I know you can use shortcuts to make templates which is what I currently do. Has there been any thought to built in templates within bear? Having to leave the app every time I want a template is awkward and kills any inertia I have while working inside bear.
Hello, we thought about having in-app templates but at the moment we donāt have real plans for them and Iām unsure theyāll be ever part of the main app. Shortcuts provide a great resource for advanced customizations such as templates and you trigger them using a keystroke or from the menu bar if you donāt want to leave the app.
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Can this be done on iOS or iPadOS? Everything Iāve been able to find is for macOS only.
Yes. I have a Daily Note shortcut for Bear (which works as a template) that I use on iPhone and iPad.
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Here is my workaround:
I created some template notes. I reach them in node ānotesā or āuntaggedā (it is important that these template notes are not tagged) where they are pinned. To use them as template i just a) duplicate them and b) tag them and remove the pinned status
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Are you able to trigger it within Bear or do you have to go out of the app to trigger it?
Ah, good question. Sorry I missed that detail. Thatās external in Shortcuts.
I also use the method @krssno describes.
Unfortunately, on iPad you canāt associate Shortcuts with keystrokes but I use the Shortcuts widget which I can trigger by swiping down to the lock screen and right.
P.S.
The iPad Shortcuts keystroke idea sounds good and Iāll send a feature request to Apple.
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@MrMentos You might know this allready, but alternatively, you could use the native text-replacement feature that part of MacOS and iOS to create a template. With this method you can stay within Bear, and you donāt even have to leave the current note youāre working on to look for a template-note. Should you be interested, hereās how it works:
- In Bear, create a template note, including formatting and tagging.
- In Bear, select the contents of the note (CMD-a) and copy (CMD-c).
- Go to the Apple menu and choose System preferences > Keyboard > Text replacements.
- In the new window, klick on te + sign to add a new line.
- Paste (CMD-v) the copied text into the right field (green arrow) and fill in the keystroke youād like to use (red arrow). In my case; typing āboeksamā triggers a template to a book summary.
- Hit āsaveā, return to Bear, test the feature and watch the magic unfold.
Be aware: setting this up only works on MacOS. For some reason the text replacement menu on iOS does nor accept a multi-line text input. Once set up though, this will work on every device. (Text replacements are synced! 
) Also, this of course will not work with images.
The beauty: With this method you can leave your fingers ons the keyboard without leaving the current note or switching to other applications. Zero friction. 
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Today I learned something. Didnāt know MacOS could do multiline text replacement! Thanks for the heads up 
Wow! Thanks! Didnāt ever thought about that.
I knew it could do single line but not multiline. Thanks for sharing 
I do the same. Works great.
I encourage other Bear users to build some Shortcuts to augment Bearās features.
Regarding having to leave bear to trigger a shortcut. You can trigger shortcuts via url. Bonus you can make into a hyperlink and it looks like a button. I have a note with multiple templates shortcuts. Works like a charm and even works on Mac.
- [Make Journal Note](shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=Journal%20Template)
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would you be willing to share some of your shortcuts? Iāve had a go at replicating sone snippets and the best that I can do so far is get the text added to the clipboard ā¦
Has anyone been able to get this to work with tables? Was hoping to add some tables with pre-populated headers but seems to not like it!
Iāve created several templates with table elements using text replacement. All mine seem to function well.
Text replacement seems to be the least cost path to templates in Bear. While I do hope ātemplatesā are integrated directly at some point, it works well.
Thats good to know! It works great for me on Mac but when I try it on iOS the table doesnt come out as a table but rather a lot of dashes and text I have attached screenshotsā¦ I should note I am using iOS17 beta so this may be the reason why
Confirming the same issue. Admittedly, Iām on MacOS most often and therefore had not encountered this issue. Same as you describe/demonstrated. Table MD is not being properly parsed from Text Replacement on iOS. Works find on MacOS.
The table syntax looks ok from the screenshots. If you manually add an enter after the table it gets rendered correctly?