Bases: Support Multiline Multirow Editing (Edit multiple files at once)

[Flummic]

I really love the new Bases-Feature and have high hopes for it’s development!
I think there is some huge potential here - e.g. with Multiline Editing for smooth Metadata-Updates across multiple files

Use case or problem

Often times you want to add the same tag/value to a property-field in multiple files
→ e.g. all files in this folder should get a specific tag

Proposed solution

this could be creatly facilitated by introducing multiline-edits to Bases!
This could work in multiple ways:

• select multiple lines (files) in a Base and then start editing a property (e.g. adding a tag) → that tag should be added to all the selected files simultanously
• allow “dragging down” a value like in excel → the user can select a property-value and then drag down to copy it over to other files below
• allow the user to copy/paste values (even multiple ones for tags/lists) into multiple lines (files) in a Base

This functionality could really improve how we can manage our “metadata” across multiple files in Obsidian - especially combined with the ability to quickly filter Bases for the desired files to change together!
I think it would be a huge win to enable a new way of “batch changes” in our vaults!

[blue_emperor]

Just asking how left clicking a table cell or dragging selection across different cells/rows works currently?

Based on this image

Left clicking a table cell can at least delete list items. I’m not sure about other features, for example can you edit single values and what happens when you left click these items like “A pattern Language”. Why these text values are underlined?

[Flummic]

Currently left-clicking and dragging does seem to do nothing - a single click into a cell lets you edit the content of the corresponding property though.

Left-clicking “A pattern Language” will open the corresponding note - those text-values are underlined because they are links

[blue_emperor]

I thought internal links are not rendered in bases, source:

Render Markdown in bases

Use case or problem I want to add some formatting to specific columns in a base table. Proposed solution Maybe treat all text as Markdown by default. Or add a function that specifically renders markdown in a string. I don’t have a preference here. Related feature requests (optional) There are also other things that can be achieved with this: tags and links images

[Flummic]

hmm might be a misunderstanding All I can say is that links are definitely rendered in all the Bases I have!

[Astrusia]

Yes, that would help so much with batch changes

[cmukesh19]

Currently we can edit one value at a time. Can we edit/ paste a scalar/ constant to multiple selected cells (i.e. operate on selected n cells together).

[dSebastien]

Use case or problem

It would be great to be able to select multiple cells and paste from keyboard. Useful when multiple cells (eg in a single column) should have the same value.

Proposed solution

Add support for multi select and pasting data from the clipboard.

Current workaround (optional)

Editing the notes using other means

[liberated_potato]

+1 for this and probably the following FR should be merged with this one: Select and edit multiple rows - Feature requests - Obsidian Forum

[KnikmanAV]

Use case or problem

Made a selection with bases. Had to change (edit or add or delete) the content of a field (a tag) of multiple rows (records) of the table. At the moment I have to do that record by record.

Proposed solution

It would be nice to have a possibility to select multiple rows in a table to bulk edit a field in the selected rows.

Current workaround (optional)

edit row by row

Related feature requests (optional)

[drivechipputt]

Use Case
Refining my notes from using tags to identify note types (i.e. #project) to using text strings “project”). Also generally trying to cleanup / reduce / refine my properties by using bases table views to quickly scan and identify notes which require attention / modification.

Would be extremely useful to have basic spreadsheet copy (cell, column, selection) and paste (cell, column, selection) for properties across multiple notes in table view to facilitate these types of bulk, no code, actions.

Current Workaround
The Multi Properties community plugin does allow editing bulk selected note properties via right click in bases. Feels a bit clunky but it does the job.

[Pch]

@drivechipputt

Would be extremely useful to have basic spreadsheet copy (cell, column, selection) and paste (cell, column, selection) for properties across multiple notes in table view to facilitate these types of bulk, no code, actions.

AFAIK, copying/pasting across multiple cells is feasible now though …
Since table in bases became more keyboard friendly with the release of Obsidian 1.10.3

[drivechipputt]

I’m on 1.10.3 and tried copying of the “cell” and of the text but paste didn’t paste. I can see the shift down highlights the cells but no paste…

[Pch]

You’re strangely not the 1st person mentioning this …
Someone on Discord ran into something similar recently… But I’ve not been able to reproduce the issue (at all) , so I have no idea why it appears to work for me but not for you ?

[OriginalHotrodder]

I’m running Obsidian 1.10.3 on Linux MInt using the aptimage and I can confirm that I can copy the cell (and confirmed that it copied by pasting into a text editor) but I cannot paste using ctrl+v into the selected cells above or below the copied cell in Base.

[Zodian]

To those who cannot paste into multiple cells in Base: have you tried updating the Obsidian Installer?

Update Obsidian - Obsidian Help

[Izzo]

Thank you! Updating the installer fixed it for me.

[lulamaemoon]

This worked for me too - thank you