As much as I like competition, Bear has been working on a new editor for quite awhile now with prominent functionality covering what’s on the requests site. Here’s a link: https://bear.app/alpha/. Given the developers’ recent entry into the writing app market, I do not think the lifetime subscription scheme ($35.00) is representative of the prospect of longer-term future development. What a great start, though. The app is really clean.
Bear is one of those apps that looks really simple but there's actually A LOT going on, with a lot of flexibility and functionality. Here are a few things I've done that I've found helpful:
- One mistake I made early on in using Bear was not learning its search operators. Once I took the time to learn these, Bear became so much more useful.
- Linking notes can really help organize things. One thing I do now with work projects is to have a "table of contents" page that contains links to all the relevant notes for that project.
- Maximize Bear's awesome tagging feature. It's really easy to make bulk changes to tags once you know how. I keep my tags organized by keeping the number of parent tags to a minimum, and then using nested tags to further refine categories.
- It's really hard to lose to do items because there's a smart list for notes with open to-do items at the top of the far left column. Honestly, I didn't know this was there for some time, but if you keep track of to-dos in Bear it is really helpful.
The beauty of Bear is that it's really flexible. I too tried Notion and hated it. There was too much going on. I like Bear because it can be as simple as jotting down a quick note, or more complex that allows me to create a wiki-linked outline for a work project.
I found it really helpful to spend some time perusing Bear's website to learn about all the functionality Bear had under the hood and really start using that. Learning how to use Wikilinks has been the biggest game changer for me. There's definitely an element of creativity involved, but some people on YouTube have great ideas.
indeed, LaTeX causes loss of productivity even among experienced users; I would never recommend it for note taking.
plaintext or markdown should be sufficient. there are some 'nicer' note organization apps like bear.
and of course, the one thing that does empirically help you learn is spaced repetition.
Unless I’ve misunderstood what you’re saying, you can return to previous note as follows: - iOS: https://bear.app/faq/Quickly%20navigate%20notes%20on%20iOS/#quickly-navigate-notes-on-ios - Mac: option command back-arrow
Today shows you the notes that you have created/edited today. You won't be able to move any notes out from that view. Notes will disappear from that view/list when a new day comes. Think of it as a smart folder that displays notes you edited today.
Here's some explanation from Bear's official website.
> You can search for a #tag
excluding its nested tags with !#tags
So in this case, searching !#root
is what you need.
This page is a useful reference!
TL;DR We don't know anything about you and we are very happy with this.
Yes, the privacy badge is self-reported however, developers stating something not true my face consequences such as the removal of the app from the store.
Concerning the subscriptions, the app store API allows us to verify the purchases without knowing the AppleID or any other sensitive user data. To sync the license cross-platform we use Apple's CloudKit.
CloudKit offers a private and public "space". The public space is meant to be readable by developers and any user within the app while the private part is accessible only by the user in posses of the right iCloud account. For Bear, we only use the private part of CloudKit to sync notes, photos, and files (and licenses).
Theoretically, Apple can read the data stored on iCloud/CloudKit because it's in posses of the encryption keys used, and while we can all agree with Apple being one of the few major IT players who proved to be very sensitive to privacy concerns and we all trust Apple more than a random developer, we also built an encryption layer on top CloudKit's for addressing such concerns.
Crash logs are the only data we collect because we think they are essential for addressing mission-critical bugs in short times. Luckily crash logs don't tell us any sensitive data connected to users' identities.
More info about Bear's privacy here, but feel free to ask anything here.
Easy. From the Bear FAQs:
> Todos > ⇧⌘T - Toggle Todo > ⌥⌘T - Mark Todo as completed > ^⌘T - Mark todo as incomplete
So, ⌘A
to select everything, then ^⌘T
to mark everything incomplete.
Yes you can do something like that.
If you put your extra information under a header (Like H1) you can click the H1 (or long press on iOS) and a menu will pop-up with the possibility to copy the link to this header.
Just use this link as a normal permalink after.
Check it out on the Bear Help
Can you use the @date search term to narrow down the results? @date(2021) will only show you results from items edited in 2021, @cdate(2021) shows only notes created in 2021. It’s not a way to sort search results, but it might help.
