I am fully aware we all have different use cases for Bear and that we all have our own preferences for features to be added. However, since the devs are actively asking for feature requests I feel free to add my own two cents by advocating that Bear 2 is feature-rich enough. IMO, adding more features would nullify Bear’s core power: the creation and organization of notes, without friction, within a distractionless UI. Yes, this is the best markdown editor on the market.
Some of the features requested on this forum are very desirable. However, I just can’t see how Bear could do a better job than some dedicated applications already out there. Not because I doubt the abilities of the Shiny Frog team, but because it would slowly turn Bear into a Christmas tree.
Just to name a few popular feature requests:
Typewriter mode: Yes. Super convenient. But would the Bear result look as clean as the IA Writer canvas set to full-screen? I doubt it.
The ability to add a visual representation of information (Mermaid, etc): Wonderfull. But would creating these visuals within Bear be as fluid and intuitive as within, say, MindNode without ruining Bears intuitive UI? I’d prefer using an API or url to link these kind of applications to a Bear-note.
Workspaces: Neat. But how to achieve this without adding a layer of complexity to the UI? Evernote, Obsedian and Notion have this feature, but in my experience it requires a lot of clicking around to find the right information.
I hope the team will continue to focus on Bears own strengths. It is strong enough. Thanks.
Completely agree with you. The Devs should not overthink this. We all can agree that they’ve done so many things right in B1 that other apps still struggles to this day to make it happen.
I have no reason to believe that the devs would implement a typewriter mode that would not be clean. Apart from that bear is dedicated not only to note taking but also to writing. In that regard such a request is reasonable
Also here i have no doubt that such a feature in bear would not add complexity, just alone because it is not file based. I just have to take a look into obsidian to see what you mean. But that doesn’t speaks against the feature but against how it is implemented in other tools
I’m going to go with yes-ish. I mean I’m all for releasing bear 2 soon as, but on the other hand you manage to touch on two of the features that I’d most like to see in Bear…
Not sure about the iA comparison, but feel that typewriter mode is something that a lot of people would appreciate, and builds on Bears core competency as a note taking app. It is something relatively minor that could be added after release.
Workspaces on the other hand is something that would probably requires a fair amount of work, and is something I really find missing from Bear - but being able to silo personal and work notes would make Bear much more useful to me. Don’t see it as adding too much complexity either. Feels more like core feature that should be there for initial release though.
I wouldn’t say that Bear 2 is perfect, there are still some niggling bits and pieces as well as a fair few features that I’d like, but at some stage you’ve just got feature freeze and ship. It doesn’t have to have all of the features out of the gate.
With what we have now they could ship Bear and it would be a worthy 2.0 (the level of polish and thought put into Bear is, imho, head and shoulders above the competition), and then they could add the remaining features post release.
Fair enough. Let’s see what the team can do for Bear 2.x.
I just hope SF continue to keep it clean and sturdy. Personally I enjoy using Things 3, Apple Books, IA Writer and Mindnode for this reason, despite the fact that some other apps offer more features.
We’ll see how this all evolves. Most of us have been using bear for a few years, whereas we used traditional word processing applications and file systems + naming conventions for a few decades. I’m still figuring out how to best leverage these applications and the nuances of different apps for different usecases (eg i thought remnote would be The One, but it turns out i cannot effectively combine the concept of note-taking and flashcard making into the same workflow and learn better by making specific anki cards).
I have found that as i continue to have more projects in my life, i simply need a variety of organisational structures for all those various notes; atomic zeittle dogma isn’t a one-fit solution for me. And so i simply cannot have all my notes in bear. They acknowledge that “it isn’t everything to everyone, and that’s ok” and it is.
However, the lack of workspaces makes it impossible for it to grow with my needs. I will continue to use it for work, where it is INCREDIBLY useful and well-designed. But without the ability to have separate workspaces, i had to do other projects in different apps.
Did a few with craft, currently one with obsidian. Mostly like obsidian more than craft at present. But regardless of the “PKM of the week” appeal, the main motivation was simply walling off different projects so that when i search, i find what i am looking for. The good search was why i first started using bear, and the accessibility of finding what i am looking for is a large factor that keeps me in fe ecosystem.
if bear had workspaces i’d just stick with bear, but i’m not too fussed by it at this point, it’s kinda fun having an excuse to give some of the other PKM apps a proper go.
Just adding image resizing to the current bear version would still be a massive improvement for me…These “big bang” releases are making everyone wait for features which probably a minority needs while those which everyone would benefit from could probably be delivered in much shorter time…Not great and just makes people look for alternatives…
The feature you need is one that everyone would benefit from and all the features that all the others would like to have just a minority needs? However, you don’t have to make a deal with the devs since image resizing is already implemented. Just hover the mouse over the image and in the bottom right corner of the image a triangle appears: drag from that triangle to resize the image
It is implemented in bear beta, not the stable version and there is a reason the beta is not released for everyone. As for the feature in question - how about you search the forum for the most popular topics and see what comes back before trying to insinuate things about what I am saying with straw man arguments . The whole point was, the features that the majority of people (clearly by the demand) would benefit from could be shipped quicker than a full new version of the app with a lot of nice to haves which takes clearly years to develop
I keep thinking no new features are going to come, and then they pop up in the next beta Although now we’re in feature freeze I guess not.
Yup, I’m in the same boat; have work in Bear and personal documents in Apple Notes. Serially try different apps but basically Bear’s where all the important stuff goes due to it’s polish, stability and flexibility. Kind of want to move everything into Bear, but really need a hard separation between the areas, particularly for search.
They’re a few apps on the Mac that just have really high attention to detail and polish that makes them a joy to use; Things is a great example, although I begin to feel that they’re adding too many features to iA Writer (the actual editors still works great though).
Let’s see what the team can do for Bear 2.x.
Although now we’re in feature freeze I guess not.