots getting larger as you zoom in. If the dots are distracting, a button in the bottom right corner turns them off entirely.
The toolbar: Apple Pencil, text, shapes, and sticky notes
The toolbar at the top of a board is where most of the app's power lives, and Tierney walks it left to right.
Apple Pencil. The first tool is the Apple Pencil, and using it feels familiar: tap it and start writing. Handwriting auto refines if that setting is on, and every Pencil trick still works, including drawing a shape and holding it to snap into a clean geometric version. Her favorite detail: Freeform puts no limitations on the Pencil the way Apple Notes does. In Notes, the Pencil only works in certain zones and cannot be used over typed text, which she calls "super frustrating." In Freeform, the Pencil goes anywhere, over shapes, over text, anywhere on the board. The toolbar no longer shows a dedicated ruler icon, but the ruler is still available as one of the Apple Pencil's tool options, useful any time you need to draw something precise. If the Pencil insists on drawing a line instead of letting you select and move objects, the fix lives in Settings: search Freeform, then Apple Pencil, and turn on select and scroll.
Text. The next toolbar item is a plain text box, straightforward and always available.
Shapes. After text comes the shapes menu: lines, icons, and a large library, with a Browse Content Hub option for even more, including images, backgrounds, and the ability to generate your own image. Generating images is an Apple Intelligence feature, and some of that content hub material may sit behind a paywall tied to Apple's Creator Studio subscription, though the basic shapes and options stay free. Any shape can be selected, moved, resized larger or smaller. Tapping a shape opens a menu to change its color, or switch to no fill with a border instead, and to thicken that border. Handles resize it directly. Double tapping the center of a shape lets you type directly onto it, and that text travels with the shape when you move it. Because this is Freeform, not Notes, you can zoom out indefinitely and watch your work shrink to a small corner of a much larger canvas.
Sticky notes. When you want to set aside a section of the board and start fresh elsewhere, a sticky note works like a physical one: click it for the same kind of menu, change its color, and either double tap to type or write on it directly with the Pencil. As she puts it, "there's no limitations in Freeform like there are in Apple Notes, which I really love."
Tables: more customizable than they look
The table tool looks basic at first glance, and in a sense it is, but the customization runs deeper than expected. Plus buttons add columns and rows. The table's popup menu adjusts borders and the color of the whole table, or you can select an individual cell to recolor just that box, or use the small three dot control that appears to select an entire column and recolor it. Selecting a single box also exposes text formatting: size, alignment, turning it into a list, text color, and even changing the font for that one cell. To act on the whole table at once rather than a single cell, click the small circle in the table's top left corner, which selects everything and brings up the table level menu.
Media, files, and links: bringing the web onto the board
The paperclip icon on the toolbar opens the door to media: photos or video added directly or captured fresh, your own stickers, uploaded files, or a link. Tierney demonstrates with her furniture board, a set of tiles for pieces she likes for her living room, each one linked out to a store page. Clicking a tile and tapping the info icon jumps straight to that website. Rather than copying a link and pasting it manually, the faster path runs through the system share sheet: on the source page (she uses IKEA as the example), tap Share, swipe to find Freeform in the row of share targets (if it is not visible, go to More and add it to the list), pick the destination board, and save. The link lands on the board in a random spot, usually along the right edge, ready to drag into place, in her case into the kitchen section she was building. The whole furniture board she shows is built from exactly this combination: shapes used as section headers, links added via the share sheet, a sticky note as a reminder, and Pencil drawing layered over all of it.
Scenes: bookmarks for an endless canvas
Once a board has more than one working area, you can drag manually to a different part of it, say from a living room section to a kitchen section, but Tierney's preferred method is Scenes, accessed at the bottom of the screen with arrows to step through them. She calls this "probably my favorite feature for Freeform," because the canvas is so large and endless that quick access to specific regions becomes essential once a board has multiple areas of focus. Creating one is simple: frame whatever you want the scene to capture on screen and hit Add Scene, which takes a snapshot of that view. The scene list can be edited afterward: tap into any scene to rename it, use the handles on the right to reorder them, or delete one from the left. A three dot menu at the top of the scene list lets you print or export every scene as a PDF at once, and the same three dot options exist per individual scene if you only want to export or print one.
Shapes and flowcharts: guides and connectors
Freeform earns its keep for lighter note taking too, though Tierney draws a clear line: for classes where you need to type a lot, Apple Notes is still the better tool. Freeform is where she reaches for a notepad or scratch pad, working out formulas or sketching something quickly. It is also where flowcharts and mind maps come together easily. Dragging a shape into position reveals a faint yellow alignment line as you move it near another element. Those guides can be toggled from the three dot menu under Alignment Settings, where edge guides and snap to grid can each be turned on independently (snap to grid is especially useful when arranging a lot of images).
Connecting shapes can be done manually, drawing a line from one shape to the next, but the far faster route is the Connectors On toggle. With it enabled, an arrow appears on a shape that you drag to the next shape to wire them together, and the app keeps prompting you to pick the next connection so a whole chain can be built quickly. Turning the toggle back off hides those connector arrows, though shapes can still be resized freely and their connecting lines follow along automatically. The connecting lines themselves take the same kind of styling as shapes: a menu lets you make a line dotted, thicken it, change its color, adjust how the ends look, and choose the connection style, including a curved line with a small green handle in the middle you can drag to reshape the curve.
Math results: solving equations on the board
Tucked in the same three dot overflow menu is a Math Results toggle. Tierney leaves it set to Suggest Results rather than Insert automatically. With it on, writing out an equation and using the equal sign brings up an option to solve it and drop the answer straight onto the board.
Bringing Apple Notes into Freeform (and back out)
This is where Tierney makes her strongest case for treating the two apps as one workflow rather than a choice between them.
