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Editing Bike Files in FoldNotes#

Bike is a fast, elegant outliner for the Mac — and FoldNotes can edit Bike outlines natively, in place, on both macOS and iOS. You work on the original .bike file and save straight back to it. The outline is never copied into your collection, never gets FoldNotes front matter, and never touches your note list or graph. It's a Bike file the whole time — FoldNotes just edits it, and your changes are waiting in Bike on your Mac.

Both apps have the same Bike editing capability; only the way in differs. On the Mac, Bike files live in the External Files section alongside external Markdown. On iPhone and iPad — where Bike has no app of its own — FoldNotes iOS is free, and it turns your folder of Bike files into a browsable, searchable library.

Bike 2, currently in beta — and Bike 1 is safe

Bike packages (.biked), task statuses, and row attributes are features of Bike 2 — currently in beta. The released Bike 1 has none of them; FoldNotes reads and writes both generations, and editing plain .bike outlines works with any Bike.

Nothing FoldNotes writes can break a file for a Bike 1 user. We've verified this against Bike 1.22.2: it preserves every attribute FoldNotes writes — statuses, flags, estimates, custom attributes — through its own edits and saves. It simply doesn't display them (badges are a Bike 2 feature), so a task state set here is invisible there, not lost — it appears the moment the file is opened in Bike 2 or back in FoldNotes.

iOS: requires FoldNotes 1.2.0 or later

Everything on this page applies to FoldNotes iOS version 1.2.0 onwards. Earlier iOS versions opened a single Bike file at a time; 1.2.0 replaces that with the full library described here.

This is open‑in‑place editing

FoldNotes edits the original file and saves straight back to it — round‑tripping your changes to Bike. The outline stays a Bike file the whole time: it's never copied into your collection, and never becomes a FoldNotes note.

Getting to your Bike files#

On the Mac, add the folder that holds your .bike files to the sidebar's External Files section — see External Files for folders, sub‑folders, sorting, standalone windows, and linking. Everything below about editing applies there.

On iOS, tap the Bike icon in the toolbar of the Collection list and choose your Bike folder — typically Bike's own iCloud Drive folder — once. From then on:

  • The document list shows your outlines like a cut‑down note list: name, BIKE or BIKED badge, and when each was last modified. Tap one to edit it in place.
  • Create new outlines from the compose button — a plain .bike, or a .biked package if it will carry attachments.
  • Search across the whole folder from the binoculars. A scope switch at the top of search — like the Mac's — restricts results to your notes, your Bike files, or both.
  • Preview any outline and share it as a PDF.

The bottom status bar shows External · .bike (or .biked) while you're editing, so it's always clear you're working on a file outside your collection.

Make sure the file is downloaded (iOS)

A file in iCloud Drive may be a cloud placeholder — listed, but not downloaded. If an outline won't open or shows a download notice, open the Files app and tap the file's cloud icon; long‑press the folder and choose Keep Downloaded to keep the library ready offline.

What round‑trips faithfully#

The rule FoldNotes holds to: a save never destroys something another tool put in the file — whether or not FoldNotes understands it.

  • Outline structure — headings, indentation, and nesting.
  • Row identity and links — every Bike row keeps its own id, so cross‑document links (bike://…) that point into this outline keep working after you edit it.
  • Lists, quotes, code, and rules. Consecutive Bike code lines are joined into one tidy code block.
  • Note rows and log rows — Bike's light grey note rows and Bike 2's row logs are preserved with their type, never demoted to ordinary rows. Log entries display with their date and what changed.
  • Row attributes — Bike's own, and any you invent — travel verbatim. See Row attributes below.
  • Inline formatting — bold, italic, inline code, ~~strikethrough~~, highlight, and links.
  • <head> metadata and unknown attribute values — carried through untouched.

Tasks — Bike's own states, FoldNotes' checkboxes#

Bike 2 tracks a task's state with a status — todo, started, done, or canceled — and FoldNotes' four checkbox states map onto it exactly:

FoldNotes checkbox Bike status
[ ] open todo
[/] in progress started
[x] done done
[-] cancelled canceled

Cycle a task's checkbox in a Bike file exactly as you would in a note — every state you set is written as Bike's own @status, so it shows as the matching badge in Bike.

Older Bike files track completion the previous way, with a @done date. FoldNotes reads those files too, and never migrates a file's vocabulary — updating an outline to the new status format is Bike's job, offered by its own prompt when you open the file there. A done row's recorded completion date is preserved verbatim (and shown — see the chits below) for as long as you leave that row alone.

Note

Inline task metadata written into the text (due:, priority: tokens) is a FoldNotes‑only convention a .bike can't carry, so it isn't offered here — due dates and priority are set as native Bike row attributes instead, where Bike shows them as badges.