More search syntax here: https://bear.app/faq/Advanced%20search%20options%20in%20Bear/#special-searches
Just look on the FAQ page linked on the subreddit's sidebar.
I'm getting really tired of seeing people come here to complain about things that have been repeatedly addressed by the dev team (the most frequent being "will there be a web app version?" and "why isn't there a version for Android/Windows?".
They do things in their particular way and on their preferred timeline. If you don't like that, you'll just be frustrated.
Well no but kinda. Bear uses Markdown so you can use certain symbols to format text, like bulleted list, bold, italics, headers etc.
If you type:
some /italic text/
It actually formats it to: some italic text
Not sure if you already knew this so sorry if I’m explaining the obvious. You can find the syntax here
The email that I received mentioned “folding content” as a new feature. I’m not sure what this exactly means though:
“Folding content (hide stuff you don’t need to see)”
You can download an alpha version of Panda I think, and see for yourself. https://bear.app/alpha/
As far as I'm aware the only way to do this is to create a URL here which you can have on your desktop to quickly change
If I understand what you want, you can actually open Bear (or navigate in Bear) to certain tags, using Bear's URL builder: https://bear.app/xurlbuilder/open_tag/
Type in the tag you want, and generate the URL. I have then created a link in a note in Bear with this URL. Clicking on the link opens that tag.
Yes, actually. You kinda sound like you don’t even use the app.
https://bear.app/faq/Code%20Snippets/Show%20code%20highlighting%20in%20your%20code%20snippets/
Literally this link discusses all of the languages that it supports syntax highlighting for.
So again, I’m confused by your comment.
Hi there,
Regarding the web version, we're happy that you are interested in this, but it's more of a long term goal.
For expectation management and to be transparent, it will be implemented further down the line.
We first have to complete and implement the new Editor for Bear. A quick plan for the web can be seen here: https://bear.app/faq/What%20about%20Bear%20for%20web,%20Android,%20&%20Windows/
Hoping this helps, but if you've any further questions let me know!
Yup, ran into the same issue. As a workaround until either bear or ios fixes things, the x-callback url scheme of bear still works, doc
Bear has a help page to assist with this: https://bear.app/faq/Import%20&%20export/Migrate%20from%20Evernote/ It suggests adding tags to your notes in Evernote based on the Notebook they're in.
Instead of creating multiple posts, it might be good to just have a single post with what you're looking for and the scenario you're trying to accomplish. It might also be good to go over how comfortable with computers you are and the OS/Platforms you're working with.
If you need reliable syncing, a lot of editors or services will handle it for you. Inkdrop, Ulysses, Bear, and other offer a built in sync. But, it means you're locked into their platform, and if they abandon it, there's a chance you lose your data. Some can sync Markdown and Images/Media.
Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and OwnCloud offer syncing of files and folders. Depending on the needs for encryption and privacy, they may not meet those requirements. If they disappear, files synced to your computer are not lost and it's easy to move to a new service.
Git provides some more control, but it requires manual committing, pushing, and pulling of changes. Each copy has full history and can stand alone. For syncing between devices, you need to find a host. Different hosts will offer different levels of privacy and encryption, but if the host goes under, it's easy to change hosts and keep the history.
I use Git for things where I want to keep long-term file history, and then I use DropBox to sync notes where the history can be lost.
Hi there,
No, not yet.
As we are still working on the Editor, they are not within the current version of Bear at the moment.
They are available to test in the Alpha here: https://bear.app/alpha/.
We've no official ETA for that release, but we're making good progress! 🐻
I’m afraid not. Shiny Frog chose CloudKit for syncing for a number of reasons, including privacy. You can see more here https://bear.app/faq/Sync/Syncing%20&%20privacy/#information-about-syncing-and-privacy
Are you aware of this ability to navigate backwards? It’s not exactly what you’re asking for, but might be sufficient for your needs.
https://bear.app/faq/Quickly%20navigate%20notes%20on%20iOS/#quickly-navigate-notes-on-ios
Yes. Here are the macOS keyboard shortcuts. The ones you're looking for are:
⌥⌘← - Navigate back in visualized notes history ⌥⌘→ - Navigate forward in visualized notes history
And on iOS, here are the not-very-obvious gestures:
> To access access the Quick Nav menu, tap on the note Editor with two fingers. The menu will appear with options to move back and forward through your recent notes. You can also move to the top and bottom of the current note. > > You can also use these navigation options even faster by swiping with two fingers from any edge of the screen. Swipe right to go to your previous note, swipe down to go to the top of a note, and so on.
