5 ways to get more out of Bear

Bear may be one of the most elegant text editors out there, but don’t let its simple interface fool you. The app is packed with powerful features. Here are five that every Bear user should get acquainted with.

1. Organise with tags
To keep your notes sorted, Bear uses tags rather than folders. This approach might take a moment to wrap your head around but, in fact, it gives you a lot more flexibility. For example, instead of a note having to live in a single folder (like To Do), assign it multiple tags (#todo #work #urgent). And you can add a hashtag on the fly without interrupting your writing flow. Simply type it anywhere in your note, no additional clicks required.

2. Style like Markdown
Bear stores notes in plain text, but you can still add styles and formatting: like bold, italics, headings, links and lists. You just have to learn a few simple text notations.

To italicise a word, for example, surround it with forward slashes (/hello/); for bold, use asterisks (*hello*). And create a bulleted list by starting each new line with an asterisk.

One advantage of using Markdown is that there will be fewer formatting quirks when you transfer your writing elsewhere (whether a blog post, email or PDF). It’s also easier to move your notes to another tool for additional editing.

3. Pin the important
If there’s a note you need to access quickly, pin it to the top of the Note List. Simply control-click any note and then select Pin to Top.

4. Get the stats
Bear can display helpful note statistics, like the word count, number of paragraphs or even an estimate of how long it will take to read. For this info, just click the ⓘ icon in the upper right of any note.

5. Stay attached
Bear notes can handle more than text. Add photos and other attachments by dragging them into a note. With a Pro subscription, attachments under 250 MB will sync across all your devices.

Bear Markdown Notes

Create, Tag, Export, Encrypt

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