Can we edit the order of the BIU keyboard on iOS?

Bear feedback
1

Is there a way to edit the button order?

The only items I use are in this order:

  1. H tags (H1, H2, etc)
  2. Lists (Bullet, numbered, etc)
  3. Line break/divider
  4. Undo/redo
  5. Photos library

Coming from Simplenote for well over a decade, I have no need for any of the other items. I use plain text primarily because I’m a Web Dev. Markdown is great and Rich Text in my opinion is for the birds.

After using every last app for iOS, I’ve decided Bear is the clear replacement for Simplenote since I need a secondary notes app. The only issue I’ve found is the BIU keyboard. I don’t like the order and need the ability to edit the order to match the way I work.

Currently, I have to:

  1. Click BIU
  2. Find the button
  3. Long press and wait

This is extremely inefficient when apps like Minimal have figured out a much better UI/UX solution.

If Bear had the same “above keyboard” UI as minimal but slightly improved (their redo/undo icons are towards the far right and cannot be moved which is beyond me), it would turn Bear into a much more efficient app. Either that, or allow me to edit the order of the buttons in your current menu, allowing me to hide the nonsense and pull items out of each menu (ie. H3 shouldn’t be two steps, it should be one because I use it more often than H1).

Back to the original question…

Can I manually edit the BIU menu to make it more efficient for the way I take notes?

2

I’d like to take it one step further: can we eliminate the BIU keyboard and go back to the old keyboard with the tool bar at the top?

3 Likes
3

I agree with you, @uberhosen

This is the best, easiest way to fix the issue for half the users. I think adding an option:

Select your BIU Keyboard:

  • Legacy
  • New

This way, the user is in control and the dev team that created the current BIU keyboard isn’t left with a “failure idea” on their hands. I’m sure some people like it, so let them keep it.

This simple update would take one dev a single 8hr shift to complete. An update could be pushed the following day to fix the only fatal flaw I’ve found within the app.

1 Like
4

In the old pop-up from Bear 1 every formatting option was two clicks away. In the style bar from Bear 2 the most common formatting options are just one click away and all the others are at most two clicks away. Where’s the advantage?

5

Disagree, but all good. I decided I can’t stand Bear in general, so I found a few others that work much better for taking notes. Cowabunga, current BIU fan. :flexed_biceps:

6

Unless I am misremembering, on iOS and iPadOS all of the formatting buttons were at the top of the keyboard, so things like bold, italic, bullet points, etc. were all right there. Now, I have to click in the BIU just to get to the formatting options, so everything is a minimum of two clicks when many of them used to be one.

In this thread, the devs said they went in this direction to help with discoverability, but I just opened half a dozen other notes apps on my phone, and they all have a scrolling toolbar that only requires additional clicks for things like headings, where you might have additional options to select.

This one has just been a sore spot for me ever since they updated to the new editor.

1 Like