Thank you.
After posting I saw this link: https://bear.app/faq/Import%20&%20export/Export%20your%20tags/
On iOS, just long-press the tags and it gives you an option to export all the notes under that tag. This is what I was looking for.
Right click on Bear.app, select Show Package Contents, look under Contents>Resources for Panic Text Theme.theme, and open in text editor of choice. You'll see the RGBA codes for each color element such as Background Text Color, Base Text Color, etc. Edit those as you want and save (I suggest making backup copy of original file first like Panic Text Theme.theme.orig.
Note that the revised theme file will be overwritten with the next update, and you'll need to revise it back to what you want. So keep a backup of your revised file.
When you say 'Bear cloud' -- you mean iCloud, right? That's how Bear syncs its data:
from https://bear.app/faq/Sync/Bear%20is%20GDPR%20compliant/
>Out of the box, Bear only stores your notes locally on your device. If you subscribe to Bear Pro, Bear uses Apple’s iCloud service (which is GDPR compliant) to sync notes between your devices.
Under Bear's model you aren't paying for storage per se, you are paying for the ability for it to sync data using iCloud. You are still responsible to pay for any iCloud storage that Bear might use in addition to paying for the data sync, so it doesn't seem likely that they would do something like what you are suggesting as it would complicate their code for syncing and doesn't gain them anything.
Ah, I see. This is something we are working on though!
Opening the Styles Bar will be possible in Bear when Bear and Panda are merged.
Panda is the test version of the new Editor for Bear, which can be seen and tested here: https://bear.app/alpha/
The shortcut ⇧⌘Y is used to toggle the Styles Bar in Panda.
Hoping this helps!
Is using Bear's URL scheme a possibility for you? You can get the title of the currently selected note with bear://x-callback-url/open-note?selected=yes&token=xxxxxx. I use it all the time in my scripts and with Keyboard Maestro.
You'll need to use your own token in that URL and you can get from the Help menu in Bear (https://bear.app/faq/X-callback-url%20Scheme%20documentation/#token-generation). See more info at https://bear.app/faq/X-callback-url%20Scheme%20documentation/#open-note.
They’re making a few tweaks to the Markdown implementation (mostly adding features, there is a change in how horizontal breaks will work) in the new editor. You can play with that new editor’s beta releases too. I couldn’t recall if they were totally deprecating Polar markup in the new editor or not.
I use Bear to take meeting notes (tagging them accordingly), and use markdown to format my to-do lists. Then when I need to check existing tasks, I select "todo" in the sidebar that shows any notes that have action items. I don't know if this is sufficient for your needs -- I also use a bullet journal to keep track of my most important tasks.
Best/easiest/most straightforward way would be to get Marked (also available through setapp) and create a custom css theme that matches your company’s official style sheet.
Then write in Bear as usual and when you’re ready to export, instead of exporting the note in Bear, choose Preview in Marked which will open it in Marked. Then just choose your company’s style in Marked and export to DOCX.
Once the CSS is created it’s super easy and fast and absolutely worth the money.
The easy workaround for this is to create (and pin) a note for your saved searches, and in that note, place links for searches you want to save, using the following: bear://x-callback-url/search?term=
.
You can make these Markdown links and title them so as to keep things neat. And of course you can use all the usual search operators, as indicated here.
So, for example, to find notes with a tag and some text:
bear://x-callback-url/search?term=#tag text
Or to find a phrase, use " ":
bear://x-callback-url/search?term="this exact phrase"
Hi there,
Many thanks for taking the time to leave a post, and for your support of Bear.
Marked 2 is actually an app we’d recommend with use for Bear, as noted here: https://bear.app/faq/Extra/Preview%20your%20notes%20in%20Marked%202/ !
