Other Plugins #

Idea for potential plugins #

…that I am not capable to implement. Just putting them out here and praying to code god.

• Add spellcheck="false" to cm-link (and other) classes. Ref: html - Disable autocorrect in Safari text input - Stack Overflow → Spellcheck Toggler
• A show whitespace plugin that actually works with the newest version of Obsidian, both desktop and mobile. → Show Whitespace CM6 (v0.2.0)

2. Revamp liamcain/obsidian-lapel to work with default theme with no gutter.

3. A zen mode plugin with all the features optional and can be toggled from control panel.

5. A cursor plugin that, essentially, just makes the cursor a thicker line and non-blinking.

6. Revamp javalent/prominent-files so that it works without turn-off-turn-on.

Plugins (for peaceful writing) #

Most of my creative writings are in Chinese and published under my other online personae.

Copy as HTML #

Repo: jenningsb2/copy-as-html: A simple plugin that copies the selected text to your clipboard as HTML

This plugin does not work on iOS as of now.

After some initial testing, I found this plugin better than Copy Document as HTML, in the sense that it can be configured to remove comments at copy. However, neither adds right-click context menu.

Dataview #

Repo: blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview: A data index and query language over Markdown files, for https://obsidian.md/.
Doc: Dataview

I am trying it with Longform, according to Writing a novel in Markdown - pdworkman.com.

Snippets: (slightly modified)

## Chapter summary

```dataview
TABLE
    Character AS "Who?",
    Setting AS "Where?",
    POV,
    Date
FROM "some-novel/drafts" OR "some-novel/chapters"
SORT Date ASC
```

## Notes

```dataview
LIST
    Notes
FROM "some-novel/drafts" OR "some-novel/chapters"
WHERE
    Notes !=null
SORT file ASC
```

## Editing

```dataview
TABLE
    Draft,
    Critique,
    TTS
FROM "some-novel/chapters"
SORT file ASC
```

Editing Toolbar #

Repo: PKM-er/obsidian-editing-toolbar: An obsidian toolbar plugin, modified from the Cmenu plugin

Force-quit on iOS devices to ensure installation/setting changes.

Add Word-like formatting bar on the top of the editor area.

Apple Preview.app-like highlight colours:

• yellow: #F4CD6D4D
• green: #ADE5934D
• blue: #B0D6FF4D
• pink: #FFBDCA4D
• purple: #D8C8FF4D

export const DEFAULT_SETTINGS: cMenuToolbarSettings = {
  // ...
  "custom_bg1": "#FFB78B8C",
  "custom_bg2": "#CDF4698C",
  "custom_bg3": "#A0CCF68C",
  "custom_bg4": "#F0A7D88C",
  "custom_bg5": "#ADEFEF8C",
  "custom_fc1": "#D83931",
  "custom_fc2": "#DE7802",
  "custom_fc3": "#245BDB",
  "custom_fc4": "#6425D0",
  "custom_fc5": "#646A73",
}

Enhanced Annotations #

Repo: ycnmhd/obsidian-enhanced-annotations

Main functionalities that I found useful:

1. Add side panel for comments and highlights
2. Assign colour/font style to different labels of comments and highlights (e.g. todo)
3. Custom trigger for entering labelled comments

Hider #

Repo: kepano/obsidian-hider

Hide ribbon, vault name, file explorer icons when in writing mode.

Home Tab #

Repo: olrenso/obsidian-home-tab: A browser-like search tab for your local files in Obsidian.

Iconize #

Repo: FlorianWoelki/obsidian-iconize: Simply add icons to anything you want in Obsidian.

To visually indicate the status of a piece of writing in the file tree. Set icon font size to be 1px smaller than the current font size.

I personally found the open source Lucide Icons (and BoxIcons, but it has less options) pack aesthetically pleasing and easy to see even on mobile. Also, Twemoji.

Longform #

Repo: kevboh/longform: A plugin for Obsidian that helps you write and edit novels, screenplays, and other long projects.

I just wanted to automatically create a multi-chapter project, not really needing any of the compilation functionalities. Turns out it can also create single-chapter projects, but ignores the scene template when doing so.

Articles for reference:

• Writing a novel in Markdown - pdworkman.com (With file structure and plugin recommendations for complex commercial projects)
• Writing Long Form Content With Obsidian

Novel Word Count #

Repo: isaaclyman/novel-word-count-obsidian: Obsidian plugin. Displays a word count or other statistic for each file, folder and vault in the File Explorer pane.

Preferences:

• Notes
  • First type: Word count
  • Suffix: 字
  • Alignment: Right-aligned
• Folders
  • First type: None
• Show advanced options: True
  • Exclude comments: True
  • Word count method: Han/Kana/Hangul (CJK) (Note: Using this option will exclude any non-CJK words when counting)

Remember cursor position #

Repo: dy-sh/obsidian-remember-cursor-position: Obsidian plugin. Remember cursor position for each note

Word Splitting for Simplified Chinese #

Repo: aidenlx/cm-chs-patch: A patch for Obsidian’s built-in CodeMirror Editor to support Simplified Chinese word splitting Obsidian内置编辑器的(简体)中文分词支持

Plugins (for aggressive note-taking) #

Any combination of plugins in the previous sector, plus…

Better Export PDF #

Repo: l1xnan/obsidian-better-export-pdf: Obsidian PDF export enhancement plugin

Assign keyboard shortcut command+p.

