Bike Outliner Releases

• Bike 1.22 (Preview) (191) 06 Apr 2025
  • Default to no xmlns in Bike documents, but preserve when found

  Previously in 190:

  • Fixed crash case, show alert instead
  • Changed how file attributes are written
  • Removed autonaming feature for new documents
• Bike 1.21 (189) 02 Feb 2025

  This is a re-release of Bike 1.21 that fixes a code signing error. Version 1.21 on Setapp and the Mac App Store didn’t have the error, so I have not updated those versions.

  • Show alert when software update will require license renewal
  • Fix caret movement’s interaction with caret affinity
• Bike 1.20 (187) 17 Dec 2024
  • Removed unused code
  • Updated requirements to macOS 12
• Bike 1.19 (186) 13 Nov 2024
  • Fixed license verification logic

  Now in the “Focus Heading” window:

  • Up key will wrap to last item
  • Down key will wrap to first item
  • Command-Up will move to first item
  • Command-Down will move to last item
  • Added setting to remove “Home” item
  • Added support for relative outline paths. Use to limit choices to focused outline
• Bike 1.18.5 (183) 08 Oct 2024
  • Add purchase/renew on website options
  • Fixed quote marker alignment
• Bike 1.18.4 (181) 06 Aug 2024
  • Added “Print Background” option
  • Improved ordered list number alignment
• Bike 1.18.3 (178) 16 May 2024
  • Fixed crash when using Pinyin text input
• Bike 1.18.2 (177) 30 Apr 2024
  • Added Markdown to Edit Rows action
  • Changed Create row action Plain parameter to Text
  • Improve error message when license fails
  • Fixed “License Required” spelling
  • Fixed iCloud folder icon. I think!
  • Fixed Open Outline action to make outline frontmost
  • Fixed Create Row shortcut to have default text value
  • Fixed case where text caret would stop showing in editor
  • Fixed text encoding problems when pasting HTML fragments
• Bike 1.18.1 (173) 18 Mar 2024
  • Added Bike specific iCloud drive folder
  • Fixed pasting Hookmark links into Bike
• Bike 1.18 (168) 22 Jan 2024
  • Auto-name “Untitled” documents based on first sentence
  • Added Settings > Sandbox to allow opening file links
  • Don’t allow text with newlines in link editor view
  • Turn of unicode normalization in Choice Palette
  • Fixed crash on macOS 11 when using M1 processor
  • Fixed reading of row’s rich text in Shortcut actions
  • Fixed clipping in Finder previews of Bike files
  • Fixed drag and drop indicator from getting stuck
• Bike 1.17.2 (165) 08 Nov 2023
  • Fixed crash on macOS 11
• Bike 1.17.1 (164) 06 Nov 2023
  • Fixed renew license
  • Fixed outline path background drawing
• Bike 1.17 (163) 06 Nov 2023
  • Added outline search paths
  • Added Window > Outline Path Explorer
  • Added “Query Outline” action for Shortcuts
  • Added “query” command to AppleScript dictionary
  • Changed icon to be more centered and less yellow
  • Changed Transpose (Command-T) now selects pair
  • Fixed to truncate long alert messages

  Outline paths are an important foundation technology. Today they are used in AppleScripts and Shortcuts actions. In future Bike releases outline paths will become more important as they are used in stylesheets and outline filtering.

• Bike 1.16 (158) 10 Oct 2023
  • Added Outline > Sort Rows
  • Added Outline > Move to Heading
  • Added “Sort Rows” to context menu
  • Added Restore focus/expand state for closed documents

  The new restore focus/expand state is secondary to the standard system restore state. If you have not closed a document then the system restore state will be used.

• Bike 1.15.1 (155) 28 Sep 2023
  • Fixed “Delete Rows” Shortcut’s action crash on macOS 14
• Bike 1.15 (154) 15 Sep 2023
  • Added Shift-Return to insert row above
  • Added Outline > Expand/Collapse All by Level
  • Added “Links” setting panel to control row link behavior
  • Added support for Control-N and Control-P in choice palette
  • Changed to Xcode 15 and Swift 5.9 build process
  • Changed “Add Link to Row” to insert linked text on empty selection
  • Changed caret affinity to downstream after pasting
  • Fixed case where hiding window could also collapse rows
  • Fixed crash case when command-click arrow to focus in
  • Fixed to discard marked text on mouse down
• Bike 1.14 (152) 07 Sep 2023

  Bike’s new “Focus Heading” feature enables quick navigation using only the keyboard.

