Say goodbye to paper piles and hello to a smoother way of managing your info! With Bear, you can scan, organize, and access everything digitally—keeping your workspace tidy and your workflow on point. Here’s how to get started with some basic and effective ways to make the switch.
Digitize Your Documents
Save as PDF: The document scanner is a great way to digitize physical documents. Open the scanner by holding the camera icon in the BIU keyboard, position your document, and snap a picture. Once scanned, all the pictures will turn into a PDF which then saves in the note.
💡 Tip: On iOS, you can long-press the Bear app icon on your home screen to instantly access the scanner!
Save as photo and text: Bear makes it easy to add various file types to your notes. You can snap a photo and add them directly into Bear. Worry about storage? Use camera to capture text using Apple’s built-in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature, then select text and share to Bear, super easy.
Once you import your files, you can annotate, highlight, or link these files within your notes, making it simple to keep all related information in one spot. This flexibility helps you build a comprehensive digital library that’s accessible anytime, anywhere.
Organize Your Digital Files
Create Master Notes
To keep your digital workspace organized, start with creating Master Notes that serve as central hubs for related documents. For instance, if you have various invoices, contracts, and receipts, create a Master Note titled Financial Documents. Within this note, you can link to individual notes for quick access and add brief descriptions to provide context for later. This method not only simplifies navigation but also adds to your organization by grouping related files, making it easy to manage your digital information efficiently.
Use Tags
Organize your notes by adding relevant tags such as #personal_records, #contracts, and #receipts. It allows you to quickly filter and locate a specific type of documents, ensuring you can find what you need at a glance.
Using multiple tags on a single note helps you further manage documents with different purposes. For instance, with letters, you might want to tag both the date and the topic, making it easier to find exactly what you need later.
There are many different ways to tag your notes; check out this blog series for a full guide: How to Think with Tags, Create a Habit in Bear Part 1 and Part 2.
Maintain System
Regularly Digitize Physical Documents: There will always be new documents, so keep your desk and mind tidy by regularly scanning and digitizing physical documents. Make it a weekly or monthly habit to set aside time to scan your accumulated paper notes and organize them in Bear, ensuring everything is easily searchable.
Archive Notes: To maintain a clutter-free digital environment, routinely archive notes that you no longer actively use. This helps declutter your main workspace while still keeping important notes in a safe and reachable space, available for you to bring back any time you need them again.
Start today!
Going paperless isn’t just smart—it’s liberating! Ditch the clutter, save some trees, and enjoy the simplicity of a sleek, digital workspace with Bear. We would love to hear about your paper-to-digital transformation! Reach out to us on our Community Forum, Reddit, X(Twitter), Bluesky (✨New!), or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net to tell us what you think!