I’m quite new to Bear. I have an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I’ve been seeing some automations on the web that I think this community has been building. I’m looking for a simple principle, but I’m just unable to execute it.
My objective is to build a single note. For context, I use Typeless for dictation AI. I’ve undergone a series of spine operations, so I’m currently flat on my back, meaning dictation is the way to go.
I want to be able to record a dictation in the daily note (it could be anything) and have it time and date stamped with a separator underneath it. When I press the shortcut, the second daily jot should add underneath the first, creating a rolling note that I can then go in to action and delete.
From what I’ve been reading on the web and seeing on YouTube, it certainly seems possible. I just don’t seem to have the skills to build it myself.
You’re an incredible gentleman. Genuinely, I’m on my fourth spine surgery, so these dictation tools and being able to take notes are saving my life. I’ve built a startup that is two and a half years old, so being able to communicate is key. Apologies for the sob story, and thank you.
The steps I’m looking for are:
Press shortcut key and it opens ‘jot note’.
Use Typeless to dictate my ramblings.
Bear adds date and time automatically.
When I finish dictation a separator line is added so that when I press the shortcut next time the new dictation appears below, almost as a running journal.
I can share the name of the note and the identifier if that helps?
You click the keyboard button for Typeless and dictate the text which places dictated text into the textbox
Click Done
This opens a predefined Bear note, appends the date and time and the text and then places a separator after that.
What format do you want the date and time? 05/25/2026 10:14AM?
I can put a textbox at the top of the Shortcut and you can edit the shortcut and put the Identifier of the note in there. That way if something happens to that note you can just re-create the note and update the textbox with the new identifier.
Do you want the entry to have the date & time with a “-” then the text or have the text underneath the date and time?
UK English date format, please: day, month, year.I haven’t created a note or anything yet. I was waiting to see what feedback you required, and then obviously I would follow the steps necessary.
I think that was where I was getting a little bit lost yesterday because of my health problems. I’m on morphine and diazepam, so my brain is fuzzy and following steps is quite challenging.
I’m happy to be led by you. Sorry, I should have said this: if it’s easy for you just to build the shortcut and then it references the same note every time, then obviously I can just rename that note to whatever I need it to be.
As I mentioned, maybe adding note identifiers and so on (that’s my ‘thinking straight’ bit). I know this may be simple for you, but it’s my Achilles’ heel at the moment.
No problem at all. While I’m doing it, let’s get it exactly how you would like. I have several shortcuts that do similar things, so it’s just a matter of moving some things around.
If you want to create a new note each day, let me know and I can do that. I’m going to paste in a sample of what that might look like to see what you think.
Thank you so much for your help. I’ve only just realised that you put ‘change the identifier’ in one of your messages. I’ve just changed the identifier and I think it’s working perfectly, literally this moment.
The ideal (if I’m being picky and I can ask—and please tell me where to go if not) would be that the text starts directly under the date and the time, as opposed to on the same line. Then that would format perfectly.
I’ve just run four or five tests and it works fantastically.
Is it possible to—and I know I’m being really cheeky—have a 24-hour format for the time?
Is it also possible to have a headline? Although that really isn’t overly important. Ideally, the text would begin under the date and time, just so visually it’s easy for me (particularly when I’m on my wonderful drugs at the moment) to—excuse the pun—draw lines under things.
It would be helpful if you could make an entry exactly like you would want to see it, and then screenshot and paste it. Also, I don’t know how familiar you are with Shortcuts, but it might be handy for you to put the icon on your home screen.
Step 1 is to open the shortcut and click the eye with the circle at the very bottom of the screen
Step 2 is to click the Add to Home Screen button at the top and it will put the icon on your home screen. It might make it a little faster for you to run it.
Yes, scroll back up to the top of the conversation and just click on that link again. It will ask if you want to replace it. And yes, I’ve changed it to 24-hour time.
Here’s a screenshot. I used the shortcut that you made; I’ve added it to the home page and it works perfectly.
The ideal now would be if the narration could begin directly under the date and time. Could the date be in UK English format (day, month, year) followed by the 24-hour time format? Although, the 24-hour format isn’t really an issue.
I manually entered the date and time format so that you could see how it appears for us over here in England, and then ideally, visually, how it looks when it appears below the date and time, if at all that’s possible.
Ok. I have those done. Try downloading it again. Also, before downloading it looks like you want a line space after the date/time where I currently have it right underneath the date/time. I added the space like the example. Just confirm if there is a preference.