  • Added Go > Focus Heading… (Command-P)
  • Added Format > Add Link to Row… (Command-Option-K)
  • Added new row type shortcut [ ] (with space) for tasks
  • Added option to accept corrections, removing blue indicator
  • Added level property to rows in Shortcuts automations
  • Added xmlns" to html element in .bike files
  • Disabled autocorrect in code blocks and code spans
  • Changed Format > Add Link to use Command-K shortcut
  • Changed Go > Open Link to use Command-Shift-O shortcut
  • Changed Format > Edit Formatting to use Command-E shortcut
  • Changed to less distracting focus out button
  • Removed automatic crash reports
  • Fixed paste URL over text to work in applicable cases
  • Fixed “Use Selection for Find” to also show find panel
  • Fixed open empty .txt file in plain text format instead of Bike format
  • Fixed Formatting key shortcuts to work with Boshiamy text input
  • Fixed Typing using Boshiamy text input, though still some problems
• Bike 1.13 (145) 07 Aug 2023

  Bike adds row types!

  Use row types to add another level of structure and meaning to your outlines. You can now include heading rows, task list rows, ordered list rows, and more.

  The easiest way to use row types is through Bike’s new “smart row types” feature. In a new row, type one of the following markdown inspired shortcuts–followed by a space:

  #	Heading
  >	Blockquote
  ```	Code Block
  :	Note
  [], -[]	Task List
  [x], -[x]	Task List (completed)
  1.	Ordered List
  -, *, +	Unordered List
  ---	Horizontal Rule

  The shortcut text is replaced and the row type is set. Row types are supported in both .bike and .opml outlines. Learn more about row types in Bike’s user guide.

  Full Changes:

  • Added Row types
  • Added Format > Row > Types
  • Added current row type to status bar
  • Added row type options to formatting pallet
  • Added scripting support for row types
  • Added text statistics for selected text
  • Added shortcuts automation support for row types
  • Added Spelling and substitution options to Edit menu
  • Moved autocorrect options to new settings panel
  • Added “Use smart links” autocorrect option
  • Checking and autocorrect options are now global
  • Checking options are in text checking panel
  • Reorganized menus, removing “Row” and adding “Go”
  • Changed selection drawing to only highlight text
  • Improved focus buttons spacing
  • Increase focus out button visibility
  • Fixed crash when pasting rtf text with CMYK colors
  • Fixed crash when selecting within font ligature
  • Fixed opening Mail.app message links
  • Fixed invalid stylesheet caches
• Bike 1.12 (135) 09 Jun 2023

  Bike adds a navigation bar with breadcrumbs and back/forward history. It also adds inline navigation controls, so you can zoom around your outline using only your mouse.

  It’s been a year since Bike 1.0. Thanks for your support! Bike’s made a lot of good progress this year. I hope you’ll consider renewing your license to support another year of development.

  Thanks,
  Jesse Grosjean

  • Added Navigation bar
  • Added Outline > Go Home menu
  • Added Outline > Go Back menu
  • Added Outline > Go Forward menu
  • Added Focus In arrow to parent rows
  • Added Focus Out arrow to focused row
  • Added Hide guide lines setting
  • Added Hide focus arrows setting
  • Added license renewal process
  • Added setting to hide secondary controls when typing
  • Added print setting to hide secondary controls when printing
  • Added additional text wrap widths of 90 and 120 chars
  • Added Shortcut option to not return rows for Edit, Move, and Import
  • Added Index property to Shortcut rows
  • Changed order and focus of fields in link edit popover
  • Handles are now only dark when they have collapsed children
  • Tinted default background color to emphasize status bars
  • Removed mouse over button highlights
  • Removed focus status from window titlebar
  • Fixed drag and drop of files into outline creates links
  • Fixed Shortcut open action
• Bike 1.11.1 (128) 21 Apr 2023
  • Fixed crash that could occur when printing
  • Fixed permissions issues when saving documents

  Changes to Shortcut Actions:

  • Changed Open Outline to use system open
  • Improved performance when returning many rows
  • Fixed Open Row from crashing when passed root row
  • Removed Row’s outline property (breaking change)
  • Replaced Outline’s rootId property with root (breaking change)
• Bike 1.11 (126) 18 Apr 2023

  Bike now includes actions to use with Apple’s Shortcuts app. Use these actions to automate Bike and integrate with other apps.

  • Added Fold Rows action
  • Added Focus Row action
  • Added Get Selection action
  • Added Get Rows action
  • Added Edit Rows action
  • Added Import Rows action
  • Added Export Rows action
  • Added Find Rows action
  • Added Open Row action
  • Added Create Outline action
  • Added Open Outline action
  • Added Create Row action
  • Added Delete Rows action
  • Added Move Rows action
  • Fixed licensing code to disable features
  • Fixed problems with text statistics popover display
  • Fixed to allow typewriter mode when text is wrapping to window
  • Fixed text editing crash related to word boundaries