I just wanted the tagged PDF (TOC) functionality. No plan to dive into other settings at the moment.

HTML Reader #

Repo: nuthrash/obsidian-html-plugin: This is a plugin for Obsidian (https://obsidian.md). Can open document with .html and .htm file extensions.

Add the ability to read (no edit) .html files in Obsidian.

Link Favicons #

Repo: joethei/obsidian-link-favicon: See the favicon for a linked website.

Add favicons before or after links for better skimmability.

Companion CSS: (the second part is an adaptation from the snippet in the repo readme)

.link-favicon {
  vertical-align: middle;
}

/* remove external link icon */
.external-link {
  background-image: none;
  padding-right: 0;
}

Linter #

Repo: platers/obsidian-linter: An Obsidian plugin that formats and styles your notes with a focus on configurability and extensibility.

Cannot live without line-break-at-document-end.

List Callouts #

Repo: mgmeyers/obsidian-list-callouts: Create callouts in lists in Obsidian.

Highly recommended. Seems not compatible with checklists.

My settings:

• !! red
• ! orange
• ? yellow
• y green
• n grey
• x grey
• = yellow

const DEFAULT_SETTINGS: ListCalloutsSettings = [
  {
    // yellow
    color: '255, 214, 0',
    char: '&',
  },
  {
    // orange
    color: '255, 145, 0',
    char: '?',
  },
  {
    // red
    color: '255, 23, 68',
    char: '!',
  },
  {
    // purple
    color: '124, 77, 255',
    char: '~',
  },
  {
    // blue
    color: '0, 184, 212',
    char: '@',
  },
  {
    // green
    color: '0, 200, 83',
    char: '$',
  },
  {
    // grey
    color: '158, 158, 158',
    char: '%',
  },
];

Number Headings #

Repo: onlyafly/number-headings-obsidian: Automatically number headings in a document in Obsidian

1. It takes a long time for the Obsidian TOC to update after changing the numbers, if you have a relatively large file (~ 10KB). Fixed as of 1.6.5
2. Adding new headings requires a manual off-on refresh, or a few seconds of waiting time in auto mode.

Preferences:

• First heading level: 2
• Separator style: .

Prominent (Starred) Files #

Repo: javalent/prominent-files: Prominently display starred files in Obsidian.md

Bug: On iOS, every time launch Obsidian, need turn the plugin off and on again to take effect.

Adds a bookmark symbol to the bookmarked notes in the file tree.

Companion snippet by me:

.prominent-decorated-file {
  margin: auto;
  margin-inline-end: 0;
}

.prominent-decorated-file svg {
  fill: IndianRed;
  height: var(--icon-s);
  width: var(--icon-s);
}

.view-action.mod-bookmark {
  --icon-color: IndianRed;
  --icon-color-hover: IndianRed;
}

Spellcheck Toggler #

Repo: julzerinos/spellcheck-toggler-obsidian-plugin

Turn off spellcheck for links or comments.

Sticky heading #

Repo: imshenshen/obsidian-sticky-heading

Keeps the current heading sticky at top. Very convenient in long notes.

Companion snippet: (aligning with the --file-margins CSS variable)

.obsidian-sticky-heading_inner {
  padding: 0 32px;
}

Strange New Worlds #

Repo: GitHub - TfTHacker/obsidian42-strange-new-worlds: Revealing the strange new world of connected thoughts in your vault.

Show the inlinks for a linked note.

Unitade #

Repo: Falcion/UnitadeOBSIDIAN: A plugin for note-taking app Obsidian™ which allows you to treat any file extension as markdown note-file

Add the ability to read and edit .txt files in Obsidian.

Zotero integration #

Repo: mgmeyers/obsidian-zotero-integration: Insert and import citations, bibliographies, notes, and PDF annotations from Zotero into Obsidian.

Ref: An Updated Academic Workflow: Zotero & Obsidian | by Alexandra Phelan | Medium (The Pandoc Reference List plugin had some weird bugs on my setup.)

With this plugin installed and enabled, launching Obsidian on an iPad without Zotero installed will disable it for both mobile and desktop. I have not tried with a device where Zotero is installed, but GitHub issues regarding mobile usage suggests it should work.

Other plugins that I have tried #

Better Search Views #

Repo: GitHub - ivan-lednev/better-search-views: Outliner-like breadcrumb trees for search, backlinks and embedded queries

Phenomenal plugin, but it doesn’t work with List Callouts very well, which I cannot live without. May try later to add some CSS patch.

Better Word Count #

Repo: lukeleppan/better-word-count: Counts the words of selected text in the editor.

Replaces the core word count plugin in status bar. I did not actually need so many options. If you have the same need as me, just use the #Hide word count snippet. However, I think this plugin does have the extra option to exclude comments, which I don’t write a lot of.