On point 1
Bear’s data is stored in SQLite files. While you can peruse the data, it’s not in a user friendly format and it can be easy to cause data loss if you do something wrong. An explanation of where to find the file and warnings on accessing the file yourself are here: https://bear.app/faq/Where%20are%20Bear's%20notes%20located/#where-are-bears-notes-located
This isn't entirely what you asked for, but
Hi, the selected
parameter requires the API token to be passed as an extra parameter of /add-text
. The token ensures selected
it's not used against the user for stealing data.
Hi there,
We are still working on the web version but there are a lot of moving parts within it.
Certain elements within this are dependent on the completion of other elements to move forward.
Therefore, it’s impossible to give an accurate release date. We also don’t want to provide a timeframe for users and not be able to deliver it.
This could produce disappointment and puts pressure on the team to deliver something by a certain time frame, perfect or not.
We want to get this right and we don’t want to disappoint our users.
We've made progress by releasing our Alpha Editor here: https://bear.app/alpha/, which is a step in the right direction of the web version.
This is as this Editor will be implemented within the web version.
Therefore, it will need to be completed first before we have an ETA for the web version 🐻
reading this article it doesn’t look like it unfortunately, I’d love for there to be a table of content generation function in bear based on headings
https://bear.app/faq/Advanced%20search%20options%20in%20Bear/
Hi there,
For timings, you could use the X-callback-url scheme as seen here: https://bear.app/faq/X-callback-url%20Scheme%20documentation/ to create a timer shortcut. Reminders are a popular request amongst users, therefore, i'll add your vote to this 🐻
I think mobile OS choice doesn't matter a ton for Mac users, but here are a couple benefits I personally got from Mac + iOS:
> this opens me a whole new comprehension of the book..
Awesome!
> Are your areas filled with projects in Things?
I have an area called Projects. I don’t use the projects functionality built into Things 3 so this area houses a list of my projects as ordinary to-dos. I’ll use the notes section of each to-do (project) to store a link to its corresponding Project Support Material in Bear.
> If you have two actions for a project, and having prioritized them, how do you structure these 2 actions in you Things app?
I’m not sure what you mean by “prioritize” here. Next Actions generated by reviewing my Projects list go into my Contexts. Sometimes a project will generate multiple actions that do not need to be completed sequentially. If there’s something I can’t do yet but I think I might have to do it after completing my current next actions I’ll make note of it in the project support material.
Bear is sleek and easy to use for not taking. It's Mac/iOS only and has no web access. Loads up super fast, unlike Notion.
Still using Notion though. Patiently waiting for it to become faster!
Please give our sync troubleshooting guide a shot. We have a variety of solutions to problems like this: https://bear.app/faq/Sync/Sync%20Troubleshooting/
I use Bear on MacOS. There's a free version. It has a markup editor with auto-color coding for like 30 languages. You just type:
```python/java/golang
here's some code that will highlight automatically
```
I have found that taking notes by hand helps me learn better. But for specific syntax reference material I use this.
You can find the X-callback-url Scheme documentation here:
https://bear.app/faq/X-callback-url%20Scheme%20documentation/#x-callback-url-scheme-documentation
You can use the open-note command in a hyperlink, and you can use the identifier of a note instead of its title in the open-note command.
My Bear Clipper experience has been excellent, nearly as good as that of my Evernote account.
Here’s where I learned about Bear Clipper
https://bear.app/faq/Typography%20options/
Mac, iPad, and iPhone Font size Line height Line width - on iOS line width’s effects will be visible only on iPad and some iPhones in landscape orientation Paragraph spacing
You can also learn more about nested tags on our blog. We have a dedicated tag for it!
Unfortunately, we don't have a workaround for this situation in Bear right now. The devs want to keep it simple and focus on iCloud for sync. However, we do have a web app coming with Bear 2 that will work on desktop and mobile.
Another option if you don't need the Sidebar, library, and Note List features of Bear, our sibling app Panda might be an option for you. It's currently in alpha/beta testing, but it's basically the upcoming Editor from Bear 2 as a standalone app that edits documents from Finder. We've been using it as a testbed for some of the many new features coming in Bear 2, but we'll eventually release it as an official app once Bear 2 ships.