  • Fixed previews and thumbnail generation performance
• Bike 1.10.1 (119) 29 Mar 2023
  • Fixed printing bug where rows would incorrectly print collapsed
• Bike 1.10 (118) 26 Mar 2023

  Bike now supports printing! It also adds quicklook previews and icon thumbnails for .bike files in the Finder.

  • Added printing support
  • Added icon thumbnails in Finder
  • Added Quicklook previews in Finder
  • Added Edit > Copy > Copy Displayed
  • Added “New Document” to Dock menu
  • Added preference to disable font scaling
  • Added support for capture groups in find/replace
  • Added extra top margin in typewriter mode
  • Improved text count performance in large outlines
  • Fixed to disable accidental text editing in outline mode
  • Fixed find count display when doing find/replace
  • Fixed animation when entering typewriter mode
  • Fixed animation flashing when inserting new rows
• Bike 1.9 (112) 09 Mar 2023

  Bike now supports distraction-free outlining with the addition of full screen mode, typewriter mode, and focus mode. See how it works in this post + movie.

  • Added View > Typewriter Mode
  • Added View > Focus Mode
  • Added View > Text Wrap
  • Added View > Status Bar
  • Added View > Text Statistics
  • Added Window > Duplicate Tab to open new view
  • Added Settings > General opt-in error reporting
  • Added font size adjust when text wrap & window width
  • Added 50% padding to editor bottom
  • Changed to visible menu bar
  • Changed to dimmer block selection color
  • Changed formatting to only apply to visible text
  • Changed transforms to only apply to visible text
  • Changed File > New Tab (⌥⌘N) to make new document
  • Changed to addative animation system (smoother animations)
  • Use Option-Return in checking to replace and restore selection
  • Move text checking options to popover in checking panel
  • Disambiguate window titles when showing same document
  • Fixed inconsistencies with keyboard focus and text caret visibility
  • Fixed where scroll up speed didn’t match scroll down speed
  • Fixed checking panel where Replace would advance too far
  • Fixed crash while editing same outline in two windows
  • Fixed strikethrough vertical alignment
• Bike 1.8.3 (105) 27 Feb 2023
  • Fixed crash when performing some autocorrections
• Bike 1.8.2 (102) 06 Feb 2023
  • Changed Bike link format, see notes below
  • Added script access to Bike’s edit mode
  • Added explanation label to “Show Checking…” menu item
  • Show blue replacement underline only when active
  • Support reading Hookmark links from pasteboard
  • Fixed crash for some user text replacement combinations
  • Fixed read/write of OPML files to keep row attributes
  • Fixed crash when editing same outline in multiple windows
  • Fixed crash when selecting unnormalized text with Katakana input
  • Fixed performance when outdenting a folded row in text mode
  • Fixed crash when moving between strings with different unicode normalizations

  Changes to Bike links:

  • bike://<rootID>/<focusID>#<selectID>
  • Focus and select are optional parts
  • Copy Link command includes focus and selection
  • Supports optional target=(tab|window) query parameter
• Bike 1.8.1 (98) 25 Jan 2023
  • Fixed Korean text input
  • Fixed copied .rtf to include highlights
  • Fixed Enter in text checking panel to always advance to next error

  There was a version number snafu with the Mac App Store, and so this release needs to be called 1.8.1 instead of 1.7.1. Even though this is 1.8.1, it’s just a bug fix beyond 1.7. Phew!

• Bike 1.7 (96) 19 Dec 2022

  Text checking is the big focus of this release. For an overview and some demos please see: Bike: Improved macOS text checking.

  Text checking

  • Consistently applies autocorrect as you type
  • Consistently shows correction popup at end of word
  • Consistently shows correction marks and spelling errors
  • Use Delete as a shortcut to undo the previous autocorrect
  • Undo autocorrect only. Don’t undo text that you typed
  • Bounces caret when about to show the correction popup
  • Text checking is disabled in code formatted text
  • Text checking panel shows all options for easy access
  • Text checking panel finds spelling, smart quotes, capitalization
  • Text checking panel can be used to check text without mouse

  New settings and options

  • Added setting to “Use delete to revert autocorrect”
  • Added setting to for expand level when open document
  • Added setting to close documents when quitting
  • Added new text checking panel options and descriptions

  Diacritics and combining characters

  • Added Control-Delete to decompose characters
  • Fixed drawing to stop clipping diacritics
  • Fixed crash when inserting combining characters
  • Fixed backspace to match system delete/decompose behavior

  Improved rich text pasteboard support

  • Added support for strikethrough when copy/paste .rtf
  • Changed .rtf encoding to use tab indentation instead of lists
  • Fixed .rtf decoding to better support diacritical characters

  Improved text editing actions

  • Added Control-T to transpose characters
  • Added yank: and yankAndSelect: and kill buffer support