My only problem with the core word count is that it should exclude the front matter, but that seems to be on the roadmap already.

CriticMarkup/Commentator #

Repo: Fevol/obsidian-criticmarkup: Annotate notes with comments and suggestions using CriticMarkup in Obsidian

It works just like MS Word’s Review mode, but requires several reloads.

I would probably prefer a naïve file-based version control system or just git, and use comments (%% ... %%) with something like Enhanced Annotations.

CardBoard #

Repo: roovo/obsidian-card-board: An Obsidian plugin to make working with tasks a pleasure (hopefully anyway).

Collect task list items with/out tags automatically from the whole vault. Kanban-style.

Also see: List all tasks functionality of blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview:.

Definition List #

Do not use v0.1.2. Could potentially make notes not click-able (tested in sandbox vault).

Repo: shammond42/definition-list: Obsidian.md plugin to add HTML definition list support.

Does not work really? And clashes with LaTeX in <dt> (Release 0.1.2)

File Tree Alternative #

Repo: ozntel/file-tree-alternative: This Obsidian Plugin allows users to have a different file explorer experience.

Doesn’t support Icon Folder/Iconize, and somehow bookmark doesn’t work either.

Floating Settings #

Repo: wish5115/obsidian-floating-settings: Open the Floating Settings panel or replace the default settings modal with a floating panel. Depends on the Hover Editor.

Kind of useful, but not necessary. Depends on Hover Editor.

Full Calendar #

Repo: davish/obsidian-full-calendar: Keep events and manage your calendar alongside all your other notes in your Obsidian Vault.

I only use it to display my iCloud calendar (read-only), but obviously it is far more powerful than that.

Highlightr #

Repo: chetachiezikeuzor/Highlightr-Plugin: A minimal and aesthetically pleasing highlighting menu that makes color-coded highlighting much easier 🎨.

Doesn’t work. Could be that one of my existing plugin (or maybe PopClip) conflicts with it.

Hover Editor #

Repo: nothingislost/obsidian-hover-editor

I found myself not really using it after all.

Need to turn on the core Page Preview plugin first, or force reload.

Together with ![[]] embed, and setting hotkeys option+↑ and option+↓ for swap lines (credit: @seviche@kongwoo.icu) makes an ok block-editing environment.

(Yes, I still miss the Ulysses block editing feature.)

Note Minimap #

Repo: Quorafind/Obsidian-Note-Minimap

The idea is great, but the highlighted position is not very accurate.

Recent Files #

Repo: tgrosinger/recent-files-obsidian: Display a list of most recently opened files

As a second pane in the left split. Cannot sync between devices as of now, which is a little annoying.

Quiet Outline #

Since Obsidian 1.6 (or somewhere, I forgot), the core outline is good enough for me to replace this plugin.

Repo: guopenghui/obsidian-quiet-outline

This plugin never loads successfully on my iOS devices.

Use Command palette▸Quiet Outline: Quiet Outline to activate if did not auto-load.

Preferences:

• Search Support: False
• Level Switch: False
• Default Level: H5
• Auto Expand: False (important for the Default Level to take effect)
• Drag headings to modify note: True (for a pseudo block editing experience)

Some styles I wrote for more obvious current entry highlighting:

/* **** all entries **** */
.n-tree .n-tree-node {
  --n-node-text-color: var(--nav-item-color);
  transition: none;
  font-size: var(--nav-item-size);
  border-radius: var(--radius-s);
}

.quiet-outline .n-tree-node .n-tree-node-content {
  margin-bottom: var(--size-2-1);
  padding: var(--nav-item-padding);
  padding-left: 0;
  line-height: var(--line-height-tight);
}

/* **** cursor-focused entries **** */
.n-tree.n-tree--block-line .n-tree-node:not(.n-tree-node--disabled).n-tree-node--selected {
  /* accent highlight */
  background-color: var(--interactive-accent) !important;
  /* muted highlight */
  /* background-color: var(--nav-item-background-hover) !important; */
}
.n-tree .n-tree-node--selected .n-tree-node-content .n-tree-node-content__text {
  color: var(--text-on-accent) !important;
  font-weight: normal !important;
}

/* **** scrolled-to entries **** */
.n-tree .n-tree-node.located {
  background-color: var(--nav-item-background-hover) !important;

  font-weight: normal !important;
}

/* **** hovered entries **** */
.quiet-outline .n-tree.n-tree--block-line .n-tree-node:not(.n-tree-node--disabled):hover {
  background-color: var(--nav-item-background-hover);
}

/* **** expand switcher **** */
.n-tree .n-tree-node-switcher {
  height: unset;
}

TagFolder #

Repo: vrtmrz/obsidian-tagfolder

List of all files with all tags in the vault. Instant click to file.

May need a force-reload after installation.

Templater #

Repo: SilentVoid13/Templater: A template plugin for obsidian
Doc: Introduction - Templater

I tried it out because of this post: Options for hotkeys to toggle <!-- --> as comment instead of %% %% - Feature archive - Obsidian Forum
However, it could only turn on the comment, not toggle.