We've heard from some people who already use Panda on their work machines and save everything to a cloud folder. Then once they're home they bring all those notes into Bear either manually or with an automation like Apple Shortcuts.
I hope this can help. Out of curiosity, can I ask what your work's reasoning is for allowing Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., but not iCloud?
A Table of Contents (ToC) feature is coming in Bear 2, and you can get an early look at it with our Panda alpha. It’s auto-generated based on headings in the note, H1-H6.
Panda is basically a test bed for all the new features coming just to the Editor (so no Sidebar or Note List). The ToC has a dedicated tab in the redesigned Info Panel, up in the top right.
You can grab Panda for Mac here. I think the iOS version is full for now: https://bear.app/alpha/
I use a Shortcut that gets me a Quick-Note-like feature by using the Bear URL scheme. The Shortcut is just this URL in a Text box:
bear://x-callback-url/open-note?id=YOURNOTESIDGOESHEREBLAHBLAHBLAH&new_window=yes&edit=yes
Then there is an Open URLs action that opens that URL.
In some ways it’s better than Quick Note since this will open your Bear “quick note” with the text insertion at the end of the file, which makes sense to me if I’m adding notes to a file. (Quick Note seems to open with the text entry at the start of the file.)
On the Mac version of Shortcuts you can assign a keyboard shortcut under the Shortcut details area. (It won’t let you assign Globe-Q but you could do Globe-shift-Q maybe.) You could use some other utility for that like Keyboard Maestro or Raycast, but it’s nice to be able to do it with built-in features. It seems to work in all circumstances, even if Bear is closed.
This doesn’t sound like normal behavior, there might be something else going on here. Would you mind contacting support, and share more details like the device, number of notes, etc?
On iOS, you can find your note count by pulling down the main Note List at the top.
I've tried to submit the issue via https://bear.app/contact/ form, but each time it was finishing with error ;-)) -- however, in error message there was also email address for Bear support [email protected] to which I finally sent the same details about observed problem.
hope it's ok and you got it ;-))
FSNotes has full Markdown support, integrates git, and supports a number of Markdown extensions such as Mermaid, LaTeX and MathJax. It's free with the option to donate (Apple only)
VS Code can also support these by installing a couple of extensions
Not sure how well either supports exporting to Word, but you could open the Markdown file in Bear or Panda, which has good export options (also Apple only)
I would recommend exporting one or multiple notes as Bear Notes, then sharing them to your wife’s iPad through AirDrop. If exporting multiple notes, they’ll be sent individually and Bear on the iPads will add them each as new, individual notes.
A great trick for this is Bear’s support for drag and drop on iOS + our Drop Bar. It’s a clever button that appears when dragging one or more notes from the Note List. Learn more about the Drop Bar here.
TL;DR:
Let me know if this works or if you need more help!
Option 1 - note/heading links: You can link notes together, and even link directly to H1 - H6 headings. Some people create lists at the top of their note for different sections or chapters or whatever within that note, then link everything so it’s one tap to get around the note. To link a heading in a current note, type [[/ (that’s two left brackets and a forward slash), then either arrow up/down through the results or type the first couple letters of the heading you want. You can link other notes in Bear with just the two brackets, no slash.
Option 2 - tags and nested tags: If you want to work in separate notes, some kind of system of tags and nested tags could be an option. They’ll be collected together in the Sidebar, easy to move between and search for.
I hope these help.
We don’t have a Table of Contents feature yet, but one is coming in Bear 2. You can check out an early preview with our Panda alpha test version of just the Editor.
A workaround for now is that you can get links to headers (H1-6) and create your own ToC in notes by adding those links to text, probably a list near the top or wherever you like.
I've passed this idea along to the team. For now, one trick you can do is Quick Look images in notes. On iOS, while viewing a note, simply tap an image to open it full screen (on iPad, make sure the Sidebar and Note List have slid off screen). On Mac, click an image so it's highlighted, then press the Space bar.
As far as whether images can be resized alongside text, it's a trickier problem to solve than you might think. Currently, images are displayed at their max available size, capped at the width of the column (window) you're working in.
