I see, that is indeed different. Or if the mobile app you’re using only auto-completes filenames, not existing link names.
Thanks for the clarification, @curtismchale!
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So are we talking about being able to search links that don’t have files behind them? Will these links still show up on the graph?
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They exist both in link auto-complete and graph view from my testing.
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Quick switcher indeed does not show links, and that’s quite inconsistent. Good feature request candidate!
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Under that topic there’s a backlink to here, haha. Just like GitHub. Sorry I just found it funny since it’s a little meta 
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Bidirectional linking FTW!
Preference setting. Kind of makes sense.
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Ah, my bad for not checking the behavior carefully enough! That does indeed do pretty much all I want (though curtismchale makes a good point that I hadn’t even considered). I didn’t realize links without files behind them showed up in autocomplete (I thought I had checked that, perhaps I did with a previous version where it wasn’t implemented yet. I haven’t been using very regularly, precisely because I didn’t realize this was implemented!)
Hey all, I found this thread when searching for an answer about basic backlinking functionality that works great in Roam but not so much in Obsidian: when I enter a new page [[foo]] in a note, I expect that page to be automatically created.
- Reading this thread, I see that [[foo]] does automatically show up in auto-complete.
- However, it does not show up as a page under Quick Switch (CMD+O). I feel like it should, no? When things are flowing out of my brain, [[new page]] tags should show up as destinations anytime I pull up Quick Switch.
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The new (empty) page is created only when you actually click on an [[internal link]]. This is why it does not shows in Quick Switch: it just does not exists.
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Yep, I understand that’s the current behavior in Obsidian. My suggestion is that is should work like Roam: where the page is automatically created as soon as the first reference is created.
Use case: you’re free-flowing, typing your notes out in a meeting and highlighting [[topics]] as you go. I wouldn’t expect that I have to go back thru my notes and CMD+click every item to create the page.
Let’s say I reference [[a_topic]] 10 times but never CMD+clicked it. It would be odd to go into my vault, hit CMD+O and not be able to find it, no?
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Maybe this option should go to settings - in my workflow, I often create [[link]] for later when in write about topics, I don’t need them to be created right away
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TiddlyWiki doesn’t create the file until the link is clicked. This could work for this situation. TW also displays links to non-existent files in italics.
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I agree that just removing the need to click or open a link would be great, typically I just write the links in as I’m going and then have to go back through and click each of them to generate a new note (which I later fill in) but I would prefer if just typing them created them and then I could fill them in later. As it is if I happen to miss a link I’ve created when I look back over my note then that linked note doesn’t get created (until I inevitably link to it from elsewhere, which may not be immediate).
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I really like this idea of special styling for links that don’t have files. Perhaps this should be its own feature request.
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this is exactly what I would like to see too, I often find myself in exactly the situation you’re describing.
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I prefer the existing functionality for a variety of reasons and think automatic file creation on linking should be optional. I don’t want those files around until I’m ready to create them.
Re: Italizicing non-existent links:
I have many links that are titled after books and other sources which are already italicized.
I think an “exists” class in the CSS might be preferable, so it could be italicized, highlighted, differently colored, or just left alone in whatever way an individual prefers.
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I can see that depending on the way you use obsidian this may be something that you may or may not wish, so I think having a toggle for this automatic file creation in the settings would be the best way to please as many people as possible. My problem with simply italicizing non-existent links is that there’s still no guarantee that I would ever actually get around to creating them and for me I would prefer to have them created, as my notes first go to a kind of ‘pending completion’ folder, which I work through, but without a note being in that folder, there’s no indication that I wanted it to exist in the past (as I said before, until I inevitable eventually link to it again).
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