# Mac Request: Bear menu bar extra / quick note

**URL:** <https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492>\
**Category:** Bear feedback\
**Tags:** features\
**Created:** [March 4, 2025, 9:47am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492 "2025-03-04T09:47:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rennarda](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/rennarda/32/88_2.png) [@Rennarda](https://community.bear.app/u/Rennarda)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 9:47am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/1 "2025-03-04T09:47:08Z")

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I’d really like a way to have quick access to a particular note via. a menu bar extra. I’m imagining it would pop open a Bear edit window pinned to the menu bar icon.

The reason for this is during my work day I keep a running log of things I’m working on, and I have a single note that I update regularly during the day. At the moment this just floats on my desktop, but it would be super handy to have it accessible via the menu bar.

An alternative would be to override the built in Mac OS Quick Note feature - but I don’t think there’s an API for that?

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**Author:** ![Mina-Adel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mina-Adel](https://community.bear.app/u/Mina-Adel)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 11:04pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/2 "2025-03-06T23:04:10Z")

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I think you can achieve that by:  
1- Creating a shortcut using the Mac shortcut app to open this note, then add it to the menu bar.  
2- Use Better Touch Tool ( "highly recommended!”)

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**Author:** ![Rennarda](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/rennarda/32/88_2.png) [@Rennarda](https://community.bear.app/u/Rennarda)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/3 "2025-03-07T14:09:28Z")

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No not really, I’m talking about having the actual note pop out of the menu bar and be accessible from anywhere. I think you’re talking about having a shortcut that opens the note, which isn’t what I really want.

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**Author:** ![Mina-Adel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mina-Adel](https://community.bear.app/u/Mina-Adel)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/4 "2025-03-07T18:14:19Z")

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I think it can be achieved easily with BetterTouchTool. It’s a bit tricky though. You’ll need to add the Bear Notes app to the menu bar, and when you click on the icon, it will pop up similar to Tot. You’ll need to create a snap area, but I believe it’s quite easy with BTT! :)﻿ You want to do it similar to Tot, right?

 ![CleanShot 2025-03-07 at 20.13.48@2x](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/bear/original/2X/4/42994d1f7631f5d78612e8bf0198a4db37b30c8a.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![roar](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/roar/32/223_2.png) [@roar](https://community.bear.app/u/roar)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 2:42pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/5 "2025-03-08T14:42:12Z")

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The Bear team – “Shiny Frog” have made a bunch of great Shortcuts actions and [X-callback-url Schemes](https://bear.app/faq/x-callback-url-scheme-documentation/), many more than most other apps I know.

So making use of those, you could achieve something similar to what you ask for with a combination of:

- [Bear Daily Note - Apple Shortcuts](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/5e51a10c6eb649fe997790d6f08fe6b7) - Opens your special note in a separate window.
- [Moom.app](https://manytricks.com/moom/) - Sets size and position of bear singel note window and is triggered in the shortcut above.
- [Badgeify.app](https://badgeify.app/) - Place any app or Apple Shortcuts saved as app, in the MacOS Toolbar. It’s free and much easier to use than BTT.

Example video:

Moom Window setting used by shortcut above:

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/bear/original/2X/a/afb120434d02803bfadb27b55db75880e9d5b6b9.jpeg)

Or skip Badgeify and use the built-in Shortcuts menu on Toolbar (two clicks instead of one), or also trigger this shortcut with your keyboard shortcut of choice:

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/bear/original/2X/5/57f94160cc4cff5d7a41e44b154f216a4a218fbe.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![Rennarda](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/rennarda/32/88_2.png) [@Rennarda](https://community.bear.app/u/Rennarda)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 9:18am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/6 "2025-03-10T09:18:05Z")

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Thanks for the detailed response. I actually have a daily note shortcut already, which tags the note with the date in the format year/month/day - which is super handy.

What I’m looking for is something like [Tot by the Iconfactory](https://tot.rocks) - you can configure it to pop out of the menu bar like so:

 ![Screenshot 2025-03-10 at 09.15.02](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/bear/original/2X/d/d4a3e3b3edafdadf43ae148eacc30b8ae78659a1.jpeg)

Obviously, I could just uses Tot, but I’m lost without Bear’s Markdown editing 😕 !

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**Author:** ![Rennarda](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/rennarda/32/88_2.png) [@Rennarda](https://community.bear.app/u/Rennarda)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 9:20am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/7 "2025-03-10T09:20:10Z")

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Thanks, I missed this reply. Tot is exactly what I’m looking for (see my other reply above this one).

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**Author:** ![Eleanor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@Eleanor](https://community.bear.app/u/Eleanor)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/8 "2025-03-15T01:20:41Z")

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Check out sidenotes by Apptorium as well

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**Author:** ![Angel101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c37758/32.png) [@Angel101](https://community.bear.app/u/Angel101)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2025, 7:52pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/mac-request-bear-menu-bar-extra-quick-note/15492/9 "2025-09-18T19:52:26Z")

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how do i get it to pop up as a separate window every time? when i run the shortcut it doesnt open the daily note it just opens bear
