Open note in external app (such as MacVim)

Bear feedback Feature Request
,
1

Enable opening of single notes in a designated external application.

Use case: for long form writing, I prefer Vim. Bear will likely never have a ‘Vim mode’, so this would be very convenient. Many other apps offer ‘open in…’, so I’m guessing this should be doable.

I am aware of the VimAnywhere script, but that’s designed to append new text to an existing note. I can of course copy my note’s contents, then invoke VimAnywhere, put (paste) the contents in the MacVim buffer, and continue editing. But a single command would not just be more elegant, the note’s .md extension would also cause it to be parsed as markdown in MacVim, which would give us the appropriate syntax formatting. For now, I simply added set syntax=markdown to my .vimrc, because I hardly ever use a different syntax when writing.

2

This would be sweet.

I find myself copying notes to/from Sublime Text often because making big changes is so much faster for me there.

So an option to edit a note in your “default” editor would be awesome.

3

To whom it may concern (few of you, it seems). I ran into some problems with the set syntax=markdown workaround, and now added this to my .vimrc instead:

function! s:ForceMarkdownIfUnrecognized()
  if &filetype == '' && fnamemodify(bufname('%'), ':e') == ''
    setlocal filetype=markdown
    setlocal syntax=markdown
  endif
endfunction

augroup vimanywhere_syntax
  autocmd!
  autocmd BufEnter * call s:ForceMarkdownIfUnrecognized()
augroup END

The above is not advice. You’re on your own.

4

While it isn’t vim mode, if you have MacVim installed, you can:

  1. Select text in Bear (or elsewhere)
  2. Right click for contextual menu
  3. Go to Services → New MacVim Buffer With Selection

Once you’re done editing in MacVim, you can copy and paste back in Bear.

You can also get that via the main Bear menu → Services. While you’re there, note Services Settings… at the bottom of the menu. That’ll open up System Settings where you can customize the Services menu.

This is the especially cool bit — that’s the spot you can also set custom keyboard commands for the Services menu items. With the caveat that you’ll need a combo that isn’t typically already used in your targeted apps, you’ll be able to select text, do the combo, and be editing in MacVim. Then Copy, switch back, and Paste.

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