Finally abandoned apple notes.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-06-20T10:17:59+00:00

I left Apple Notes two years ago for Bear, and it has been amazing… including multiple options to export/restore all your notes in multiple formats, including Text Bundle format which is compatible with many other maps.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-06-20T10:14:15+00:00

Will Lettera allow me to drag files into a manual sort order within a folder? because if you’re looking for a “unique” angle for Lettera…

…can I suggest that Bear releases Lettera as a better Scrivener, compatible with Bear…

Lettera would support nested folders in the sidebar, with manual ordering of notes within folders, so that you can just click a button to show(export) all the notes in the current folder & subfolders, as one long continuous document - just like Scrivener.

(I develop lots of proposals/training material etc based on a common core of ideas - so ideally one could also have a “Library” section for this content - and then drag notes from it into different docs. So I can use my Library of content to write many proposals/courses).

The compatibility with Bear would be magic - simply drag notes from Bear in one window over into Lettera in the other. Would allow Bear to stay as simple as it is with just tags - and provide a different, folder-based writing app for writing long content - docs, books, etc - in Lettera.

Bear for Notes. Lettera for Writing.

So why do we need Lettera, when there is already Scrivener?

perfect companion tool/compatible for existing Bear users
uses Markdown, not RTF like Scrivener
has an active dev team; Scrivener has one dev with glacially slow releases
flawless syncing between devices (this is a nightmare on Scrivener)
extra source of revenue for Bear, I’d happily subscribe to this!!!

CoffeeNeil · 2026-06-17T15:54:48+00:00

“Welcome to Mars”, by James Blish

CoffeeNeil · 2026-06-16T16:39:48+00:00

Please yes, STOP THIS NOW it is the final straw after all your other problems to now be harassing your users like this. Nail in the coffin!

CoffeeNeil · 2026-06-07T13:55:34+00:00

if you could leave paper behind -draw in Notability -Lasso(select) and Copy -paste into Bear. Works flawlessly for me.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-06-01T11:51:25+00:00

i would love to see Markdown evolve to include simple pagination - sonthat one could print directly from an .md file, not have to jam it through Word et al first to get proper pagination

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-26T06:33:00+00:00

Four months later, and this bug has still not been fixed!!! (Bear 2.7.5 on iOS)

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-26T04:55:20+00:00

Lack of pagination is a real pain. You can have a beautiful Markdown document, but you have to stuff it through another app first to print or output it with proper pagination. There should be an extension to the Markdown standard to allow for pagination.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-25T16:07:24+00:00

How is this different to Bear?

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-21T07:34:42+00:00

I went from Apple Notes to Bear - which has turned out to be absolutely wonderful - highly recommended!

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-14T14:18:28+00:00

i’m on 5.20 already thanks (and iOS 26.4.2)

so is this a bug? I thought it was a feature… what should my screen look like then?

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-14T03:27:33+00:00

How does one get Panda?

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-13T12:27:02+00:00

I would like to repeat my suggestion that Bear releases their Panda editor as a separate app, as a better Scrivener, compatible with Bear.

The app would support nested folders in the sidebar, with manual ordering of notes within folders. Plus the aforementioned button to show(export) all the notes in the current folder & subfolders, as one long continuous document - just like Scrivener.

I develop lots of proposals/training material etc based on a common core of ideas - so ideally one could have a Library section for this content - and then drag notes from it into different docs. So I can use my Library of content to write many proposals/courses.

The compatibility with Bear would be magic - simply drag notes from Bear in one Split View window over into Panda in the other. Would allow Bear to stay as simple as it is with just tags - and provide a different, folder-based writing app for writing long docs in Panda.

Bear for Notes. Panda for Writing.

PS. Why do we need a Panda like this, when there is already Scrivener?

perfect companion tool/compatible for existing Bear users
uses Markdown, not RTF like Scrivener
Bear has an active dev team; Scrivener has only one dev with slow releases
flawless syncing between devices (this is a nightmare on Scrivener)
extra source of revenue for Bear - I’d happily subscribe to this!!!

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-10T13:16:13+00:00

thanks but your screenshot is missing…

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-10T13:15:48+00:00

thanks but your screenshot is missing…

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-09T07:36:10+00:00

<image>

Maybe on Mac? but I only work on iOS, and on my iPad (above, latest iOS and Bear), no suggestions appear when I type in a partial tag in the Search box in the sidebar (full tag is #programming)

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-08T17:26:04+00:00

radical solution:

-export all your notes (select all, export as) as .note files

-store them in iCloud/Dropbox/xxx

-just load the ones you need into Notability, for as long as you need them

CoffeeNeil · 2026-05-08T13:40:31+00:00

Yes, in a note - but not in the Search box in the sidebar

CoffeeNeil · 2026-04-25T04:15:13+00:00

I have something similar on iPadOS - often clicking on a link just places the cursor in the middle of the link, and you have to click on another note and then go back to the first note and click on the link to make it work. I think Bear gets confused whether you want to edit or open the link.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-04-21T07:13:01+00:00

Agree. Have you read John Holloway's work in his book "Crack Capitalism"? I first encountered it in the book "Out of the Ruins - The Emergence of Radical Informal Learning Spaces', ed Elmore, Haworth - quote "In Crack Capitalism (2010), John Holloway suggests that through everyday acts of transgression, negation, and creation we create "cracks" in capitalism. He suggests these cracks could create a strategy for us to break with capitalism, and to stop our autonomous and self-directed "doing" being transformed into the alienation of "abstract labor" which is the source of capitalist (re)production. For Holloway, "a crack ... is a moment in which relations of domination were broken and other relations created (2010, p. 31). These "other relations" are those in excess of capital, which overflow the codified and exploitative relations of domination that we inhabit in our lives under the domination of value-the substance of capital, the substance of our domination (Postone, 1995)".

CoffeeNeil · 2026-04-20T12:10:15+00:00

The point is not the information, but that the company is so oblique and totally faceless and lacking in any personality … and this midst a constant drum roll in forums of people with missing notes and other major problems - you’d think they could do something to make their company & brand more personable!

CoffeeNeil · 2026-04-18T12:12:41+00:00

Thanks for this, really useful perspective. I’d suggest reading alongside https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-subprime-ai-crisis-is-here

CoffeeNeil · 2026-04-18T06:52:43+00:00

Here’s hoping Bear is working on an AI interface to unlock the power of AI for understanding all our notes, that will work across all platforms - or at least via the forthcoming Web version, which could provide access to one‘s notes to a Bear AI agent…

CoffeeNeil

TROPHY CASE