  • Added setMark:, deleteToMark:, selectToMark:, swapWithMark:

  More features and bug fixes

  • Added key modifiers for opening links in tabs and windows
  • Fixed view update when learning and ignoring spelling errors
  • Fixed animations used when splitting and joining rows
  • Fixed unindent to properly handled collapsed rows
  • Fixed AppleScript api to use non-dynamic colors
• Bike 1.6 (88) 31 Oct 2022
  • Updated for macOS Ventura
  • Added .rtf text to pasteboard when you copy
  • Added Edit > Copy As for specific pasteboard types
  • Changed to standard color well in editor settings
  • Changed to not allow move commands to move focused row
  • Changed search to only select select match on Enter
  • Changed search and text checking to start from front of selection
  • Fixed incorrect scroll position when reopening a document
  • Fixed crash with Replace All and in a few other cases
• Bike 1.5 (87) 19 Oct 2022
  • Change save panel options to be more flexible
  • Change to make scrolling a little more efficient
  • Fixed crash when quickly opening new tabs with AppleScript
• Bike 1.4.2 (85) 14 Oct 2022
  • Paste to create link now replaces existing link text
  • Fixed crash that could happen on Focus In
  • Fixed Strikethrough formatting on macOS 11
• Bike 1.4.1 (83) 12 Oct 2022
  • Fixed mouse over indication sticking
  • Fixed case where formatting popover would not show
• Bike 1.4 (82) 10 Oct 2022

  Bike now supports rich text! You can bold, italic, code, highlight, and strikethrough. There’s innovation too. See how it works in this post + movie.

  • Added rich text
  • Added link buttons
  • Added typing affinity
  • Added visible typing attributes
  • Added invisibles to selected text
  • Added keyboard focused formatting pallet
  • Added .rtf support when pasting into Bike
  • Added .html support when copying from Bike
  • Added menu items to change outline/text mode
  • Changed block mode selection color
  • Changed text mode duplicate to be row based
  • Changed row indentation to char width increments
  • Changed window tab titles to match focused row
  • Edit > Copy Link now includes rich text link
  • Removed underline from link text style
  • Improved editing of right-to-left text
  • Fixed some cases opening Bike links
  • Fixed drawing on non-retina screens
  • Fixed handing of null characters when saving
  • Fixed scripting access to expand and collapse lists of rows
  • Fixed when bike links would not paste into some applications
  • Fixed a bunch of other crashes and small issues
• Bike 1.3.1 (64) 08 Jul 2022
  • Fixed some cases where Bike failed to open .opml files
• Bike 1.3 (61) 20 Jun 2022
  • Added Row > New Indented Row (Command-Shift-Return)
  • Added Preference for default document type and extension
  • Added Exit outline mode using Option-Right/Left
  • Added Scripting access to row attributes
  • Typing animations finish faster when typing fast
  • Improve text caret animations when undo/redo
  • Respect NSScrollAnimationEnabled user defaults setting
  • Ignore first click (maintaining selection) when activating window
  • Fixed Extend selection by word/line when dragging mouse
  • Fixed --- read from plain text is treated normally
  • Fixed Option-Up-Shift to properly extend selection
  • Fixed Don’t allow collapsing leaf rows
• Bike 1.2 (58) 03 Jun 2022
  • Added Row > Delete Rows (Shift-Command-K)
  • Added preference to disable typing animations
  • Allow alternative file extensions when saving
  • Added list of keyboard shortcuts to welcome text
  • Collapsing a collapsed row will collapse containing row
  • Preserve .bike and .opml file head content on open/save
  • Changed file reading to recover from some formatting errors
  • Fixed Stop incorrectly deleting folded rows when text editing
  • Fixed Stop discarding empty lines when reading plain text format
  • Fixed AppleScript access to row’s visible property
• Bike 1.1 (54) 25 May 2022
  • Added Font preference
  • Added Restore window selection
  • Added Detect .bike and .opml in plain text
  • Fixed Delete to end of paragraph (Control-k)
  • Fixed Stop beeps as you type into Find text field
  • Fixed Fully hide “unlicensed” button once licensed
  • Fixed Crash when image pasted into outline (still unsupported)
  • Fixed Saving bug after saving and then reopening an OPML file. New rows would save, but edits to existing rows would not be saved.

  Detect .bike and .opml in plain text means two things:

  1. You can copy .bike or .opml text from a text editor and paste it into Bike and it will be read correctly. If Bike cannot read either of those formats then plain text will be pasted.

  2. You can use alternative file extensions (.html for example) for your “bike” content files. If Bike content cannot be read from the file then the content will be opened as plain text.

• Bike 1.0.1 (52) 21 May 2022
  • Fixed move word (forward/backward) keybindings
  • Fixed initial titlebar color to match background color
  • Fixed “Enabled Animations” checkbox initial state
  • Fixed “Check Updates Automatically” checkbox initial state
  • Fixed timer bug. Bike should now use 0% CPU when in background
• Bike 1.0 (51) 15 May 2022
  • Bike 1.0, made it!