I’m so stoked for the Bear 2 freeze, I love the new app in so many ways, and I understand this might just be locked in already.
But I wanted to inquire — why in the world does the BIU styles bar appear at the bottom of the editor, covering up note text, when there is a perfect, blank area for it right next to the BIU button?
How would you handle the fullscreen mode?
Hmm I’m not sure what you mean? That blank area at the top, next to the styles bar button, exists in full screen mode too, so it would go in that same spot at the top.
you are right. i should have thought twice before posting
I support this suggestion for the position of the stylebar in an update of Bear 2.0
To be honest, i also don’t like the position of the stylebar, but at the same time i don’t know where a better place could be. Actually i still prefer bear 1 solution of a popup for several reasons: a) overview over all commands without some of them being nested in a submenu, b) distraction-free, c) acts as small cheat sheet for markdown syntax and hotkeys
YES! The popup solution in bear 1 is what got me up to speed using bear shortcuts within just a few days. I believe its an essential feature that will help new bear 2 users get used to the keyboard shortcuts for all of the new features and goodies in bear 2.
The current styles bar feels obstructive to the point that i avoid clicking the B/U button.
Oh shoot, those are good points about the Bear 1 styles bar. I see the benefits for sure.
But if the devs decide that’s too big of a feature adjustment right after they declared Bear 2 to be feature-locked, I hope that at the very least the simple movement of the new styles bar to the top might be considered.
I think at the top bar better ui elements could be placed such as title of the note or some navigational tools to browse through the history of opened notes. The main point is: once you use a command actually you wish the command bar to disappear as it stands inside the editor without being needed the most time.
On the other side: just because we do not like the style bar it doesn’t mean that the majority of the user also dislike it. I know that bears devs try to avoid options but in this case something like a poll would be interesting to find out how unpopular the style bar is actually. Indeed it is not a big deal to live with the current implementation if most user like it
The stylebar under in the note gives problems with popup choices.
So I prefer it on top.
I hear what you’re saying, but note titles don’t exist in Bear. It feels like it could be a little redundant to repeat the first header a second time, in the UI.
Other brand new features appearing up there also feel a little bit superfluous to me.
I would imagine the vast majority of users would be most familiar & comfortable with style controls being up top, as that’s by far the most common UI design practice. But I’d also be curious how others feel.
I would not say note titles don’t exist in Bear. They clearly exist (because you see them in Notes sidebar). But they are defined by first line of note. The suggestion to view this note name (= first line or heading) is very useful when you scroll the longer document. = if you have longer notes. Users with only short notes do not appreciate/need it. But for me, it would be very useful. Of course, that note title could appear in the top bar only when you scroll a little bit down (so that you are not already viewing the original note title above). (Which is a solution I believe to have already seen in some similar app but I am not sure in which exactly).
Ah you’re right, those are good points, and sounds like a good solution. I’d be happy with that utilization of that space too. I still think the styles bar makes the most sense there though.
Seeing as no one on the team has chimed in, perhaps this isn’t being considered anyway. 
