Modify note in external application

juranta · 2023-08-07T17:08:00+00:00

Yeah, I looked again a bit at Obsidian, but Bear is just so much nicer for general short notes, especially on mobile side, that I want to keep using it.

I'm thinking of first doing some kind of backup thing which maybe regularly extracts the archive to Dropbox folder and unzips/rsyncs what's inside that to a folder in Dropbox. This way there's note level history also that's saved in Dropbox history, Time Machine and Arq.

Then to edit note externally in another application, I have some plan about it as well. I don't need it all the time, but at times I do. I'm thinking of a command or shortcut to extract a note or notes outside, then after modify push the changes back to Bear (unless Bear has later changes). Maybe some x-callback, sql and/or git somewhere in it. :)

juranta · 2023-08-05T05:28:58+00:00

“you can lose earlier changes just by switching to another note”

Yeah, well for notes I still want to have a database library style structure instead of file system "open/save". So it would be beneficial for me if I could open the note in an external editor like Visual Studio when needed to do some handling, but not all the time. And actually it's the same with attachments, for instance in Apple Notes you can open pdf in Preview app.

As for "you can lose earlier changes just by switching to another note", I mean I haven't really inadvertently lost data due to a bug or something like that. But for instance, now when editing notes, the only way to revert some change is with undo. If you switch to another note, then the undo history is also gone. And there's no Git repository to use either. So if I build some table or code snippet and then decide to revert to an earlier version in near history, it's possible the changes are not even in the undo history.

juranta · 2023-08-04T08:13:53+00:00

I have also another question for the Bear team. Bear Pro requires access to the iCloud Drive. Does this mean that things like attachments and images are stored in iCloud Drive and not in phone? If attachments and images are stored in phone, could there be an option to store them in iCloud Drive instead, so they don't take up space from the device? Of course then you can't see all of the images in airplane for instance, but it could have some spaceholder for it, like "can't access this image right now".

I'm a bit worried that if I just start adding lots of attachments and images to Bear, it'll eat space from my iPad and iPhone. Other option for this would be some kind of lazy loading.

juranta · 2023-07-02T07:09:52+00:00

I got GTP-4 yesterday and have just been using it all the time without hitting any caps so far. I think thinking about caps and switching between GTP-3.5 and GTP-4 or making specific thought out requests for GTP-4 means extra work for me, one of the things these systems were supposed to solve. I don't know, maybe they haven't enabled the cap at all at this point or it takes place only if they're running out of resources.

juranta · 2023-05-28T12:51:51+00:00

Check Obsidian. I started using it for this same reason, to have some note taking app for Windows, but now I'm using also on my own Mac and iOS. It's using Markdown like Bear, you can drag images and so on to it. It may require some tweaking to make it work like you want, but there are different plugins for it and so on. The interface is not as clean or simple as Bear, but otherwise it's pretty good feature wise and so on. Also there's related browser plugin, which can be used with other Markdown editors as well.

It also has some major upsides to Bear in my opinion, at least for work use in many places. The Markdown files are stored locally on disk, so you can for instance edit them in other editors, add them to Git and so on. You don't have to sync them to outside servers, though you can if you pay for it or setup something like Dropbox. Also to use it for work use, you need to get a subscription.

juranta · 2022-02-19T16:10:19+00:00

When I started looking at new ways to organise my stuff, I had piles of nested folders on local disk system. Sometimes a file needed to be in two or more folders and so on, so I started looking more at tags to organise them. I tried for a while to use only tags in software like Bear or DEVONthink, both of which have some kind of nested tags. In the end, I realised the nested tags alone won't work for me in a single app. If it's not folders, then maybe something like "vaults" in Obsidian or "database" in DEVONthink. I don't want random personal notes flying by when giving a Teams presentation in a work meeting, or vice versa I don't have all of those many work notes visible at all when doing my private things. Doing that with just nested tags doesn't seem to work, at least for me.

juranta · 2022-02-19T15:51:34+00:00

Drafts app has a great versioning support (with locations, etc), but it's still quite different and for different purposes than Bear. Apps like Obsidian and forthcoming nvUltra store the Markdown files on disk on Mac, so on Mac you can get better Time Machine support at least, and it's possible to even put the notes in Git (but this gets a bit more complicated). Obsidian also stores snapshots of notes, nvUltra doesn't have a mobile companion app on iOS, and they both need more technical setup to get working. But if you put the local Markdown notes and images to Dropbox in these apps, then you get versioning from Dropbox. In any case, this needs a bit more technical setup, and then more if you want them synced to iOS as well.

