I have found a workaround that I will be using from now on since Licat has formally stated the automatic update of links to headers will not be implemented.
I have a vault with many long notes in which there are headers and subheaders. I need the Number heading plug-in to help me navigate those notes.
I also use transclusions a lot. If it is just a paragraph I want to transclude, a block reference is sufficient; even for a header with 3-4 paragraphs it is doable to transclude each one separately so as to avoid linking to the header.
But when a header has more than 4 paragraphs it is not doable. So, then I would make my transclusion link to the header and all the paragraphs below until the next header (of equal level or 1 higher) will be shown. That is where the automatic update would be required.
Merging those paragraphs into 1 big block of text to not have to link to the header is not acceptable for readability in Live Preview and Reading mode.
So, here is what can be done: place a <br> between paragraphs, which effectively merges them into 1 block of text, but the <br>, which is not visible when not in focus (at least in my set-up), renders them as separate paras in LP and Reading mode.
You can then link to/transclude that one block of text, and that way a change in the header above will not break the link.
You can add a block reference to a heading (I just checked after reading your post). Itās a little ugly because it takes on the heading formatting, but it is properly hidden in reading view.
This has to be added manually right? (you need to make a hex code or a human readable ID with the format ^... next to the heading)
If you have Plugin Creases installed it will hides the block ref at heading level (and also helps render Latex and Links) in the Outline pane. Itās made by Liam Cain, now a team member, so I hope it will be incorporated into Obsidian one day. Would be a nice QoL improvement.
Iām a noob, but can the implementation be like below?
Treat the Heading reference just like block reference (attaching a UUID to it. This make the UX consistent.
Have 2 embed syntaxes, one to embed only the heading, and the other to embed the heading with its content.
For that you could make a date-based ID in a template, like ^{{date:YYYYMMDDHHmmss}}. You might be able to do something fancier using the Templater community plugin (which I havenāt used).
Wasnāt there another plug-in that generates those random 6-digit numbers with a caret in front automatically? I cannot for the life of me remeber which one it is. It is not the Templater.
Thereās a Copy Block Link.
If you use it with a regular block (paragraph), itāll generate the block ID and copy the block ref. However, with headings it doesnāt generate the block ID, and the block ref copied in clipboard is in Obsidian Heading reference format ([[Note name#Header]]). I guess Iāll submit a feature request then.
Got it, thanks a lot. You may be a noob, but you sure know whatās going on a lot better than me whoās been using Obs since May 2020!
Anyway, an FR is a possibility, but bear in mind there are something like 1600+ FRs already. This is not meant as a negative comment because not all FRs have the same weight; it is meant as realism.
It is me again, sorry to bother you, but I wonder if I am on the wrong track again.
Letās say in Note1 I have a header like this: # Some header ^f5e1lq.
If I then want to link to it from Note 2 like so [[Note1^f5e1lq]]
it will say that the note is not created yet, i.e. you cannot link to an ID number in a heading.
When linking using the block ID, you need to follow the block reference syntax, which is [[Note name#^BlockID]]. Your syntax missed the hash sign #. Also, if you embed a heading using the block ID reference, the body content of the heading wonāt be embedded. We still have to use the Heading syntax here (which breaks if the heading is changed).
When I mentioned an FR above, I was talking about an FR for the Copy Block plugin to have a command to refer to a heading using block ID syntax. But then I ran into that issue above, that to embed the body content we still have to use the heading syntax. So thereās no way to truly workaround the fact that Obsidian wonāt update the Heading reference link if you donāt remember to use the Rename Heading command. And Iāll have to train myself to use the command every time I want to rename a header (The Block-reference-count plugin count should help?)
I so wanted to use the Number Headings Plugin but Iāll have to stop now. Thereās already an FR for the plugin to update links to heading, but I donāt have much hope that it can be implemented (it probably has the same constraints you mentioned above by the Obsidian devs) (Edit: lol I just read your comment from January saying that the dev said āthe numbering NOT be part of the noteā couldnāt be implemented. Thanks for exploring this avenue so that I donāt have to.)
Youāre good! Youāre very active in the community and Iāve benefited a lot from that (for example the CSS repository. Great contribution to the community and thank you so much!).
I could shoot myself for this stupidity, of course I knew about the #. I use the Copy Block Link so you donāt get to type the syntax. Thanks for pointing it out.
Yes, the embedding issue remains, so using the Creases plug-in just to hide the ID in a heading that I donāt use so much is pointless.
When you rename a file, the links are automatically updated. This is the expected behavior for headings. I understand that this could be hard to implement but this is our unanimous feedback. Without this, renaming headers is feels broken. Right clicking on headings to rename headings is unnatural.
