#1
  1. choosing fonts (in: preview, writing view mode, codeblocks and other different text category) is standard task and pain in the a** for newbies and not so technically skilled users, there should be a central menu for manipulating all kinds of text objects.
  2. choosing max. line length: having to comply with third party strict rules esp. writing a thesis or a paper or a PhD (in science). A line marking/showing such a limit would be a viable solution too.
  3. readable line length adjustments

In my understanding, Obsidian is primarily used as a document writing tool & such basic tasks should be covered convenientlyā€¦

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#2

Hmmā€¦ personally, I donā€™t think of Obsidian as a document writing tool, if by ā€œdocumentā€ you mean something formatted and otherwise prepared for sending to someone else. I do a lot of writing in Obsidian, but once Iā€™m ready to ship it somewhere else, the text goes to another program.

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#3

For formatting help inspired by more traditional document editors, you might want to take a look at the plugin cMenu by Chetachi. It creates a menu on the bottom of the screen that lets you more easily bold, quote, codeblock, etc.

You can adjust line length with CSS. Discord is a good place to ask for a snippet.

But as JAndrews2 said, Obsidian is not really a document writing tool. It works in markdown, which is basically processed plain text. It will never work in Rich Text Mode or as a substitute for Word or Docs. If you plan on exporting your writing other than as markdown/plain text/PDF, you need to rely on third party solutions like Pandoc.

Maybe the expectations are a bit off considering what the app is?

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#4

I agree, that Obsidian is not meant to be a kind of Word or LaTeX type of document writing toolā€¦

But think about the situation, that you have to comply with rulez, that other entities force upon you, like do not use line lengths > 75 signsā€¦

So you write and work on the text, then you have to work on it again if you just copy text to Word or something else, the entity wantā€™s you to comply withā€¦

before using Obsidian I used plain text files in the Notepad++ environment, which is in some ways better, in many others worseā€¦

Iā€™d like to see the minimum capabilities of Notepad++ before completely switching to a single toolā€¦ like Obsidian. Implementing those basic things should not be that difficultā€¦ or does it? Nor is it a total strange thing to expect from a simple texteditorā€¦

#5

But Obsidian isnā€™t a text editor. Itā€™s a vault manager with integrated markdown editor.

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#6

In settings, you can set wrap lines and enforce readable line length. Does that match what youā€™re looking for/had in Notepad++?

#7

(Iā€™ve moved this to Help category. If you would like to make a feature request, please search the forums first, and make sure to list one thing per FR, following the template. Thanks!)

#8

afaik: No, there is currently no way of breaking a line after 80 signs or somethingā€¦

there are some murky workarounds, but they are murkyā€¦ Iā€™d like to see this as a basic feature for a simple taskā€¦

#9

I think the basic thing you do in Obsidian is to work with textā€¦
because of that, basic text editor functions of the best texteditors should be availableā€¦

automated linebreaks if you pass a boundary of 75 or whatever number of signs should be available as an option.
Itā€™s a very very basic texteditor featureā€¦ thatā€™s the was i think about it at leastā€¦

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#10

Iā€™m not really recommending this because Iā€™ve tried it and donā€™t really see it working for me but there is a thread on reddit about using VSCode to edit obsidian md files. It does work and there are plugins for VSCode to facilitate markdown so it may be something to look at, I just donā€™t see it working for me, Iā€™m quite happy with what Obsidian offers.

#11

Yeah I have to say its odd that Obsidian supports multiple cursors like a programmers editor yet doesnā€™t allow setting the line length.

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#12

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