Bear appreciation post

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Users are quick to point out problems and features they’d like (as I am), so I just wanted at the end of the year to post my appreciation to the app and our devs. I have actually come back from Obsidian, which until now had been my notes repository – but it was the app I needed to use, Bear is the app I love, and through some conversion hoops, I’m now full-in.

Bear’s UX and cleanliness are unparalleled – I enjoy so much the balance between simplicity and depth you are striving for, and I keep finding new tricks that make the app deceptively powerful:

  • Viewing the same document side by side (in the main window and in a new window)
  • Edit in place of documents on the Mac
  • So quick and snappy on all platforms
  • Quick capture on the go has totally replaced Drafts (and the ability to snap images and share documents to untagged notes is actually more powerful)
  • The intended limited feature set has put an end to the endless fiddling Obsidian requires
  • There’s so many hidden power through scriptability, URL schemes…
  • The cursor actually GOES were you intend it to, correcting its position accounting for the Markdown tags showing or hiding (THANK YOU - Obsidian devs said it couldn’t be done…)
  • Tags allow you to file things on the fly blazingly fast, no need to complicate things with folders
  • A tag that disappears because it no longer has notes comes back with its TagCon, and pinned if it had been pinned previously – Bear remembers my choices!

I love all the little things and care Bear has. I know the glacial pace of development has been severely critiqued for v2.0 but you took the time to get it right – it was so worth it.

Thanks for making my daily driver app!

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I agree, there are many features I wish Bear had or improvements. But since coming back in V2 have a two year hiatus I absolutely couldn’t be happier. It brings me so much joy every day to use Bear and I keep finding more and more reasons to try use it. Without a doubt the most used app (besides messages and safari) in my arsenal!

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OMG I totally agree with this. I absolutely LOVE the Obsidian, Logseq, Tana apps and communities but Bear is my daily driver. The user experience is buttery delicious, it gets out of the way in all the ways I need, it’s super easy to use and get going (ala the Apple Notes app), but it’s got deeper/geekier hooks where I need them.

And as noted, the quick capture ability is FANTASTIC. Notes on the go via mobile is super simple, and the Apple Watch app is BRILLIANT. I capture so much stuff — either new notes or appending existing notes — via the watch while on the go.

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