For a class where notes are typed out at length in Apple Notes, that same note can ride along on a Freeform board for reference while sketching. In Apple Notes, find the note, hit the share button, look for Freeform, pick the right board, and save. It arrives on the board as an editable text box, clickable in place just like a text box you built directly in Freeform. If you would rather not have it live as an editable block of text, a PDF, a Pages document, or any file (reading material, additional handouts) can be attached to the board the same way. Multi page Apple Notes take one extra step: export the note to Files first, then import that file into the board, and view it there with the small eye icon to page through it.
The bridge runs the other direction too. A Freeform board used as scratch paper for a course can be pushed into Apple Notes: hit the share button, switch the mode from Collaborate to Send Copy, and choose Apple Notes, adding it straight to a note. The same Send Copy path can target Apple Reminders instead, useful for setting a deadline reminder to keep working on a board.
Travel boards and other everyday use cases
One board Tierney shows is built around a road trip: a map of Costa Rica dropped onto the canvas, the actual route drawn over it by hand with the Apple Pencil, and typed notes added alongside on the left. It is the kind of layout, part map, part handwriting, part text, that Apple Notes does not make easy, and it is exactly the kind of job Freeform's infinite, mixed media canvas is built for.
Collaboration: sharing, following along, and jumping to location
Any board shared with someone else shows a small message bubble in the board menu, naming who it is shared with. Tierney's example here is a digital scrapbook board, another use case she recommends, built from a trip map and a collection of photos. The same paperclip icon used for media also lets you scan documents directly into the board, handy for dropping in receipts or similar paperwork.
Sharing works through the same share button, set to Collaborate, and then messaging, AirDropping, or emailing the recipient a link to the board. On the receiving device, opening Freeform shows the board marked as joined, and any changes sync live: moving an object on one device shows up moving in real time on the other, which Tierney demonstrates by sharing a board with herself across two accounts. Tapping a collaborator's icon offers quick options to message them or start a video call to talk through the work together. The three dot menu on their icon adds two more: Follow Along, which mirrors everything the other person does in real time (moving the board, switching scenes, zooming) until you tap Stop, and Jump to Location, a one time teleport to whichever section of a large, multi person board someone else is currently working in, useful when everyone owns a different section of the same sprawling board.
Exporting and printing a board
The small arrow icon at the top of a board exports the whole thing as a PDF or sends it to print, and that same menu is where an individual board gets renamed.
Key takeaways
- Freeform is an infinite, zoomable whiteboard meant to complement Apple Notes, not replace it. Tierney reaches for Notes when she needs to type a lot, and for Freeform for anything sketched, whiteboarded, or mixed media.
- The Apple Pencil has none of the restrictions it has in Notes. In Freeform it draws anywhere, including over shapes and typed text, with no dead zones.
- The toolbar (Pencil, Text, Shapes, Sticky Note, Table, Media) each carries real customization: colors, fills, borders, fonts, and per cell or per column table styling.
- Scenes are bookmarked snapshots of regions on the endless canvas, her single favorite feature for navigating a large board quickly.
- Flowcharts get real tooling: toggleable alignment guides and snap to grid, plus a Connectors On mode that auto wires shapes together with fully styleable lines.
- Math Results can solve an equation typed directly on the board.
- Apple Notes and Freeform talk to each other both ways through the standard share sheet: Notes content arrives in Freeform as an editable text box, and Freeform boards can be sent out to Notes or Reminders. Multi page Notes need one extra export to Files step first.
- Collaboration is live and social: a presence bubble marks shared boards, and collaborators can message, video call, Follow Along (continuous mirroring) or Jump to Location (a one time teleport) on someone else's section of a shared board.
- The side panel is still Freeform's weakest spot: no folders, no tags, and no way to pin a board, only Favorite.
- Any board exports to PDF or print, and that same menu is where you rename it.
Chapters
0:00 Freeform's pitch, the complement to Apple Notes 0:31 The interface, boards, and what's missing 1:12 A blank, infinite board 1:34 The toolbar, Pencil through sticky notes 6:12 Adding links and media 7:42 Scenes 8:48 Shapes, flowcharts, and connectors 11:04 Math results 11:23 Files and Apple Notes into Freeform 12:44 Freeform out to Notes and Reminders 13:13 Travel use case 13:31 Collaboration, Follow Along, Jump to Location 15:39 Exporting and printing
Notable quotes
If you're not already using the Freeform app, you absolutely should be. It is one of Apple's best newish apps. Brooke Tierney, 0:00
In Notes, you can only use the pencil in certain areas. You can't use it over typed text. It can be super frustrating. Brooke Tierney, 2:15
There's no limitations in Freeform like there are in Apple Notes, which I really love. Brooke Tierney, 3:05
This is one of probably my favorite features for Freeform, because the canvas is so endless and large, it's super handy to have quick access to different parts of the board. Brooke Tierney, 7:42
You'll be able to see on my iPad that this person is moving this around live in real time right now. Brooke Tierney, 14:00
If you're not already using Freeform, I highly recommend you give it a try, even if it's only because you're frustrated by some of the limitations in Apple Notes. Brooke Tierney, 15:50
Resources mentioned
- Freeform (Apple support guide), the app this whole video is about.
- Apple Notes, the app Tierney repeatedly compares and connects it to.
- Apple Pencil, whose freedom in Freeform versus its restrictions in Notes is the video's central contrast.
- Apple Intelligence, which powers the content hub's image generation feature.
- Apple Reminders, one of the two destinations (with Notes) a Freeform board can be sent to via Send Copy.
- IKEA, the site used to demo adding a link to a board through the share sheet.
- The creator: Brooke Tierney on YouTube.


