Today we’d like to share some progress on Folding with all of you. Folding has been one of the most challenging features we’ve been working on in Bear and we’ve always wanted to improve the user experience. However, it can be very challenging to ensure your writing experience remains distract-free. With all this in mind, we’d like to introduce our improved Folding:
Now, when you hover on the left side of the editor, you’ll spot those handy folding chevrons right next to your Headings (Yep, also todos and lists). To fold or collapse, simply click the chevron. When you are typing or the cursor is not on the left side, the chevrons will be hidden so you can focus on what matters the most: writing.
When will it be available? Soon in an upcoming version!
What about iOS? We are still searching for a good solution on iOS.
Take a look at the video below and let us know what you think. Happy Folding!
This is much better. I would use the collapse feature much more often but just a little inconvenient at current time. However, I use iOS and anxious to see how you will be handling that.
That looks great! While I will rarely use folding for headings, I am all the more pleased to be able to use it for lists.
But there’s something I don’t understand in the video. When unfolding headings, the header icon is not displayed and the cursor is not placed in the line, but it is both when folding. Why is that?
Option 1 - When folding has been enabled, a tap anywhere on the header will fold or unfold.
To disable folding or edit the heading, double-tap on that line to reveal the “heading number” on the left where one can invoke the pop-up menu, or tap into the text to edit.
Option 2 - Leave all current navigation and tap to reveal menus in place
When folding has been enabled, on the header, swipe right to left to unfold and swipe left to right to fold again (or vice/versa).
Folding doesn’t usually move the current selection, BUT if the selection is part of the text that’s going to be folded the editor moves it near the header (showing the header icon as normally would occur).
What is the difficulty of making an identical collapse logic on the desktop and phone?
We can take the Obsidian approach as an example: identical folding logic on both and . On iOS, you can show the chevron to the left of the title level when the user clicks on the title text (for example). And hide it as well as # characters for headers when you switch to another line.
Minimum offer - when you click on the title level, select the “Switch collapse” item separately to access it faster.
Also, minimizing with the keyboard seems too complicated. Compared to toggle in Craft or fold in Obsidian, more taps are required to achieve the result.
Minimizing with the keyboard seems too “complex” in the current execution. Compared to toggle in Craft or fold in Obsidian, more taps are required to achieve the result. In addition to the paragraph about the switch above, if the button for minimizing/expanding headings and items were in fewer touches, it would also be a good addition.
But ideally - if the collapse switch was like inside the note next to the corresponding elements similar to the desktop version, and would also be available through the menu that appears when you click on the title level and in the toolbar tools.
In Obsidian, it’s very hard to tap the right place to collapse. I always have to try multiple times - it’s not a good UX. In general - writing in Obsidian on an iPhone is not a good experience.
Found a little glitch: when you click on the right of the triangle, then the heading icon and the triangle icon are overlapping. You have to click a second time to bring the icons in order.
Been trying out different note taking apps for a while. I was previously using one that I liked that didn’t have collapsible notes. I just downloaded Bear yesterday, and really like the toggle folding feature. Happy to hear it’s going to get even better and easier to use in the near future.
Would it be possible to make it an optional setting? How about adding slight indents for different layers of headings or maybe different coloured font for each subheading layer. I think it would be nice to have the layers stand out more from each other with more than just different font size. Especially for lengthy notes.
But this is just a minor nitpick. Overall, I like the app and really appreciate the simplicity.
Is it possible to exclude Line Breaks from the scope of a single fold? I often use line breaks in between Headers, and the current implementation folds them in with everything else under the current header. It would be nice to have a way to mark ‘where’ the fold should end or have objects that could have this property!
I really like the chevron at the left for folding. Works great. When an item is folded, the 3 dots still appear at the right. Will those be removed since now with the chevrons it is redundant and takes away from Bear’s clean interface
I just tested the new iPadOS beta, and it works well. I also like where it is “turned on.”
However, after using it on both macOS & iPadOS, I agree with @bolive that the “three dots” denote a header is “folded,” seems redundant. Can that be removed now? Or, are you concerned about discoverability of the feature if that ellipses is removed?
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. On iOS, you can show the chevron to the left of the title level when the user clicks on the title text (for example). And hide it as well as # characters for headers when you switch to another line.
