Formations

Formations are the backbone of your playbook in Play Designer Pro. Before you can create a play, you'll need to create a formation.

To view your formations, head to your team's Formations page.

Create a formation

Creating a new formation is the first step in building your playbook. Here's how to do it:

Move a player

Here's how to move your players around the field:

Pro tip: If you hold down the shift key while dragging, the player will move in a straight line along the horizontal or vertical axis.

Set player color

Setting a player's color in a formation will change the color of all players with the same label (e.g. RT) across all of your formations.

Pro tip: To see an overview of all of your positions and to manage the styles and labels of all positions at once, head to the Positions section.

Rename a player

Here's how to change the label of a player in a formation.

Pro tip: To see an overview of all of your positions and to manage the styles and labels of all positions at once, head to the Positions section.

Method 1: Using the toolbar

Method 2: Double-click the player

Rename a formation

Need to change the name of your formation? Here's how:

Duplicate a formation

Want to create a variation of an existing formation? Duplication is the way to go. The name of the duplicated formation will be the name of the original formation with '(copy)' appended to the end.

Method 1: From the formations list

Method 2: When viewing a formation

Flip player or formation

Here's how to create a flipped version of a formation:

Pro tip: Creating a flipped version of a formation makes it really easy to create flipped versions of plays later on. See more on Flipped Plays for more information.

Print or Download a formation

You can download a formation as a PDF and then share it digitally or print it out. Here's how:

Delete a formation

Here's how you can delete a formation:

Warning: Deleting a formation will break any plays which use this formation. Before deleting a formation, make sure you have already changed the formation on those plays if you want to keep them.

Method 1: From the formations list

Method 2: When viewing a formation

If you have any questions, chat to me using the feature or drop me an email at aaron@playdesignerpro.com

Last updated: September 1, 2025

Formations

Create a formation

Navigate to your team's Formations page

Click the "Add Formation" button in the top right

Position your players on the field

Edit the labels of your players

Add a name for your formation

Save your formation

Move a player

Hover over the player you would like to move

Click and drag the player to a new position

Save your formation

Set player color

Click on the player you would like to set the color of

Click on the color picker tool

Choose a color

Save your formation

Rename a player

Method 1: Using the toolbar

Click on the player you would like to change the label of

Click on the "Rename Player" option

Enter the new label for the player

Confirm your changes

Save your formation

Method 2: Double-click the player

Double-click the player you would like to change the label of

Delete the existing label and enter the new label

Press the "Enter"/"↵" key on your keyboard to confirm your changes

Save your formation

Rename a formation

Open the formation you want to rename

Click the "Edit Formation" button

Edit the formation name

Save your formation

Duplicate a formation

Method 1: From the formations list

Hover over the formation you want to duplicate

Click the three dots menu

Click the "Duplicate formation" option

Your duplicated formation is now in your formations list

Method 2: When viewing a formation

Select the formation to duplicate

Use the duplicate option

You are now viewing the duplicated formation

Flip player or formation

Edit the formation you'd like to flip

Click on a player you would like to flip the position of

Tap the "Flip Player Horizontally" option

Repeat for each player you would like to flip

Update the formation name and save the changes

Print or Download a formation

Select the formation to print

Open the three dots menu and select "Download as PDF"

Share or print the PDF

Delete a formation

Method 1: From the formations list

Hover over the formation you want to delete

Click the three dots menu

Click the "Delete formation" option

Confirm you want to delete the formation

Method 2: When viewing a formation

Select the formation to delete

Open the three dots menu and select "Delete formations"

Confirm you want to delete the formation