Zooming a small image beyond its resolution can start looking pixelated quickly (which many users definitely do not want). Plus, coming in Bear 2 (which you can preview now with our Panda test version), you'll be able to manually resize images, which further complicates this.
I'm not saying this won't happen. But resizing images comes with a number of unique constraints that don't exist for text.
We might have a Search Operator trick for you! To view notes of a parent tag but not its children, add an explanation point before the hashtag, in this case !#travel.
Be sure to check out the support doc I linked, as we have a variety of other features and tricks in there to help with situations like this.
I create my templates using the bear link generator then place those links in a note for templates. If you click the link, it creates a new note with the content, you can set the tags, title, body, etc.
You're all good asking here u/LyraBaelaqua! As for folders versus tags, we get this question every now and then. Yes, we seriously considered this when designing Bear and decided we prefer tags for a variety of advantages over folders.
To summarize a few: tags are more flexible, they can be added anywhere in a note (coming in Panda: even in headers!), a note can appear in multiple tags instead of a single folder, and more. Plus, tags have the basic behaviors of folders: they're a single object in the UI that 'holds stuff,' and tags can be nested like folders.
Besides, if we changed to folders, now the Sidebar would just be a bunch of folder icons instead of pound signs/hashtag (#) icons. In terms of helping a tag or folder stand out, that seems like a lateral move, in my opinion. But! We have good news for you.
Did you know you can change the icons for tags the Sidebar? Check out this blog post about our TagCons and how to set them. We even set quite a few TagCons automatically based on keywords in your tags. Check out our full list of TagCons and keywords. Finally, learn how to nest tags in Bear for fun and profit (to be clear: we cannot guarantee any actual profit just from nesting your tags).
This answer got a little long, but I hope it helped! Please feel free to ask any more questions.
For me it's gotta be Bear.
It's a combination of the design, features and quality.
Quality
That the iOS app is excellent as well also makes it unique!
I could nitpick and sometimes I try other, but I just end up being even happier with Bear every time I try to alternatives.
I recently posted about this one markdown editor on TestFlight called Panda, made by the developers of another popular editor called Bear. All my markdown files are in a share on my omv server and this uses the native file browser. It’s a great mobile editor even in alpha and it’s become one of my most used apps recently. Not exactly a cross platform app but it doesn’t have any issues with me using obsidian on all my other devices.
I’d also like to shoutout the native shortcuts app since it can do things like run ssh commands and move/edit files (with limitations naturally). Can’t say I rely on them for any of my services but it’s easy to use and fun to play with. I’ll plug r/Shortcuts while I’m at it.
Do you mean you have tasks in multiple notes, and you'd like to combine them all into a single note? If so, Bear doesn't have that option right now, but there are a couple ways to easily find or filter for notes that have tasks in them.
The easiest is probably to click the arrow next to Notes at the top of the Sidebar, then go to the Todo subsection. We also have a few Special Search operators you can quickly use in the search box at the top of the Note List. Do these help?
I don't think this article said anything other than tags are a messy way to organize your notes and that's okay.
I'm actually not a fan of tags.
The use of tags falls apart as soon as you get to 10+ tags and anything smaller is no different than a folder structure.
The cognitive load to maintain tags is useless in today's age of search. Forget tags and just add any keywords to your article that you think will help you find it in future searches.
This is much more helpful than trying to think of the right tag. You can say this is the same as tagging and it is, except it doesn't carry any extra expectations. Bear.app for example uses tags as your left side menu, which adds unnecessary visual noise.
Tiago Forte has a great article on why tagging sucks.
(2) https://bear.app/faq/Where%20are%20Bear's%20notes%20located/
tldr: Don't even think about accessing the notes database.
(4) Ordered list? select the items, then Menu > Format > Ordered list
Otherwise, rows of what? Tables are not supported yet.
(6) Don't think so.
(7) There are several "themes" to choose from, see under preferences. Different themes will have different text and highlight colours, but you can't choose your own.
Unless, if you're a bit techy, you could make your own theme. Start with an existing one at
bear.app > show contents > .theme files
These are xml files, so they are editable with a plain text editor. You'll need an understanding of rgb colour numbers. You would need to save your edited theme somewhere safe and restore it after updates. Probably not worth the effort.