Row attributes — in plain sight#

Bike 2 attaches small pieces of data to rows — a priority, a due date, an estimate, a coloured flag, a status — and renders them as badges. FoldNotes shows them the same way: a row's attributes appear as small chits after its text — the due date, P1–P3, the estimate, the status, and the flag as a flag glyph in its actual colour. A done date recorded by an older Bike file shows as a ✓‑date chit. Nothing is ever added to your outline's text — these live in the file as Bike's own attributes.

To edit them, open the Row Attributes editor:

  • Click / tap the chits on a row.
  • Right‑click the row (Mac, and iPad with a pointer) and choose Row Attributes… — it's also in the long‑press menu on iOS.
  • Type / on a row and choose Row Attributes… (on a task line, / opens it straight away). On the Mac it's also Format ▸ Row Attributes… (⌥⌘A).

The editor offers every Bike attribute out of the box — on a new outline as much as an old one:

  • Priority — None / Low / Medium / High (written as Bike's 1–3, High = 1).
  • Due — quick picks for Today, Tomorrow, +1 Week, or pick any date from a calendar.
  • Estimate — Bike's presets, 5m to 1w.
  • Flagged — Bike's seven colours, each shown with its coloured flag.
  • Status — on ordinary (non‑task) rows, where Bike allows a status too; on task rows the checkbox owns it.
  • Custom attributes — add any name and value. A custom attribute's value control offers the values your outline already uses for that name, and stays freely editable.

Everything is written in Bike's own format and vocabulary, so a badge set in FoldNotes appears in Bike, and one set in Bike survives editing here. (Bike's own attributes panel is ⌘⇧A.)

Attachments and .biked packages#

Bike keeps attachments in a .biked package — an outline plus its own assets folder. FoldNotes opens .biked on both platforms:

  • Pictures render in the editor, sized naturally or by the size you set; documents (a PDF, a spreadsheet, a recording) show as file thumbnails. Tap or click one to Quick Look it.
  • Add attachments — by drag, paste, or the attachment picker — and the file is always copied into the package's own assets folder, never referenced out of it, so the package stays complete and portable. (Adding requires a .biked; a plain .bike has nowhere to put a file.)
  • Display modes round‑trip. Bike shows an attachment inline, as a thumbnail, or full size — set it from FoldNotes' Edit Markdown Link popup and Bike picks it up, and vice versa. FoldNotes' own editor sizing (the | 200 width qualifier in the alt text) travels alongside without disturbing Bike's setting.
  • Previews show non‑image attachments as labelled chips — a DOCX or MOV badge with the file's name — and tapping a chip previews the file.
  • On the Mac you can also export any FoldNotes note as a Bike Package, pictures and documents carried inside — see Preview & Export.

FoldNotes never absorbs a package's assets into its own attachment library. A .biked's files stay its own.

Staying in sync with Bike#

Because FoldNotes edits the original file, changes flow both ways:

  • Your edits save straight back — visible in Bike on your Mac, and on any other device.
  • Edits made in Bike — or on another device — appear automatically. While the file is open, FoldNotes reloads it when it changes.
  • If it's changed in two places at once and you have unsaved edits, FoldNotes asks which version to keep. Nothing is overwritten without you choosing.

Keep backups

As with any file you edit across devices and apps, keep backups of anything important.

What's switched off while editing a Bike file#

To keep the round‑trip faithful, FoldNotes disables editor features the format can't carry — the commands disappear from the palette, menus, and toolbar so you can't accidentally add something that wouldn't survive the save:

Disabled while editing Bike files Why
Tables Bike has no table row type
Adding attachments to a plain .bike Only a .biked package has an assets folder to put the file in
Footnotes & comments No equivalent in the Bike format
Inline task metadata (due:/priority: in the text) Set as native row attributes instead

Everything else — typing, folding, headings, lists, quotes, code, inline formatting, links, four‑state tasks, attributes, and .biked attachments — works as usual.

Open item: superscript & subscript

Bike supports superscript and subscript; FoldNotes does not yet — these spans are dropped on a Bike round‑trip.

What's in the Inspector#

For a Bike file, the Inspector shows just the tabs that apply — document stats and outline on iOS; Outline, Info, and Tasks on the Mac. The collection‑only tabs (Note Graph, References, Properties) are hidden, since a file edited in place isn't part of your collection.

Where the files stay#

Because they're edited in place, your Bike files stay exactly where they are (your iCloud Drive, the Bike folder, a shared folder — wherever). They don't appear in your FoldNotes note list, graph, or backups, and they gain no id:/fn-… front matter. Removing the folder from FoldNotes disconnects it and touches nothing on disk.