Tabs like Web Browsers

Long press on the Bear icon on the doc to access/re-open the main window

If you want my personal opinion I disagree. I guess that can work for Craft because it doesn’t come with multiple windows support but windows+tabs+3 columns is honestly something I can’t call good UI/UX. I think per-tab settings are very misleading if not properly communicated for each tab, which means dedicating UI for that, and only that, purpose. Maybe I’m not used to tabs outside browsers.

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I did not know the right-click on the Dock trick. :slightly_smiling_face: Maybe it’s just me, but I would argue that it’s quite hidden…

Tabs as a system-wide feature is quite a powerful and unobtrusive feature. It’s been available as a system API to every Mac app since High Sierra IIRC (4-5 years ago) – starting with the Finder, and every app using the native windowing model – so users are perfectly used to it.

Maybe putting the whole UI in every tab is not the right call – there might be a better solution to find – you are way better designers than I am! But I don’t think the current system works great either (you can lose the main window all too easily and multi windowing is clunky as you have to fish for the right window which can slip under other apps, etc.). Tabs are a great feature because they scale: you can have many (if you work on something complex and want the full power of the app) or none (if you are a beginner user), which I would think is in line with Bear’s philosophy.

Almost all apps work in a consistent way with tabs (Pages, iA Writer, OmniFocus – even Scrivener!) – there’s only Bear and Ulysses I can think of which have this strange “main and satellites” window model. Which would not be a problem, if I saw the use; but I fail to see a way where it is superior to the tabs model. If you are interested, I can list many UX issues I’ve run into with this “main and satellites” model.

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Ulysses has the feature to show two editors side to side. I never used the function but I think you can use tabs in ulysses, the usual macOS provided tabs that you can activate in ulysses. Maybe that I am confusing something. I‘ll take a look after dinner

With the arch browser you have some criticism of tabs because even in context of browsers tabs can be painful. One note in an open window is not a problem but a killer feature so that you can place a note beside any other app f.e. Actually the problem appears if you have multiple windows open, loose overview or have to drag the windows around

Really unsure if that idea is good but the first that came to my mind is an minimal form of window management in bear itself however that may look like. Or notes opened in own window are collected in one window that separates the notes by - guess! - tabs? The latter one in turn would make impossible to place two open notes side to side.

I retrace KillerWhales struggle as indeed it is a pain to work with all the open windows. But to find a solution seems to be damn hard

CMD + Click → Edit: That’s not correct! CMD + doubleclick is the way to go!

+1 I would also like tabs.

Tabs would enable me to jump between multiple notes easily. I use bear for work and typically have a five notes open at a time. Tabs are a great organizational tool for jumping between tasks or keeping information at your finger tips.

Currently, I either pin all my notes to the top or use separate windows for each note. Both approaches are not ideal. Pinned notes change their order based on modification time forcing me to scan the list each time. Separate window for each note is cumbersome to jump to the note I want (using the Window list sort of works but requires mouse input), and CMD+` is slow and often have to toggle through the entire list.

In most apps tabs allow you to maintain a specific tab order and they usually have keyboard shortcuts to instantly jump to a specific tab (or at least have shortcuts to jump to the next or previous tab). Having this would save me so much time.

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@trix180 Craft does have multi-window support in macOS that include the sidebar navigation. However, that does not negate your opinion. For me personally, because Craft has tabs - that is what I rely on exclusively - I do not use multi-windows because of this.
While my preference is tabs, on macOS, multi-windows works in a pinch. Thank you for considering.

@danmills7 @roar @KillerWhale

I made a proposal here for collecting notes or parts of notes in a fourth pane for multiple purposes. I wanted to wait after final release but the discussion here motivated me to post it now. Would something similar what the video mockup shows solve your problems with multiple open windows?

That is a pretty cool idea. But it doesn’t quite replace tabs for me. The reason I like tabs (but multi-window support does work) is I like having 2 or more notes open all day and frequently swapping between them.

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As @danmills7 said. I often work on sets of 5-6 notes at a time and want to cross reference them. Tabs would do the trick; your idea, while nifty, would not be enough in my case.

Are you expecting the tabs in the main window or in the standalone one? Does it have to be tabs or would f.e. a drop-down list with collected notes also be fine?

Solving such a problem is a challenge for every ui designer

Honestly, I’d advocate for a whole rethinking. Let’s go back to features. What I want / need (and what I think people want tabs to address) is

  • The ability to access a vast collection of notes easily in the app environment (Currently, you have to scatter windows, possibly losing some)
  • The ability to access my data in a ubiquitous way (Currently, you have to fish for the main window, which you can’t even identify if you have hidden the note list and tabs)
  • The ability to expand my data set (ie open a note in a new window) in a ubiquitous way (Currently, only the main window allows for this, which turns it into a file / note opener, instead of a work environment)

Tabs solve this. Obsidian has this sliding panel mode which is even better.
It’s not a new problem; there are models in place, and Apple even gave tabs to document-based apps system-wide.

Any solution that address the above points would work, but I would argue that the wheel has kind of been invented already. :slightly_smiling_face:

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@trix180 what @KillerWhale says here, summarizes this request/feature nicely. I understand this is not something you can spend thought cycles on right now, but it would be great if you could add it to your list of future considerations. :pray:

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I’m using Raycast only because of this extension: Raycast Store: Bear Notes


This extension is super fast. You can assign a shortcut to invoke it from anywhere, Bear doesn’t even need to be open.

It’s a very good workaround to deal with the limitations mentioned by @KillerWhale.

It’s working with Bear 2.0 already and it’s free. Alfred also has a nice extension (GitHub - drgrib/alfred-bear: Streamlined note searching and creation for Bear using Alfred) but its not working with Bear 2 yet.

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If tabs are added they would have to be implemented in such a way that they do not interfere with those who don’t use tabs.

Tabs are one of the things that made Obsidian incredibly clunky to use for me. I could never get away from them, things always opened in tabs when I didn’t want that.

I think that might be a tall order UI wise, but certainly not impossible.

The system design of tabs in macOS is made so as to be unobtrusive. In some apps (OmniFocus) you can never know it’s actually there.

If I am focusing on this it’s because it’s a system wide feature which should be easy to understand for users and not too costly to develop. It’s not my favorite - Obsidian’s sliding panes is my preferred design - but it would not be in line with Bear’s simplicity and streamlined design. I believe macOS tabs are :slightly_smiling_face:

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That’s an excellent example of what I’m talking about. I’m a OmniFocus user and I never even see tabs (they’re hidden by default). That said, I think maybe the design of Bear might make that more difficult? Either way, shows a good design.

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Hi folks,

I don’t want to end a nice conversation, but we currently have no plans to add tabs in Bear.

There was a lot of discussion about tabs at the beginning of the Bear development, but we ended up deciding that tabs don’t bring enough value for the majority of our users and as adding/maintaining them is a non-trivial amount of work and so we prefer to focus on other features.

Nothing is forever and we might change ideas in the future, but don’t hold your breath :slight_smile:

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Thanks for letting us know! I will admit I’m bummed, but it’s very enjoyable to be able to discuss features and use cases.

Maybe the promised quick switcher coming some time after release could fix the UX issues I’m talking about :wink:

Those UX issues have always bugged me as well, and the solution I’ve always hoped for is the ability to hide the note editor pane, leaving you with just the tags list and notes list, with an easy way to open up a selected note in a new window, such as spacebar.

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With tabs you don’t get a side-by-side view of two notes. I frequently need that.

I don’t think tabs and split view are mutually exclusive.

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