Auto-Alias for Plurals, Abbreviations and Translations

Plugins ideas
1

Pluralised versions of words make my content super disjointed. For example, I have a bunch of ideas in separate pages for [[idea]] and [[ideas]]

I can never remember which one is the right one.

I could see that this might also be a problem with things like:

  • Abbreviations (e.g. AI, A.I., Artificial Intelligence)
  • Multi-lingual users
  • Alternative spellings (e.g. Decentralisation/Decentralization)

Does anyone else have this problem!?

I’m thinking of building a plugin that, whenever you create a new page, it automatically creates pages for plurals etc. and connects them via aliases.

That way, all of my ideas would be accessible via #idea or #ideas.

Would welcome any feedback!

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2

I thnk this solves Is there any way to automatically have plural links redirect to singular links?

and maybe this? Enhancing Search and Internal Link Creation with Plural Form Support - #4 by nicolas.lienart

3

you can use the various complements plugin and its vault complement

as you type, the aliases you’ve specified before can be entered and the plugin will add the proper link

use singular for notes and add plurals for aliases or after ]]

4

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

Does that mean as I create pages I need to type in all of the possible aliases each time? Like plurals, abbreviations, synonyms etc.

If so, I don’t think that solves it for me.

I don’t want the additional cognitive load of having to think about them as I’m writing, I want it to be automatic.

5

templater templates can take some of the load off of you, but other than that…yes, a vault needs user management

maybe you need an AI-assisted template – i never tried…

6

I think an AI-assisted template is basically the idea for the plugin!

Doesn’t look like many others have the same problem as me though

7

That would be great. Now I’m using Templater plugin to add the file title (Title Case) and lowercase the file title. But still, I need to update the aliases and make a ton of edits or possibilities that I am likely to use.

Some titles may have abbreviation in parentheses; for example: for a note about “real estate investment trust(s)”…

  • File Title would be “Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)” with the following aliases

  • title itself (which I might use as an alias in the internal links within sentences to preserve the phrase in case I change the title later) Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)

  • Templater would also include the lower case format: real estate investment trust (reit) [but in this case I’d delete it as I’m unlikely to use it this way with lower case initials in parentheses].

Then I’d add other aliases:

  • Real Estate Investment Trust
  • real estate investment trust
  • REIT
  • REITs (as this is most likely form of plural I’m likely to use).

So as you can see… It becomes very labor-intensive.

Automatic pluralization forms might be really helpful. (I might have thought about using Templater for plurals… But English plural rules gets complex for a simple Templater language!)

Another thing might be past tense of verbs. Say, for instance, for my note titled “Amortization”, I have Amortization, amortization, amortize, amortized as aliases (even not including UK -sation convention and plurals!) because I’m more likely to use amortized in sentences (than plural amortizations).

PS: i typically don’t use periods/full stops between initialisms (like AI vs A.I.; US vs U.S.) as a convention. But if I did, that would be another things as you mentioned!

PPS: Some notes may contain two or more topical “objects” - either because I haven’t split them into different notes (atomishly) or not have enough content currently to warrant a separate note (or should be together for context). Then, it would contain more aliases for those concepts and phrases.

For example:

  • Note title: “Moneyness”
  • The usual aliases as lowercase
    But also related phrases and their abbreviations of:
  • Out-of-the-Money (OTM), Out-of-the-Money, Out-of-the-Money, OTM
  • In-the-Money (ITM)… x4
  • At-the-Money (ATM) x 4

So… Became excessive? (Maybe I’m too obsessed?)

8

you are lucky with english, some other languages have a gajillion versions of declensions…

if you have the lowercase alternative in the alias, the ending of the words are rather easily edited on the go (using various complements), methinks…

9

So many examples! I hadn’t even thought of different tenses.

So in your typical workflow, as you’re creating each page you think through all of these different variations and add aliases yourself?

How useful would it be if that was done for you?

10

Tremendously! (Might still need to do manual clean up for those not likely to be used but some stuff can be automated.)

Yes, I have the file name (in Title Case) and it’s lower case version automated via Templater. Otherwise, I just add them manually. (Probably not all possibilities all the time to keep it relatively trimmed as much as possible. But those likely to occur in my own notes or in other’s writings, such as my highlights via Readwise.)

I do this to (re-)discover notes and links in other notes. (Like mentions of REITs in notes written previously or where I didn’t link while writing.)

Particularly because if I wanted to just update a part of the already created alias (for typos or other reasons), I have to switch to Source Mode (I use Live Preview typically). [I don’t know how to edit aliases in Live Preview.]

11

Very interesting, thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

But those likely to occur in my own notes or in other’s writings, such as my highlights via Readwise.)

This is exactly what I worry about! I want to make sure I haven’t missed a specific author’s discussion on my topic, even if they use a slightly differently formed version of the word.

I imagine there are more out there with a similar workflow…

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