Basic Question about Freeform

[danqi]

I finally upgraded to Venture and wanted to try out Freeform. But I cannot figure out how to move around the board.

I tried holding down "space" and dragging like in Photoshop or holding down the middle mouse button like in Blender, but nothing seems to work. What am I missing?

(Btw, I guess one can probably use a Trackpad, but I don't have one.)

 

[JohnMaldaner]

Interested in this thread. I have no idea what to do with Freeform!

 

[Madonepro]

Try these videos

1. Freeform - Apple
2. How To - MacMost

 

[danqi]

Try these videos

1. Freeform - Apple
2. How To - MacMost

I've watched both of them. None explain how to move around without a trackpad.

 

[GerritV]

I've been hitting keys at random, and found that you can move vertically by holding down the "fn" key combined with the up/down and the left/right arrow keys. Not sure where they differ, and also - I couldn't find a way to move horizontally. Sorry, not much help I fear...

What I did find however, additionally, is that the key combination "fn" / TAB selects every element on the canvas in turn - FWIW.

 

[danqi]

Thanks!
It seems strange to me that an app like this doesn’t seem to have a way to navigate with a mouse…

 

[ignatius345]

Have you tried just using the scroll wheel on your mouse? I can scroll vertically with the scroll wheel, and horizontally by holding down the shift key while I do it (as in other Mac apps).

 

[danqi]

Have you tried just using the scroll wheel on your mouse? I can scroll vertically with the scroll wheel, and horizontally by holding down the shift key while I do it (as in other Mac apps).

I realize this might sound super entitled, but when you’re used to just grabbing the work area and quickly moving around in all directions as in Photoshop or pretty much any of the other programs I use all day, then using the scroll wheel is just way too slow and annoying.

 

[ignatius345]

I realize this might sound super entitled, but when you’re used to just grabbing the work area and quickly moving around in all directions as in Photoshop or pretty much any of the other programs I use all day, then using the scroll wheel is just way too slow and annoying.

OK, cool, but you were saying there's no way to navigate using a mouse, and there definitely is. Maybe you find it too "slow and annoying" but it's there and works.

 

[JohnMaldaner]

At the risk of being told to RTFM, what is the purpose of Freeform?

 

[GerritV]

At the risk of being told to RTFM, what is the purpose of Freeform?

You could see Freeform as a digital whiteboard. Nice detail: it has an infinite canvas.
The purpose can be many: mind mapping, note taking, brainstorming, graphic recording aka sketch noting, drawing...

 

[polyphenol]

I've been putting off getting involved with Freeform for ages. (I'm often like that with new software - mixture of being comfortable with what I know and a degree of fear of screwing up with something new.)

Today, I started and have crossed the threshold. Very simple - I could have done more or less the same in Pages or a DTP product (if I had one). Indeed, in the past I've done vaguely similar things in Excel.

I used it as an ultra-lightweight DTP product. Some text, some images. Created a PDF.

When using other things, there is a horrible tendency to have to get involved with alignments (to margins, to page, to other things) even very early on on the process - but FF's canvas made the playing about stage really easy.