try this text launcher.ahk by dave3456 from Dynalist forum
it can open urls and file directory, maybe someone who knows ahk can improve or add more features like opening certain application based on their extension, eg *.html will open in a browser.
@subie Thanks for that. I was not looking for a launcher, just the link syntax. I’m on a Mac and it works a bit differently from Windows.
When I was on Windows in the past I used AHK - marvellous program, although I never mastered the coding 
Opening links to local files works by using Typora as external editor, please implement the same feature for the internal obsidian markdown editor !
Thank you for our efforts
i also need this feature badly.
@pwmd Thanks for the DevonThink (x-devonthink) tip, works great using Typora. The MD test-files I’m sharing between DT and Obsidian are stored in and Obsidian vault on iCloud and indexed in DT, not stored in DT.
This is added in v.0.7.1
https://forum.obsidian.md/t/obsidian-release-v0-7-1/1829
[File](file:///...) links in preview.Not sure if it works MacOS, iOS, Android, and Linux .
[File](file:///...) works on windows
Do you plan to implement images too ?
currently
<img src="file:///..."></img>
are not working
Please open a separate feature request for embeds, thanks!
Please file a separate bug instead of appending to an existing feature request, thanks, otherwise we’ll never be able to close this… 
(Looks like someone already filed it: External-links with non-ASCII names do not work (Chinese, Cyrillic, etc))
Yes I believe it works, at least it should. If you have repro steps that it doesn’t work for a certain OS, file a bug.
would it possible for a plugin to open local files? something like ZimDesktopWiki Default Application
Just to inform everybody who want to link to and open local files on a Mac: I have successfully used the markdown link provided by Hook to link to local files and folders.
Best regards
New Obsidian user here. I decided to finally organise my notes and Obsidian seems ideal! I’d be happy to pay even for the personal version. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to make arbitrary files in the vault linkable from the md docs in the vault.
The whole vault will be synced using Unison or SyncThing to other machines, so I need a way to do relative paths, to make the links work on any machine irrespective of the location of the vault. The [link name](file:///…) approach works but works with absolute paths, so it is tied to a single machine, almost completely negating the advantage of Obsidian operating over a regular folder.
I registered a handler to open ad-hoc URLs of the form zk://relative/path/to/file on one of my machines as a temporary solution, but I don’t want to have to do this on every machine.
Obsidian vaults are likely to be synced to other machines, so in my opinion all links should be relative, not absolute.
If there is a better solution to this use case, I’d be grateful.
Other than that, fantastic work!
@pbazant you are replying to an archived thread, with a slightly related topic. You would be better to create a new feature request. That way, people can vote for it if they agree that they want this functionality.
While agreeing with @rigmarole, I’d also point you to Preferences → File → New Link Format, where you can tell Obsidian to use relative path to file instead of the shortest name possible.
I don’t quite follow your use case, but it sounds like that might help.
@ryanjamurphy they are presumably talking about linking arbitrary files.
For example, linking to a zip file that is inside your vault. You cannot link to an attachment using the same format as images or markdown. You have to use file:///. But if using file:///, it requires a full absolute path, even if it is inside your vault.
(As far as I can test.)
So on different computers, that absolute path to the Obsidian vault may differ and the link would break.
My bad, I’ll create a new request! Thanks.
If the external-links has a whitespace (e.g. [link](file:///F:/Program Files) ), it also does not work.
Also, I used many #, [] for my external files link…Don’t know if the MarkDown could use external-links like this, I’m a noob.
I saw a changelog of Obsidian Release v0.8.6 (Insider build), hope it can fix the whitespace problem.
You should use %20 instead of spaces.