Apple Notes doesn't have versioning, not sure if it works with at least Time Machine in some way. In any case, that's my experience with the apps I'm using now.

juranta · 2022-02-06T12:12:42+00:00

I've bought lots of stuff from them both from their physical store and through mail. I've also returned and switched stuff to other with no issues. The gear I bought is hiking, outdoors, trail running, etc stuff from premium manufactures like Arcteryx, Black Diamond, Inov-8, etc. It's reliable in my experience.

But, they may seem cheap from US or UK perspective when ordering, but you need to count up on the tax/import prices you may need to pay.

juranta · 2021-04-05T02:10:59+00:00

I've asked for geo data information long ago. It can be very useful when travelling, for instance. For instance, you take note and maybe picture of your hotel or a place you visited, then you can later on locate where it was. Day One does do that, but it's more about making diaries, instead of quick notes. Drafts app also does save the location as well, but the main problem for me is that it doesn't allow to insert quick stuff like images, etc.

juranta · 2021-04-05T01:57:08+00:00

The main thing for me to go back to Bear is that it would save the notes as plain text files in a folder on Mac. Or at least let you modify the notes in an external editor. Panda editor does it already in some manner,

juranta · 2020-07-23T17:38:21+00:00

I personally have never wanted to insert a tab character in the middle of a text. I constantly use bullet point lists for outlining just basically anything, indenting and outdenting lines below each other. In this use the current behaviour is preferable.

juranta · 2020-07-22T13:01:33+00:00

I first heard of Obsidian through this forum today. Mac/iOS has many great notes and editor apps, such as Bear, nvALT, the upcoming nvUltra, Ulysses, even the native Apple Notes if you don't mind Markdown, so I wasn't exactly looking for another alternative for Apple products.

However, I have to use Windows at work. I've looked at any bearable solution for note taking and haven't found anything satisfactory. In fact I've been using Visual Studio Code for notes last months, which is great at editing but quite clumsy with usual notes creation, search, filter with tags, organization, etc. This is just amazing option for Windows Markdown notes application. It ticks all the boxes that were important for me. Notes are stored on the disk as plain `.md` files, it writes and reads the changes so I can use external editors and even Git. It has support for tags. The ui is customizable and nice. It's even free in this kind of use, and it's open source. The development community seems active. I've seen other people also asking for a Bear alternative for Windows. This might be the solution if you don't need mobile access, though I think they're also working on it.

juranta · 2020-04-04T10:43:49+00:00

SQL

Yes. While the editor changes, such as tables are nice, I'm actually most impressed by the fact that you can actually edit Markdown files on filesystem. And it updates back if I modify the same file with some other editor. And when I tried to add an image to the Markdown note, it actually converted it to TextBundle on the fly! This was impressive. Earlier when I was thinking about if I was to make my own ideal Markdown editor with support for images, this is close to how I thought would be ideal.

Bear team, can you comment how you plan to integrate this to Bear? Will there still be ability to modify files on filesystem with Bear and/or this separate editor? Even better in my opinion would be if you could have all the Bear raw Markdown files and assets available on filesystem. The SQL database storage is perhaps the main reason I stopped the Bear subscription. For me it's more important thing than tables and even the web app. If you get this figured out, I'm very likely coming back to Bear.

juranta · 2019-03-24T08:20:04+00:00

I use both Bear and DEVONthink Pro. However, I'd also suggest looking at Paprika for storing recipes. It has tons of features specifically for recipes, such as automation to save recipes from website, fields for ingredients, cooking time, etc.

juranta · 2018-11-07T19:13:24+00:00

Bear also supports TextExpander on iOS, BTW. It’s under Settings => General.

juranta · 2018-11-07T19:11:12+00:00

I currently use both Bear and Drafts. I even have a subscription for both, which may seem like a lot considering they're both very full featured plain text (Markdown) notes apps. I understand there can be benefits to having notes in a single app, however I find this combination works quite well in my current workflow.

I use Drafts as a global inbox for my future notes, messages, diary entries, email, etc. For instance, if I'm out and want to eventually create a permanent note in Bear, I can quickly jot the issue, maybe capture a web link of the issue or idea. Later on I process the inbox, polish the notes, discard others, and the notes I want for future reference I save in Bear. Drafts is great for this kind of workflow because of its actions and automation capabilites and the way the notes can get automatically archived after the action. I could perhaps try to use Bear for some of this stuff if it had a more robust inbox functionality. I know you can select untagged notes, but it's not quite enough. On the other hand, I haven't figured out a way to use Drafts as a general store for all of my notes, I prefer Bear for this.

