Toggle Fold all at once?

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1

I can’t find the command to unfold ALL items and sub items in a note so I can see all of my data without having to go down the list and unfold each one. There must be one, it’s such an obvious thing. I know that all Headings can be toggled at once, but can’t see how to toggle everything. Can someone help?

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2

If you tap/click on an header icon you can find an option for fold/unfold all. Alternatively you can use the Format item in the menu bar.

3

Thank you trix180

I should have been clearer in my question. The trouble is it gets very complicated to explain what Bear is doing, but I’ll try. (This is on MacOs Sequoia by the way, latest version of Bear)

Imagine you have, let’s say, 4 headings.

Inside each heading is a bulleted list of 2 items

Inside each of those 2 bullet points is a sub list.

Now fold up all the sub bullet points and bullet points inside each heading and then the 4 headings themselves

What you see now on the page is just 4 headings.

Select the first heading and then Format/Toggle Folding

Result - only the first heading is unfolded showing the main bullet points but it does not unfold the sub points

Fold everything up again and select all the headings, and then Format/Toggle Folding

Result - the first and last heading is unfolded but not the ones in between, and again only down one level.

I can’t find a way, if you have a long list , to fold/unfold everything (ie, all disclosure arrows folded/unfolded)

I guess there is no way at the moment, but it is causing me quite a lot of work when I have a long list with numerous headings to find the bullet point I want, as I have to use the disclose arrow (ie unfold) each heading and then each bullet point and each sub bullet point etc at a time.

I hope I have made that clear! Maybe it can’t be done in Bear, or maybe there is something I’m not doing right.

4

Is there anyone out there? I don’t expect miracles, but if someone could confirm that it can’t be done it would save me looking. BTW enjoying Bear - use it more and more.

5

I can confirm the Toggle folding option is supposed to fold/unfold only the first level of headers and not recurively, so sub lists and sub-headers are not effected by this operation.

6

Thanks for the reply and confirming that it cannot be done. That certainly makes life difficult for me. Is there some way I can add that to a wish-list for Bear? To have a way to see a complete overview of everything on the page rather than having to click dozens of disclosure arrows one after the other, would seem a sensible thing.

7

If you want to see an overview of your note structure, you can use the Table of Contents in the Info panel.

8

Doing as you suggest doesn’t work. See attached screenshot.

CleanShot 2025-08-25 at 13.44.23@2x
CleanShot 2025-08-25 at 13.44.23@2x1134×1482 220 KB

9

You could use headings rather than bullet lists

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10

I know everyone has their own niche for note taking, but if this was my note, all of those first bullets would be H2. Being H2, I could copy link to a specific H2 for reference elsewhere. With that bullet list, you can’t. And when they are H2, you’ll have your TOC.

11

Thanks AdamRadPro. I get it now. Bear doesn’t fold/unfold bullet points automatically in the same way it does H2, H3, etc. I’ll construct my lists that way from now on. Pity Bear doesn’t “see” bullet points in the same way as headings though.

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