(9) You must use # for tabs.
Panda is our alpha test of the many, many new features coming to the Editor in Bear 2.0, but it's just the Editor, no Sidebar, tags, etc that make Bear what it is.
We recently announced our intention is to ship Bear 2.0 and then, probably sometime after, release Panda as an official standalone, document-based Markdown editor.
Latest update, but as is the norm for the dev, no ETA is given for any upcoming feature. From the sidebar:
>We generally do not share ETAs on upcoming features, as we feel they cause more harm than good. Making and supporting apps is hard, and we don’t want a surprise or delay to let you down because of an arbitrary due date. Features are done when they’re done.
For me the most important tool is a full coffee mug 😁
Seriously though, my 2c would be a tool to organize your notes. A lot of people use Notion, but it's not my cup of tea. I prefer a combination of Bear (for private notes) and Slab (for the documents I want to share). Compared to Notion I find Slab to have a more generous free tier, plus I prefer how it looks.
As others have noted here, Bear might not be your solution since it needs a central storage system by design (for iCloud sync and other reasons).
BUT! Panda could be an option for you. It is currently a document-based preview version of just the Editor features coming in Bear 2.0. However, I heard from my friend's sister's dog's third cousin that Panda might live on as a standalone app once we ship Bear 2.0. 😎
No, it's not possible to have a last days/weeks sidebar item but you can make use of the lastXDays special search. You can easily turn this special search into a link to be used in other apps.
bear://x-callback-url/search?term=%40last7days
Or you can make use of Bear's Search Widget.
Hi there,
To search for all notes that contain one of two keywords you can use the OR option.
For example: a search like recipe or errands will find all notes that contain both of those terms.
More advanced search options are noted in here: https://bear.app/faq/Advanced%20search%20options%20in%20Bear/
Hmm, this is odd! Could you reach out directly to our customer support team here: https://bear.app/contact/ to investigate further. Please include all the relevant information and steps you've tried so far!
You might try enabling Bear’s Markdown Compatibility Mode, which—as a bonus—tells Bear to use the Markdown standard rather than Bear’s proprietary Markdown offshoot.
Hi there,
We've gotten some reports of this with the Apple Watch Series 7.
Could you try to reboot your phone also? If the issue persists after this please contact our customer support team directly here: https://bear.app/contact/ to advise.
Then allow me to change your world — there are several really useful search terms that can be combined to get the results you’re looking for: https://bear.app/faq/Advanced%20search%20options%20in%20Bear/#special-searches
Hi there,
At the moment we have two sizes for images in Bear, original and thumbnail.
We understand that this can be limiting. This is why we’re adding a resize option into Bear.
The resize feature can currently be seen and tested in Panda here: https://bear.app/alpha/
Hoping this helps!
Ah I see, this is a sign up for our Beta Sleuth.
This seems to be an issue with ad-blockers. It's preventing the GDPR checkbox to show.
Could you try disable the blockers and see if this helps?
Also, you can access Panda through the downloads here: https://bear.app/panda/
Hi there,
For our supported import formats and instructions, see here: https://bear.app/faq/Import%20&%20export/Import%20your%20notes/
Hi there,
Regarding images not syncing, this can happen when the images are not uploaded from the other devices - the reason being one of the following:
The following steps can be taken to force the sync between the devices.
If the issue is still persisting, please reach out directly to our customer support team here: https://bear.app/contact/ to investigate further and advise.
Hi there,
An alternative option to this and something that we do have available is widgets.
How to use widgets can be seen here: https://bear.app/faq/How%20to%20use%20widgets%20with%20Bear/
This alternative allows a note to be present on your device without the actual app having to be open.
Hoping this helps!
Hi, this technique you mentioned I've been using it too, actually every technique described in the Bear's official guide Advanced search options in Bear I've tried. But none of them support blur search on tags.
Take your tags as an example:
#tagparent/subtag/info
#anotherone/bla/info
Can you type #*/parent# to blur match #tagparent/subtag/info tag, or type #*/one# to blur match #anotherone/bla/info tag? Unfortunately, the search result list is empty.