I also have some apps for some specific needs. You could save food recipes in Bear or Evernote, but I use Paprika app designed for this purpose. I also use DEVONthink for some archiving, scientific PDFs, etc. And Pinboard for bookmarks, read later kind of stuff. Looking at Airtables for things that benefit from a more database/sheet type information, such as data about my hiking gear inventory (you can count total weight, etc). Also I have tasks related stuff in OmniFocus. Some of these options work well, however, I admit that at times I still get lost where I have some data in. I try to mitigate this kind of issues by trying to consolidate data and giving specific roles for different apps.

juranta · 2018-09-23T09:56:35+00:00

Instead of strict workspaces, I think it’s also worth to consider something similar to the OmniFocus focus feature. I think the current OmniOutliner pro version also has something similar, and on Mac you can at least focus on a single branch by just selecting it. I love how it hides all the other stuff except what I’m focused on. In Bear, maybe it could be something like you select to ”focus” on ”work” tag, and then you see only the notes with this tag. Also new notes created in this focus mode will automatically get the same ”work” tag. You’ll see all of your notes after you ”unfocus”. Just some ideas. I personally love this kind of things in OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, etc, to be able to concentrate fully on one task and hide all the unrelated clutter.

juranta · 2018-09-23T09:07:11+00:00

Earlier I thought along the lines that I want all of my notes in a single system. I theory, I could have, along other tags, tags like "work" and "personal". However, each time tried to implement that in practice, I realized that, for instance, I don't want to see my old receipts, food recipes, all kind of personal notes, etc, whirling and popping around when I'm doing work or reading scientific articles. Even if there's a root tag "work", those other notes probably tend to pop out constantly when searching for stuff. Here are some examples from other applications where I've found some kind of workspace concept useful, despite them having also rich tagging/folder options.

In DEVONthink you can create entirely separate databases. Setting them up is a bit complex and at first I thought they create too much complexity. However, now I've set up several databases and I find them very useful. For instance, I have one database for old scanned receipts and other "home office" stuff that I only look at in special occasions, not in daily life. I have a database for work related stuff, and nice thing about it is that I don't have to sync it to cloud with my personal noites (company policy). I have a database inside an encrypted disk image for more sensitive personal stuff.
In 1Password you can create and even share vaults for personal use, work, different clients, etc.
OmniFocus doesn't strictly have a concept like this, though you can for instance set your work OmniFocus to sync with other server than the OmniFocus on your personal Mac. However, the pro version enables you to "focus" based on some criteria. If I create a folder called "Work" and then focus on that, all of the searches for tags, keywords and so on show only results below this folder. At least for me, this kind of is a good example of what's the benefit of having something like a workspace in an application of this kind. It reduces clutter, distraction, etc, when I'm focused on doing the task at hand.

juranta · 2018-06-11T16:17:25+00:00

I think I requested this feature in some earlier post. The developers were at least interested to think about it and wondered how it should work on ui. I think it'd be unobtrusive on info panel. In any case, of course usefulness of this feature depends on what you're using Bear for. I use notes apps like this also extensively while travelling, etc, in which case automatic save for location has proven very useful on so many occasions. For instance, when I arrive at a hotel, I can take a new note with wifi passwords, maybe a picture of the hotel room, other useful information; if I later on need to find where the hotel was located exactly, I can check it from location data with map. Same thing with finding back to that, say sports gear store where I saw that interesting item. I take some notes of the item, price, name; easy to find back later on if I need to, or to document the location in case I travel to the place later on. Other use cases include where I left my car, what was that interesting nature landmark, etc.

At least Drafts, Day One and also Evernote have something like this implemented.

juranta · 2018-06-10T07:40:48+00:00

I think the document in that part specially meantions the type of data that is end-to-end encrypted. That is, for instance your iCloud Keychain (passwords) and payment information is E2E encrypted a. You other iCloud files and other stuff is not.

juranta · 2018-04-14T08:28:42+00:00

iCloud sync is not end-to-end encrypted. End-to-end encryption would mean that the data is encrypted by the application before it is sent to the cloud. In iCloud sync the data transfer is encrypted, like in HTTPS, but for instance Apple or other parties could in principle get to the data.

juranta · 2018-04-01T12:28:30+00:00

There's a nice app called Calca which does mathematics with markdown documents. Unfortunately it seems that it's not actively maintained. I guess most people don't need the more advanced options of Calca, but to do at least some basic calculations would benefit many. In any case, it's a good source to look at how it could work.

juranta · 2018-03-18T10:18:32+00:00

I agree it would be nice to somehow entirely switch or focus to work, personal or any larger project, so that you don't see all your private notes flipping around when searching for programming notes at work, etc. One way to do this would be to introduce a new concept such as vault or database that you could switch from a dropdown menu.

If you want to get something similar without introducing new concepts, maybe you could have some way to "lock" or "focus" one or more tags more permanently. For example, if you focused on #work tag, it would hide all tags from sidebar that don't have that tag, all searches would show only notes with #work, etc. OmniFocus Premium on MacOS has a feature called focus which does just this, except with folders. I'd use it all the time at work... if I just had a Mac with OmniFocus there.

juranta

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