In praise of Apple’s Freeform app.

[Mike Boreham]

I have long been in the habit of keeping a diagram of my computers and drives, partly for my own benefit and partly for whoever finds themselves in front of my computer when I become incapacitated. I tried various apps over the years but never got on with them, but recently tried Apple's Freeform app which I have found very easy to get to grips with to knock up the current diagram below for example. This is a very simple use of Freeform (it is capable of much more) and I found it very intuitive, and did not need any help outside the app. I am sure there are things about it that would frustrate a power user of such apps but for the casual user it is very accessible.

 

[Astrohunter]

There is one problem with Freeform app, you can lose all your data, and there is no way to get it back.

What happened to me one day, I had it open on Mac and iOS, it crashed on I don't remember which, and all notes gone.
I do use TimeMachine, but there was no way to retrieve them.

So I would advise not to touch it, unless you find a way to do a backup somehow.

 

[Mike Boreham]

There is one problem with Freeform app, you can lose all your data, and there is no way to get it back.

What happened to me one day, I had it open on Mac and iOS, it crashed on I don't remember which, and all notes gone.
I do use TimeMachine, but there was no way to retrieve them.

So I would advise not to touch it, unless you find a way to do a backup somehow.

Does this thread help? One poster there successfully restored from Time Machine. You could also export a PDF after each session.

Notes are also tricky to restore. I did quite a lot of testing reported here, (corrected link).

I think Freeform boards are like Notes and are stored in a database not as individual files. Like Notes there is no "save" option in Freeform as it is written to the database real time.

 

[Astrohunter]

Does this thread help? One poster there successfully restored from Time Machine. You could also export a PDF after each session.

Notes are also tricky to restore. I did quite a lot of testing reported here, (corrected link).

I think Freeform boards are like Notes and are stored in a database not as individual files. Like Notes there is no "save" option in Freeform as it is written to the database real time.

I've tried it, I remember I would always end up seeing folders which are like linked folders.
As for Notes, I use iMazing to export all notes, calendars etc. once in a while, so it's not such a problem.

 

[gilby101]

There is one problem with Freeform app, you can lose all your data, and there is no way to get it back.

What happened to me one day, I had it open on Mac and iOS, it crashed on I don't remember which, and all notes gone.
I do use TimeMachine, but there was no way to retrieve them.

So I would advise not to touch it, unless you find a way to do a backup somehow.

Absolutely agree. All these apps (Notes, Freeform, Bear, etc.) which keep "documents" in a database work fine UNTIL you need to restore one of the documents from a backup.

I much prefer apps which keep each document in a file whose location you know (or can easily discover). I have long ago given up on Notes for anything except ephemeral notes. Same goes for Freeform.

 

[Astrohunter]

Absolutely agree. All these apps (Notes, Freeform, Bear, etc.) which keep "documents" in a database work fine UNTIL you need to restore one of the documents from a backup.

I much prefer apps which keep each document in a file whose location you know (or can easily discover). I have long ago given up on Notes for anything except ephemeral notes. Same goes for Freeform.

It’s possible to retrieve Notes, but they might always change something you never know.

 

[svenmany]

I like Freeform and use it regularly. I'm pretty sure I lost one document, but it was a new-ish one so I just recreated it.

I mostly use it like a paper replacement. If I'm sitting on the couch and need to take some quick notes while on a phone call, I'm much quicker using the iPad with a pencil than trying to type on it. Also, if I want to work through some math that I would usually do on paper, I'll use it for that.

I did buy a screen cover that adds friction and makes writing with the pencil feel like I'm writing on a piece of paper.

Because there's no way to recover from a lost document, I wouldn't keep anything in it that was critical or wanted to preserve for a long time. Exporting as a PDF is OK for archival, but I don't know if there's any way to continue Freeform work starting from a PDF.

@Mike Boreham, for the kind of document you are showing I would find OmniGraffle much easier to use. But, that assumes I'm working on a computer. If I only had my iPad then I might try to create such a document in Freeform.

 

[neutrino17]

I like Freeform. We use it a lot. My siblings and I collaborate on share trips. I’ve never lost a document with Freeform or Notes. On the other hand. I wouldn’t do anything mission critical with these without some other kind of backup.

 

[Starfia]

It's nice to hear from someone who really loves and uses it!

I can tell it's great, but I think it's honestly the lack of an ability to set a dark background (short of inlaying an arbitrarily large dark shape or something) that's kept me from cozying into it. I'm sure someone will let me know if I've missed the feature.

 

[Astrohunter]

I think still better and safer option is MindNode, although I can see my app is "classic" version, so I guess new version has some in app subscription BS.