Apple announced folders for Freeform on 29 September 2026. The addition offers a new way to organise a growing set of boards without treating every idea as a separate island. Apple update.
Apple's Mac guide describes File, then New Folder, or New Folder from Selection. Boards and subfolders can be moved or renamed. Its iPad collaboration guide adds an important distinction: only top-level folders can be shared, and invitees gain access to the contents, including boards added later. Folder guide, collaboration guide.
Start with one project
Choose a project whose boards you keep opening together. Give the folder a name that will still make sense next month, rather than the mood you were in when you started it.
Inside that project, consider three working purposes: references, experiments, and decisions. You do not have to create three boards immediately. The point is to recognise the difference between something interesting, something you are trying, and something the team has actually agreed to do.
Move a few existing boards first. Resist the urge to reorganise the entire library in one sitting. After a week, ask whether you found the right material faster, or merely created another place to look.
Sharing is a separate decision
Before inviting someone, inspect the folder as though you were that person. Is there a private note among the reference material? Is an unfinished client idea sitting beside the final plan?
Choose whether the person needs editing or viewing access, and check the available permission settings. Make a habit of reviewing shared material before adding a new board. A folder is convenient precisely because its contents can grow; that convenience deserves an equally clear boundary.
