New app: Framer – create individual frames around each selected object

Robert Johnson
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Have you ever needed to create frames around multiple objects and found using the right-click → Create frame over-and-over to be tedious and a waste of your time? You're not alone!

After a collaboration between a few of us Miro enthusiasts, we bring you: Framer.

In short: select some objects on the board, fire-up Framer, and now you have frames around each of your selected objects.

 

Use cases

  • Quickly present (and collaborate on) a PowerPoint on a Miro board in interactive presentation mode – add your PPTX document to the board, extract all pages, select all pages, and Frame them.
  • Quickly frame and export a number of objects as a PDF, e.g., annotated PDF pages that you had already extracted.
  • Have another use case? Please, share it with the Community here!

There are a few catches...

  • This app won't be published in the Miro Marketplace, but you can download it using the direct link at the end of this post.
    • Why won't it be published in the Miro Marketplace? Well, to be honest, we didn't even try submitting it, but suspect it would be rejected as it is built on using Miro Web SDK 1.0. This was an unfortunate necessity in order to get the app working as the newer Web SDK 2.0 does not return the bounds (width and height) for document object types. And what does that mean? If you selected a bunch of documents for framing, without knowing the width and height of the document/object, we would have no idea how big it is and therefore could not properly frame it.
  • The Web SDK 1.0 will reach end of life at the of 2023, so unless the Miro Developer Platform team updates the version 2.0 to return document object width/height Framer will stop working near the very end of the year.
  • Framer will not put a frame around a frame (we heard it could an infinite loop in the space time continuum, leading to the destruction of the matrix).
  • And here's the other catch (last one, we promise!). Because the Web SDK 1.0 does not allow for binding/joining an object to a frame (so the object moves with the frame), after you frame all of your objects, you will need to move the selected objects just a bit, e.g., move them up and back down, to make them "stick" to the frames. But we think this is a small price to pay for not having to create every single frame.

Enough mumbo jumbo... let's see Framer in action!

In this example, I

  1. extract all eleven pages of a .pptx file
  2. Frame them using Framer
  3. and them move down just a bit and back up (to attach/bind them to the frames).

 

A few last notes

Because Framer works its way through all selected objects in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom path, you may want to make sure your objects are aligned accordingly. For example:

 

However, if your objects are not properly aligned, you may get something like this:

 

Tip: Use the Auto Layout tool to prep your objects for Framing:

 

Role the credits...

@Max Harper from Refractive Strategy – A HUGE thanks to Max for going above and beyond to build this using the Web SDK 1.0!

@Jonathan White & Hilary Jenkins from Hiro Studio for providing a number of app icons ideas (we started simple, but will sprinkle in some color down the road).

 

Install Framer

[Imagine a disclaimer here.]

https://miro.com/app-install/?response_type=code&client_id=3074457352378933679&redirect_uri=%2Fconfirm-app-install%2F

 

Feedback is always welcome 😀

Visual Thinker | Volunteer Community Moderator

12 replies

Peter Schwöbel
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Great! Long sought after. 🙏🏻

It's not which way the wind blows, but how you set the sails.
Harry Williams
Userlevel 2

Wow!! This is incredible! Really excited to try this out.

Harry Williams
Userlevel 2

Quick question: if I’m the admin for my Miro Team and I ‘install’ this associating it with my Miro Team, does this give all the members of my Miro Team access to use this tool in their toolbar? Or do I need to direct them to install it themselves?

Harry Williams
Userlevel 2

Just tried this out: what a dream! So easy to use. Thank you so much! 

Harry Williams
Userlevel 2

Also, thank you for highlighting the existence of the ‘auto layout’ tool. This is another game changer. 

Jonathan White
Userlevel 6
Badge +4

Love, love, love this!!! Will make creating presentations and exporting docs so much easier!!!!

Robert Johnson
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Quick question: if I’m the admin for my Miro Team and I ‘install’ this associating it with my Miro Team, does this give all the members of my Miro Team access to use this tool in their toolbar? Or do I need to direct them to install it themselves?

@Harry Williams - The app will be available to all team members, but they should need to do a one-time authorization of the app, e.g.:

 

Visual Thinker | Volunteer Community Moderator
Harry Williams
Userlevel 2

Quick question; I’ve just tried using this with an annotated pdf. However, it is putting frames around each individual mark made by the pen tool too, which is meaning it’s adding thousands of frames! Am I missing a step?

 

Many thanks,

 

Harry

Robert Johnson
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Quick question; I’ve just tried using this with an annotated pdf. However, it is putting frames around each individual mark made by the pen tool too, which is meaning it’s adding thousands of frames! Am I missing a step?

 

Many thanks,

 

Harry

Hey @Harry Williams! Yes, this is expected as Framer will put a frame around all objects.

To target only, for example, pages of the PDF, filter by Document:

 

And to remove all the unintended frames you created around your pen objects, use the filter, select frames, and delete all of the the frames and then repeat by filtering on documents only and then run Framer.

Visual Thinker | Volunteer Community Moderator
Harry Williams
Userlevel 2

@Robert Johnson Fantastic! Thank you so much for this. 

Harry Williams
Userlevel 2

@Robert Johnson , @Max Harper : wanted to say another huge thank you for this. I have been using this as a way of getting students to digitally write mock exams this week which I can then mark and export to PDF with ease: it is saving me so much time! I see a future where all the students in our online school sit their mock exams on Miro, rather than faffing around with printers and scanners. 😍

Harry Williams
Userlevel 2

“

  • The Web SDK 1.0 will reach end of life at the of 2023, so unless the Miro Developer Platform team updates the version 2.0 to return document object width/height Framer will stop working near the very end of the year.”

@Max Harper @Robert Johnson 

I am hoping that Framer might find an extended life beyond 2023. Can’t tell you how useful this has been for annotating PDFs and saving the result!

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