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 every Bear user needs to know.

1. Organize 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 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.

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

One advantage of using these Markdown-like tags is that there will be fewer formatting quirks if you transfer your writing elsewhere—whether a blog post, email, or PDF. It’s also easier to move your notes to another program for addditonal 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. (On iPad and iPhone, swipe left on any note for this option.)

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 ⓘ button at 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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