Right sidebar for all the stuff from information panel (statistics, toc, backlinks)

I agree with the thought about a visible and resizable info panel. It could be much easier and more information if you don’t need to bother the button every time invoking a panel. But also I agree that the minimalistic interface of Bear is Alma Mater for the Team and its philosophy not about geeky Obsidian with its “connection-map madness” and so on. But. You could take a choice to the user: f.e. we can activate it in the settings if we want a persistent info panel. Or maybe add a fourth layout to the existing three (left pane + list + editor, only list + editor, only editor). Adding to this info panel would be a great extension.

But first of all. If we speak about the backlinks pane we can exactly understand that there is no space on the left pane for this type of information. I don’t know how about you, but I have such a big amount of even first-level tags that there is no space for anything else. So it would be logical to move backlinks somewhere else. And the right info pane seems to be the most logical place.

I would say that the info panel would be the best place from where to invoke the 4pane-layout which let’s the info panel disappear as long as the fourth pane from right sidebar is not closed. Somehow it would be strange to have both at the same time in layout

@trix180

Here a design element from ulysses app. I am not going to build an idea around that. Maybe some of you will have one or not. It is just for demonstration

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Personally I fourth column won’t work for me as I very frequently use Bear along side something else I’m working on. I suppose as long as we have good keyboard shortcuts for hiding/showing columns, maybe I’d be okay with a fourth one as well.

Something that would work for me is to have a pane at the bottom of the main body note pain. I realize that might be tricky to design a good interface in that way.

And as far as complexity go, I don’t think Bear should be too afraid of options as long as they’re not forced upon the user. I think you Preferences screen is a good example of this. Some of it is quite advanced, but it’s not something people have to pay attention to.

I fully agree that Bear by default should probably not have a fourth pane visible, wither to the right or the bottom, but it would be so valuable for some of your users to have the option activate a pane consisting of backlinks.

Sorry to keep harping on this, it’s just that I’d really like this feature. I understand software development is hard, espescially when you’re trying to keep the UX simple and efficient like with Bear. And believe me: I really appreciate all the design and engineering work put into Bear. I absolutely love this app. It’s one of the most cherished apps I have. I helps me so much through the workday and beyond. So thanks for making it!

+1 to a 4th panel. Which presumably would only be a 2nd panel when notes are opened in their own window. That would be amazing.

Thank you.

Now, here I suggest an option combining the two types although I do not know if others will find this appealing.

Have the pop-up, and when ‘expanded’ or ‘docked’ stick it next to the window (like a forth pane) not detaching it altogether. Users will have option to keep it in dock or ‘default’.

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I am not sure if i understand: what do you mean with "stick it next to the window like a forth pane ? It is not part of the ui but an own detached window merged together with the main window? What if there is no space anymore on the screen to be sticked together?

@trix180

i am going through all possible layouts:

  • 1-2-3
  • 2-3
  • 3
  • 2-3-4
  • 3-4

The question is how to avoid layout 1-2-3-4 on opening the fourth pane and what happens if you close pane 4 in the above listed layouts. The answer to second question is easy: pane 4 just closes and layout 2-3 or 3 remains - that’s all! What else would someone expect? Actually the only problem is you have layout 1-2-3 and are opening the fourth pane. I still believe that four pane layouts are not friendly. In the meantime i think that ulysses app trick would do it: you keep the left sidebar but as popup that disappears after you click outside of it or even remove the mouse out of it

I thought while keeping the old pop-up design what once could ‘detach’ can now just go back in, or ‘dock’/‘pin’, to the original window and now it acts as is a fourth pane. Most people won’t bother with the pop-up and then also don’t have to stress about 4-pane being too much, but also power-users with long list can also dock. But then maybe I am making everything too complicated, and don’t think the transition animation can be elegant enough :thinking:

Why would you avoid 1-2-3-4? A note doesn’t take the whole width of the screen anyway because of text wrapping. Take a look at UpNote where you can have four panes open and it looks good, doesn’t feel like too much or anything.

Hello everybody,
quick update on were we are with this: After some toughs we realised the forth panel might indeed be a good solution for both backlinks and TOC but comes with an usability problem when the editor width is too small to fit both text and and forth column (@krssno this pretty much the layout problem you expressed, but with some differences). We are exploring the idea of threshold editor width and displaying the popover when width < threshold and the 4th column when the width > threshold.

This should also works on iPad’s views: Full size → 4th column, medium, small, slide over (split view) popover.

At the moment we are in the process of releasing a public Bear 2 macOS beta, the step after is releasing iOS and then work on the above. Along the way we’ll try to send mockups ideas of the 4th column here on the forum to get feedback.

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+1 on the fourth panel idea (or a resizable info panel?).

Just for reference, right now the info panel doesn’t have enough vertical and horizontal space. As a result, it doesn’t give me an useful overview of this document I’m currently working on:
Screen Shot 2022-10-07 at 15.03.50

The open mindedness about this issue from the team is just wonderful.

UPDATE: I’m now using the Bear 2.0 and the info panel has more vertical space:
Screen Shot 2022-10-07 at 20.42.03

It’s so much better.

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A simple shortcut to turn on a full height 4th column on the right with tabs for outline/backlinks/info would be ideal

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Count me as voting for having esp the Toc on a panel rather than a pop up on iPad.

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Is there still going to a fourth column/pane for the information panel on macOS? Or has that been dropped?

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We have not dropped this but we also have not found a satisfactory solution in terms of UI/UX. We’ll reboot this project after 2.0 release.

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That’s a difficult one I think… as most people are already saying, a 4th column isn’t very elegant. But here’s a case where the proper visible forth would really be useful for me. I created a kind of journal where I make daily notes. If the note contains for example a reference to a conversation with somebody I would make a link to this person’s entry (kind of an address book). When I look at the person’s entry it would be cool to see the backlinks immediately. Okay, I know Bear isn’t really supposed to be a CRM, but I enjoy it so much more than those dedicated apps I just use it for that.

@trix180 I’m glad it is not dropped. While the current panel solution is nice, and I understand the tradeoffs, I don’t enjoy working with it.

For example, when moving the Bear window around (or to another space/monitor), one also needs to manage another panel. Or restarting Bear does not open the panel. In my opinion, the vast majority of Bear users will rarely ToC or Backlinks as of today.
I guess these (plus more) are also reasons why the notes and tags exist in the sidebar rather than floating panel.

Some apps, like Ulysses do a great job with allowing for 3 sidebars (if the window size permits). I hope you can come up with a good UX and allow for it as well :sparkles:

Is there an update on this? It would be wonderful to have more visibility for Backlinks for those of us who use them frequently.

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We have been busy fixing bugs and making smaller improvements after the big 2.0 release, and we are now shifting over to spend more time on new features including the fourth column.

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