I’m probably doing something really silly here, but I’m confused by the new note feature, using ‘’‘nn’’’. If I do this I get a new note with the title set to the argument I used in Alfred.
Is there anyway to get the workflow to either add to the body of that note, or to make Obsidian the active application with that note selected, so I can just start typing?
Hi, @Marwood.
I’m not near my Mac right now, and I’m not sure that I recall correctly, but I think the workflow is supposed to open the newly created note on the configured external editor. If you haven’t configured one, maybe that’s the problem.
Anyway, that doesn’t make sense anymore. The workflow should just use obsidian. I’ll change that.
Thanks!
Ah - that makes sense. I’ve not configured an external editor - I’m trying to stick with different editors for different contexts - Obsidian for Zettelkasten and GTD Reference Material, Bear for long-form writing, and Drafts for the stuff I just brain dump before finding a proper home for it (Although Obsidian is quickly taking over for that, with your append to Day Note tool)
Thanks 
Another slightly odd issue, again, likely related to me being dense.
If I use the add journal entry command, it creates a new note in the root of my Day Notes folder (Red in the attached). If I use the "Open day’s daily note’ command it creates a nested folder structure (Green in attached).
How do I get the two commands to look at the same note? Ideally I’d like the nested folder structure, but with the note having the full date as the title (So yyyy-mm-dd eeee, but inside the folder structure)
Hi! I just built some LaunchBar actions for Obsidian. Not sure is exactly what you are looking for. But maybe you get some hints and come up with your own.
Hi! This looks interesting! I was using some cludgy shortcuts with a combination of BTT and LaunchBar’s ability to append text to any text file. I’ll take a look at this later. The search script looks quite useful.
I use “v” to open my vault, but the vault does not open, any thoughts??? And I greatly thank you for all your hard work and dedication.
Hi Yaaqoub,
Did you set up the external_editor environment variable to something like ~/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app?
It has to be a valid path to a text editor capable of handling directories.
If this is set up correctly but the action still doesn’t work, please enable Alfred’s debugging mode, run v again and DM me the logs.
Cheers!
Did you ever get this sorted? I opened an issue in the GitHub just now, but you may already hold the answer.
I’m back from the future to provide my younger self with the answer. Alfred has a slightly different date format, or it’s less forgiving than obsidian. You will need to edit the date value for each action in the workflow.
It is clunky with tasks because the task’s action specifies the date and links it to your daily note, and your daily note path is janky af.
If you spend some time looking at the workflow, you should make changes that make it work the way you prefer.
@macedotavares Thanks a bunch for this. Made my workflow so much better. One question though, I generally like the file format for my daily notes to be MM-DD-YYYY, but noticed that {var:date} variable always produces the format YYYY-MM-DD.
Is there a way to change this?
I am facing the same problem. Did you solve the problem?
I came across this yesterday after watching the YouTube video of this Alfred workflow from Bryan Jenks.
You will need to change the date variable in the workflow from {date:yyyy-MM-dd} to {date:MM-dd-yyyy}.
Do this by double clicking on this workflow object:
You will need to change it for each workflow that uses the date variable.
The filename of my daily notes is in the yyyy-mm-dd format so I did not test it. But I have verified the format did change using the workflow debug utility.
HTH.
I am having issues with the setup, think it may be the fact my vault is in icloud. Anyone get their icloud setup to work?
[12:49:44.000] ERROR: Obsidian Utilities[Write Text File] Unable to write file ‘blah blah blah /Daily Notes/2022-12-29.md’ as parent folder does not exist
Go to System Preferences → Apple ID (at the top right) → iCloud (tab on the left) → Try to uncheck “Optimize Mac Storage”.
This might force your files to stay downloaded locally. (It should, but I don’t really know if iCloud respects the setting.) If it’s checked, it may be offloading to the cloud, and appearing missing to Alfred/Obsidian.
Now I get a new error
07:31:34.225] ERROR: Obsidian Utilities
i love this workflow/utility - esp the dj (j) add journey entry option – i altered the input to display how i want it to… but… the only thing i’m noticing and cant’ seem to resolve is where the cursor picks up after the entry – it seems that the cursor lands above the entry, i’d like it to land below the entry so i can continue on with my thoughts… any ideas guys? anyone else encountered and solutioned for this? img below
You need to edit the Obsidian Utilities workflow in Alfred:
Double click on the higlighted object (the one with ‘append to file’)…
Edit what’s in the black dialogue box. I can’t remember what the original was. You need to experiment with it to get it right. I think to have the cursor below what you have entered using dj ...., place the cursor on the following line after {query}.
This is a great workflow utiltiy as you can dj... even when Obsidian is not running as it modifies the markdown file directly. This is provided you have set up the right paths and naming convention.
Hope this helps.
thanks for this, i’ve edited this area a couple of times to change the formats how i wanted, however, the cursor still picks up right at the top after it enters my query.
First red arrow at top shows where cursor falls - second red arrow showcases last input using dj command
Seems my response was incorrect to what you needed.
Adding text using Obsidian Utilties does not affect the cursor as it operates independent of Obsidian itself.
There’re a couple of options:
{query} <% tp.file.cursor() %> and using the assigned keyboard shortcut (Opt-Tab on Mac) to move the cursor to that position.Ctrl-End (PC), Cmd-End (Mac), Cmd-Down (Mac) to move cursor to end of file.