I haven’t used Roam intensively, but I’m all for this feature request. I think it’s a key feature for any bi-directional notetaking app.
A similar feature in VS Code is find all references/ peek reference. An example is shown below. That is, wherever a reference appears, you can list all references.
Thank you, this was one of the key features I was missing in Obsidian!
Though splitting into atomic notes is a possibility, and it can be automated, the problem is that separate notes cannot be linked as an indented structure like in an outliner. For those familiar with blocks and indenting capabilities, Obsidian becomes a huge tradeoff. Going by the exchanges on the discord and the forum, heavy Obsidian users do not use blocks at all and therefore I doubt if this will find broader support going forward.
nice job!
The video is not available. I don’t see how to access the “button” that the release notes say is added to Obsidian.
If I look at outliners - Logseq, Roam, Workflowy/Dynalist, for example - I perceive the later as being most effective as outliners with the others having extra features but some trade off.
But, Obsidian is not an outliner at all.
However, it would be possible for a plugin to create a fully indented outline structure from blocks, headings or files quite easily. It would need three components:
An alternative to the last stage is opening the OPML in another outliner such as Workflowy/Dynalist.
What this wouldn’t do is make everything in a Vault part of an outline. If that’s needed, it’s probably best to open the folder in Logseq.
This is true, and many do it, and it’s a type of faux block, but I don’t see any advantage to it myself. The idea derives I presume from the zettelkasten community and Ahrens etc. But even a short phrase can contain many ideas (see analyses of any ancient text) and a single idea may take a lot of defining.
That’s certainly true for me.
What I want from any note will vary and blocks are too restrictive. I may need just a word, or a phrase, a fact or even an explanation covering several paragraphs. And I also want the context, if there is one. I find the easiest solution is much longer notes or documents with highlights defining what I want with the ability to use those highlights.
What I want from any note will vary and blocks are too restrictive. I may need just a word, or a phrase, a fact or even an explanation covering several paragraphs. And I also want the context, if there is one. I find the easiest solution is much longer notes or documents with highlights defining what I want with the ability to use those highlights.
How do you link parts form a long note without a block reference?
Go to header, look at the highlights in context. Highlights already extracted.
Would you be able to explain a bit more? I am keen to learn further. TIA
I’m not sure what you want explaining.
There are many ways of working using highlights, and a number of plugins designed to suit different approaches. The Extract Highlights plugin does most of this (links to note rather than header, so header has to be added yourself).
But it’s a different way of working.
Students in ancient days had books and some had highlighters. One tribe of that ilk drew a line down the margin, while the larger tribe highlighted specific words, phrases and paragraphs. I think this is the same difference in approach.
you need to install the plugin via Community Plugins. The counter buttons are currently only viewable in Preview mode.
You can if you put an Exclamation mark in front 
).
To be clear though, the value of inline backlinks is especially high for block references because those links are not actually accessible elsewhere (whereas, while it would be very nice to see inline backlinks for each page link, you can already see that info by going to the page and looking at its backlinks). But hopefully bringing in this feature for page links would make it more valuable for the many Obsidian users who do not super actively use block references.
But even though many people do not use block references, I still think this feature would be great (for those who do use them) and I also think that it absolutely fits the Obsidian “ethos.”
First of all, the use case is obviously very valid - the Bible verse example given above illustrates it quite well. And while yes you can make everything into individual notes, that is often far from ideal. Which is probably why obsidian does have block references implemented! So this seems like a very logical and valuable feature.
For those pointing out that Obsidian is not an outliner:
To me, it absolutely fits in with Obsidian’s broader value proposition, which is to enable and surface connections between notes. Seeing inline backlinks to page and block references, as well as to tags, is a great way to see more connections immediately, and in-context. And yes you can get this info by clicking on the link and going to the backlinks section, but how often do we do that? Having it right there adds huge value. And it surfaces connections that otherwise would not be noticed.
As for implementation, I used to use the block reference counter plugin, until I noticed that the readme for that plugin indicated that development had either slowed or ceased, and recommended another plugin, which seems to have succeeded it. The new plugin is called Strange New Worlds by TfTHacker. It is absolutely incredible, and for those who like the idea of this feature, but perhaps don’t fully understand its value, take a look at this plugin.
It uses Obsidian’s index, which means it is actually quite fast. By the way, that also demonstrates that Obsidian’s design and implementation do not preclude this feature at all.
Of course, the fact that there is a plugin may imply less urgency for this being implemented as a native feature, but unless the plugin is exclusively using documented API functionality (I don’t think it is, but not sure), it’s quite possible it could be broken later. Not to mention that providing this info as part of the API seems like it would be really useful for not just this feature, but probably for lots of other plugins like Dataview.
Anyway, this plugin is in beta, and therefore has to be installed outside of the community plugin interface. You can do it using BRAT (a plugin that makes it super easy to install other plugins from a Github repo if they aren’t available through the community market).
Hope this is useful, and again, strong +1 for this being implemented natively .
very valuable +1
This feature would help out a tonne!
If I am not mistaken this is now covered by the Strange New Worlds plug-in. If true, this FR can be closed @WhiteNoise .
I like SNW, but I feel like this functionality is critical enough that it would be best added to Obsidian core, not a plugin, in the long-term. This, seamless editable transclusions, a few others. Is the point of this thread (and others) getting the functionality added in Obsidian core (with plugin discussion in the middle being extremely useful), or getting it added any way?
It’s fuzzy. We tend not to close FRs until they are implemented in core, but many FRs are the inspiration for plugins, and the existence of plugins can make FRs less needful.
Just moved over from Roam to Obsidian and block reference count is the only major missing feature at the moment (at least to my use case). The caret internal reference is already powerful, so the reference count (and optional sorting which is missing in Roam) would perfect that.