Hi there,
Regarding the above, this can happen when the images are not uploaded from the other devices - the reason being one of the following:
The following step can be taken to force the sync between the devices.
If not and if the images are still not syncing, please reach out directly to our customer support team here: https://bear.app/contact/ to investigate further and advise.
You say you're a developer, so I think it should be possible to solve this with some serious elbow grease.
Bear's notes are stored in an SQLite database. You could write a program that runs via a cron job, say once an hour, that makes a backup of the notes right from the database and then git commits them for safe storage. (Grab and export all notes that have changed in the last hour.)
Equally, you could use Bear's built-in export, but then you'd have to interrupt yourself to do this every now and then. But your momma didn't raise you that way. (And nor did mine me.)
Hi there,
To search within Bear, simply use the search bar in the Notes List.
You can go to the top right or pull down in the Notes List on iOS to access the search bar.
You can use the following shortcuts for search:
For more advanced search options in Bear, check out here: https://bear.app/faq/Advanced%20search%20options%20in%20Bear/
Hoping this helps!
Hi there,
This is the symbol for a conflicted note.
Information on conflicted notes and why they occur can be seen here: https://bear.app/faq/Sync/How%20Bear%20Pro%20handles%20conflicted%20notes/
One of the two conflicts must be deleted for the issue to be solved.
If the other conflicted note isn't showing up in the Notes List, it could be in trash or archive.
If you've any other queries or questions, let me know as I'd be happy to help!
Hi there,
Currently, Bear supports the strikethrough design for completed todos, and this is not amendable.
However, Panda has (and future Bear will have) the faded design for completed todos, see and test it here: https://bear.app/panda/
Hi there,
For navigating notes on iOS, check out: https://bear.app/faq/Quickly%20navigate%20notes%20on%20iOS/
On macOS, you can use the following shortcuts:
⌥⌘← to navigate back in visualized notes history
⌥⌘→ to navigate forward in visualized notes history
Hoping this helps!
Ah, I see. The only current way to keep the note but hide it from this type of search would be to archive it.
How to archive can be seen here: https://bear.app/faq/Hide%20notes%20with%20the%20Archive/
As this isn't exactly what you are looking for though, i'll pass on your suggestion to the development team to have a think about!
Hi there,
Panda is available to test out here: https://bear.app/panda/
Word count and other elements are included in the information panel like in Bear, but it is not linked to goals.
If you've any other questions about it, let us know, we'd be happy to help!
Hi there,
The closest we have at the moment is our forum, see here: https://bear.app/panda/
Updates about Panda, general feedback, and bug reports are all housed over there!
Use it liberally! And make sure you have a mechanism to easily access (all of) your notes from time to time. I’ve found that coupling Shortcuts with Bear is a good way to take advantage of its’ URL schemes.
Unfortunately, Apple changed how keyboard accessory views work with iPadOS 15. In short, iPadOS decide where Bear's toolbar should be placed and, for external keyboards, the only choice is placing it above the suggestion bar. Unfortunately, this generates awful user experiences when the suggestion bar is collapsed.
Along with the new editor and Bear 2.0's new virtual keyboard, we are working on a solution closer to what Notes does, but for the moment I can only suggest using the expanded suggestion bar or relying on the keyboard shortcuts.
Hi there,
The ability to hide markdown is coming to Bear. This feature is currently testable in Panda here: https://bear.app/panda/
Panda is the test version of the new Editor for Bear, once completed it'll be shipped into Bear via the 2.0 update.
Hoping this helps! Any questions let me know as i'd be happy to help.
Hi there,
Many thanks for taking the time to leave us a post!
Regarding RTL language support, this is a feature that will be added into Bear.
We are currently testing this feature in Panda, which can be seen and tested by users here: https://bear.app/panda/
Hoping this helps!
Try exporting one of those files as a .textbundle. You can check to see if the images are there by right clicking on the exported file, selecting Show Package Contents, and seeing if the image files are in the Assets folder.
Regardless, you should probably go ahead and contact Bear support by completing the form found at the link below to see why only the image placeholders are showing in the note: