Adding Links & Tags to Multiple Files/Folders - insert options from anywhere & using MOCs

Many times you want to add tags/links to multiple files at once. This could be in setting up your Vault & PKM system, transferring your previous use of folders to links/tags, or in easily making Indexes or changes status to various notes.

Here’s a rough process I conceptualize this could be done:

Key Elements

  1. “Add to” option via UI button, right click option, or hotkey.
  2. Select source/destination
  • Highlight a link/tag/text, “add to”, select destination
  • Multi select files/folders in File Explore/Graph, “add”, select tag/link
  • Highlight a link/tag, while in a note, select “Add to all Links in Note”

Selecting Destination:

The select designations suggestion box searches:
Files, Folders, Custom Categories (MOC, ToCs, Templates, etc)

Destination Suggestion Box can be filtered by “kind” similar to “#” filtering to headers while in the link suggestion box. As with link suggestion, if none exist continue typing to create.

Examples:

  • Select folder “Psychology Assessments”, “add to”, filter to find, “Psychology Assessments MOC” (creating MOCs from folders)
  • In “Indian Fusion Recipes MOC” consisting of notes of recipes, I want to add the following tags to the individual files listed in this MOC. I select “#recipes”, “#Indian-food”, “#fusion-recipes” and then select “Add to All Links in Note”
  • I have a large note on “Optimal Note Organization” which has many links in it and I’d like to turn this note into a MOC, so I select “Make Index of Links in Note”
  • I select tag “#book-ideas”, “add to”, then filter suggestion box to folders (via typing “>” for example), select folder “Book Ideas” and then all the files in that folder would have the “#book-ideas” added to them (an example of transferring folders into a PKM)
  • following the recipe MOC example I may want to apply “#attempted” to a specific selection of links in the MOC - select the links, “add to”, select/input the tag
  • also perhaps in this MOC I’d like to bring in links of all the recipes that have “#fusion” & “#attempted”, so with “add links”, apply the conditions, then it’ll past a list of links into your MOC which you can now cull, rearrange, sort at your digression

Plugin Settings:

Insert Location - where in the file insert the text. Top/Bottom of file.


Additional idea mentioned - Custom File Categories
A prefix or attribute that the user can add to a file for features/navigation/filtering.
Examples: Template, MOCs, ToCs, Index.

16 Likes

Yes, this makes sense for the vast majority of users.

If, however, you are willing to use your computer’s “Terminal” application, you don’t need it, because Unix has rpl, a “replace” command that works on groups of files.

Remember that all Obsidian files are text files, so any Unix command will work on them. Obsidian then reads and interprets the files accordingly.

Some Unix commands date back to 1960, so they are very mature. They have now become very reliable and powerful.

rpl will be fine in Unix/Linux, but the version available to macOS is not OK.

Try sed or gnu-sed (gsed).

If you have Python3 and pyenv installed, and you’ve told pyenv to use a python3 version, you can install the latest version of rpl by using
pip install rpl

This would be very useful. I’m reorganizing hundreds of notes and would love a quick way to drop tags on all notes in a folder.

Me too. I don’t know much about the terminal. I know nothing about the techniques that you are talking about above. I am transferring notes from Bear. 400 notes all with no proper links. Yikes.

1 Like