We have an update for our private beta testers, and we’re still testing the note import and migration process from Bear 1 for bugs on the road to a public beta. Use Bear > Check for Updates to grab it.
Testers, this is critical!
To test note migration from B1 (after you’ve updated), please export all new and edited notes since you started the beta, then delete this folder in Finder—this wipes your B2 database and forces a new import from B1:
~/Library/Group Containers/9K33E3U3T4.net.shinyfrog.bear/Application Data v2/
To get there easily with the Finder, you can copy and paste that into the Go > Go to Folder… tool.
Make sure you only delete the /Application v2/ folder. The /Application Data/ folder is your B1 notes; don’t touch that! Import any new and edited notes and you should be good to go. Be sure to enable ‘keep original creation and modification date’ in the Options panel on import.
Now, here’s what else to test and look for in this update:
Editor
External links now display an icon for easy access to the editing panel
The ToC now scrolls the editor to place the selected header at the top of the note window
The Wiki Links autocomplete panel now allow links to headers in the selected note
Fixed an issue with folding lists
Tables
Wiki Links now work inside tables
Wiki Links and tag autocomplete panels now work inside tables
Pasting note or header links inside table cells now results in the correct link
Fixed a problem with list indentation and tables
Migration fixes
Fixed migration bugs for nested tags TagCons
Fixed a bug that replaced / inside URLs in some cases
Numeric tags (#1) are no longer converted into tags
Bear 1 tags with punctuation (#!) are converted to double # tags ( #!#)
Note List
In-note search now highlights all search results in the note
Improvements to “quote search” matches inside the Editor
Other changes
TagCon search in the edit tag panel now uses extra keywords to find the correct icon (english only)
Fixed a bug with the More (⋮) menu inside the Editor and export options
Changing themes no longer causes text size to reset
P.S for people who requested access to the beta in the last few days, you’ll receive all the information as soon as possible.
Migration now went even more smoothly, except for a couple of minor glitches:
The bear TagCon for #bear did not migrate, but gets rendered with default # TagCon.
This issue has been there through all the 2.0 betas so far. are not happy about this!
********#solv still get rendered as tag, but was not tag in Bear-1
-#tag get rendered as tag, but was not tag in Bear-1
Other issues/questions/requests:
Will there be a menu option to toggle ‘Auto Hide Markdown’ like in Panda?
Please allow resizing (height) of “Table of Contents” when “torn off”, and make this custom size persistent.
Unordered lists do not display markdown when in focus, so cannot see if -, *, or + is used.
Typing ``` still makes everything below into code, and if you don’t notice and exit the note, you will loose all images and attachments below that point!
Maybe automatically add blank line and the ``` closing tag below, when manually typing the code block starting tag? Just like when you use menu or ^⌘C shortcut?
1, The default DOCX export should have a bit more spacing above and below headings – maybe make it look more like the PDF export?
2. Also, why do quotes in DOCX exports get Center aligned?
Love the fact that all search results are not highlighted by default but I agree with others that the color used for results others than the first doesn’t pop enough.
Some TagCons for sub-tags got migrated, others didn’t. Very hit-or-miss.
I like that we have an “edit link” icon again but I preferred the one we had previously. Maybe it’s a matter of habit and it’ll grow on me, who knows.
I like that we have proper links to headers again but I would like to have an option to convert them to Obsidian’s version on import. Bear uses [[title/header]], Obsidian uses [[title#header]]. Given Obsidian’s impact on the whole space, having an option to export in an Obsidian-friendly way would go a long way since a lot of apps follow their lead.
I also don’t like the inconsistency with header links. If I “copy note link”, I get a wikilink. If I choose the option “copy link to here” within a heading, I get a Bear callback URL. I believe we should get the textual link instead or have both options present in both cases.
TagCon search is much improved but I’d still like to have the “default” name shown when I hover over a TagCon for a second or two. And there are still improvements one could make. E.g., “animal” finds all animals but “currency” doesn’t find all currency symbols. (Not that important IMO, but thought I’d point it out.)
I personally prefer / for headers as it is at much more convenient place for reach. I don’t believe Bear should follow the Obsidian way even though it is growing as a standard. Also many will get confused with its change. Finally and bery nit picky, I don’t like how it looks
You misunderstand. I don’t want Bear to change. I want an Obsidian-friendly export option. And as far as I know, these three things would accomplish that:
changing links to headers as I suggested
changing spaces in multi-word tags to dashes and removing trailing #
modifying note titles to be file-name friendly (which might be a good idea in Markdown export anyway)
The info panel will be subject to some UI changes in the near future which will address this and other issues.
This comes from Bear 1. Is there a use case for seeing the list markers?
I have to check with the other developers but if you close the ticks, change note and then return to the previous note the image is still there. This makes me think we forgot an hook and this is a glitch.
The keep tags option is tricky in Bear because has effects also copy and copy as (HTML, MD, …). I do agree it makes sense to have that option in the export panel, but since we don’t have that on iOS, at the moment, I think the main settings is the correct location.
The theming system of Bear can be used for graphical (pdf and jpg) exports. Will allow customizing existing themes by “subclassing” them and changing just a few color keys. However, a theme editor and custom export panels are required for this to work and considering what we have to do at the moment, this will be worked on after Bear 2 release.
The exported DOCX styling is pretty much what it was in Bear 1 but we are open to changes if more users feel is unexpected.
The fresh import upon upgrading worked flawlessly. My previous tag icons now match B1. The previous beta was a little buggy in that regard. Great job!
Loving everything about Bear 2. The external link display icon threw me off though. I expected the link icon, instead I’m seeing a pencil icon. I don’t know if that’s the correct icon that should be appearing.
I often use +/- in plain text for lists of pros and cons. If I import something like that into Bear, I’m losing information. So that would be one usecase.
I guess we could make a Word template and just apply that after export from Bear. That way we could also let Word make an auto generated TOC with links.
Other feature requests for Bear 2.1:
Option for inserting TOC (with links) in HTML and PDF exports would be great.
Like iA Writer’s: {{TOC}}.
Also option for adding simple page numbers to PDF export is very much desired.
(Now I have to add them in PDF Expert afterwards ;(
Is there a way to insert page breaks for PDF and DOCX export?
Tried with <p style="page-break-before: always"> but that only seem to work for HTML.
So workaround for now is to:
add that <p style=...,
export as HTML
open in Safari or Edge (my favorite browser on Mac and iOS these days)
Yes, often import MD text from Drafts or other Markdown editors where I use - as default list tag and then continue editing in Bear. Then there will be inconsistency in the tag character that will show up when I copy paste this in plain text in message apps etc. and I do prefer - from * in list for plain text. Getting an option for default list tag character, would partly solve my problem.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear here.
What I mean: if you accidentally type ``` without the closing tag, and then exit the note, you will loose any/all images/attachments below that point, with no way to undo!
Hopefully custom themes with subclassing could be edited in any code editor until the theme editor is ready?
are not happy about this!
