krssno
April 14, 2025, 7:33pm
5
I think it would. It would add a layer of complexity in terms of side effects what had to be considered. Three years ago I requested the same. But alone the length of my reasoning exposes how clear the impact would be:
Take a look into the app „UpNote“. It has tags like bear and it has folders that do not exist in bear. Furthermore „UpNote“ offers the feature that the same note can be placed in more than one folder. That ends in the strangeness that there is no difference between tags and folders in terms of functionality. So what is the real reason people are asking for folders. Actually it is quite trivial and evident: it is not the functionality but HOW the folder structure is builded up.
In the logic of building up folders you FIRSTLY create the folder structure and THEN you place the notes in them. In the logic of building up a tag structure you in opposite FIRSTLY create the note and THEN by adding more and more tags you build up gradually and slowly the tag structure. And that is exactly the point why tag structure sometimes are unattractive and tedious.
So far as i can see there are two ways in bear to set tag: either manually inside the note or by creating a new note while a certain tag is chosen in the left pane. I would advocate for a further way and for the feature to create tags manually (means by context menu) in the left pane: „add tag“ and „add sub tag“. It is not just a bad habit to crate an organisational structure like that but indeed a big relief. In some cases it is ok when the tag structure grows with each tag you write inside a note. But often enough it is a great help to finish the building of the organisational structure BEFORE starting to add notes to it.
One serious point remains: To make that solution possible empty tags have to be accepted, means: the tag tree would show tags or subtags that are not written in any note. But i must say that i even would like that for other reasons too, f.e. after removing a certain tag from all notes it still remains in the popping up list after starting to write a tag.
The only added complexity i see is that it is necessary to differentiate between „removing“ a tag (removing it from all notes) and „deleting“ it (removing it completely from left pane). But i think that price is worth it. Last but not least: Empty tags could be displayed a little bit paled out to show that they are empty
Once you get used AND are willing to accept that limitation you indeed will find harmony. By the way: Someday Panda as a standalone app with file and folder based organization will be released. That might be the alternative to bear if someone prefers more a folder based organization. See here!