Autocomplete title suggestions when creating a new note

Feature requests
22

Ok, edited the FR title for clarity

24

Since this request partially deals with avoiding notes with duplicate names, I wanted to link this feature request: Warning: Note with same name exists in another folder

Thanks!

25 
.theme-light, .theme-dark { 
	--link-unresolved-color: var(--color-yellow); 
	--link-unresolved-opacity: 0.7; 
	--link-unresolved-filter: none; 
	--link-unresolved-decoration-style: dotted; 
	--link-unresolved-decoration-color: var(--color-yellow); 
}
26

@Allcry Glad the CSS worked out.

I edited your post and put it in a code block for you. Hope that’s fine.

For next time, have a look at the Forum use and formatting tips for posting code in the forum. For CSS, you can surround the code on a line above and below with ``` to make it

look like this

:whale:

1 Like
27

This would be great :+1:

When inputting a note title, Obsidian should search across all unresolved links in the vault and show suggestions that match the input, much like the auto-suggester when you input [[ in note but for unresolved links only.

Unresolved link will appear in the Quick switcher (if the relevant setting is enabled) or in the modal that opens when you press “Go to file” on the new tab page but:

  1. You need to remember to always create new notes this way, which is easy to forget.
  2. It also searches for existing notes, which makes unresolved links easier to miss or mistake for resolved links.
28

I am new to Obsidian but it seems to me obvious that there is a problem with Obsidian in terms of title and note name. As @robertandrews has already pointed out there are multiple problems with how Obsidian is addressing this issue, e.g. [quote=“robertandrews, post:7, topic:43089”]
Why shouldn’t the H1 title get actually written to the file?
[/quote]
I agree with @robertandrews on all points but can no longer add to that discussion. I hope it is fine to come in here by my following arguments that matter in this context:

  1. File name and note title are two different things. Obsidian should allow them to be completely different objects, regardless whether contents differ or not.
  2. When creating a note it is fine to let the user start typing something, which then becomes the note title as well as the file name of the note. When starting that first line with # the software should then ignore that markdown h1 level title prefix and use what I just typed thereafter as the file name. Once hitting ENTER/RETURN the file name as well as the note title should then be completed and are thereafter allowed to start to differ. As of this point both objects need to be always distinguished. The user can rename the file or edit the first line to become a nice title, e.g. to remove the prefix # and demote to simple text or to otherwise edit the first line, e.g. to promote it to become a h1 title. BTW, ‘iA Writer’ creates notes in exactly this manner and this works really very well there IMHO.
  3. Unfortunately for Obsidian results redundancy when using a h1 title, which IMHO is rather annoying. Therefore Obsidian should NOT treat the file name as the title and show it always like a title at the top of every note. Removing those h1 titles from the content of every note appears to me to be no acceptable solution and I would strongly advise against all such approaches.
  4. For all those like me who want to have every note starting with a h1 title (for arguments see @robertandrews excellent points), then there should be an option/preference “Show file name as note title” that can be turned off, so that the note’s file name being shown as a title is suppressed. Perhaps it can be shown unconspicuously somewhere else preceded by a label such as 'File name: ', but please not formatted as a title.
  5. For all those users who are fine with not starting a note with a h1 title, their needs can also be met easily by the very same option/preference “Show file name as note title”. If on Obsidian shows the file name formatted as a title as done by current Obsidian behavior. As this seems common practice among many Obsidian users, such an option/preference “Show file name as note title” could solve all the problems with current Obsidian behaviour as I see it. I would also not mind to have that option on by default given current Obsidian behaviour.
  6. When creating a note using the internal linking mechanism nothing special is happening as this is the same functionality as described under point 2. However, again there are two objects involved, the name of the file and the actual title of the note. Once created by link, those two objects may start to differ. I would suggest that the note title as shown in the link is either what can be found in the h1 title (markdown prefix #) or then the file name. It is the true note title that should be used for internal links including what is shown in the local graph. In case of h1 title prefixed by # it is clear what the value of that object ‘note title’ is. In case of not starting a note by a h1 title prefixed by #, then the file name should be taken for the value of that object ‘note title’. In this case again internally within Obsidian we probably need to have two distinct objects (instantiations), just containing the same or different strings, depending on the case, while the linking is technically of course done via the file name. However, I might digress as this touches already too much on the actual implementation. With this comment I wish to rather focus on the user model of Obsidian.

As I do not know who is listening here and whether the developers of Obsidian can learn from these ideas I am happy to be educated how to get such a preference added to Obsidian to resolve this ugly redundancy from Obsidian without forcing anyone to change their habits while supporting neat and formally consistent note taking.