Checklist with settable "completed" categories

[stuartlangridge]

What I’m trying to do

I have a list of “ideas for birthday/Christmas presents” that I keep for friends and family. There’s one list per person. When I tick something off because I’ve got it, it goes into a section in “got” titled for (a) them and (b) when it was got, such as “Christmas 2024” or “birthday 2023”. That way, I have a record of things I might want to get and also things I already have got, where I can know when I got it.

That is, the current list (which is one long text document) looks like this:

Not yet got

Mum

• shears
• long blue jacket (here is a URL for the jacket on the shop’s website)
• hair thingy

Bruce

• Labyrinths by Borges
• shoe polish kit

Got

Christmas 2024

Mum

• glasses case
• headphones

Bruce

• wooden spoon

Christmas 2023

Mum

• party hats
• dice bag

What I want to do is replicate this in Obsidian somehow, to make it easier. At the moment I have to cut and paste items from the “not got” section into the appropriate “got” section a lot, which is a bit fiddly. It would be nice if I could have a sort of checklist with tickboxes in the “not got” section, where ticking something off puts it into the most recent “got” section, creating the name it’s under as it does so.
(That is, I add a new empty section called “Christmas 2025” under “got”. Then I tick off “shears” on my mum’s list; it should create a new “mum” section under “Christmas 2025” (because “Christmas 2025” is the most recent section), and then add “shears” into it and delete “shears” from the “not got” list.)

Things I have tried

I’ve tried a bunch of searches and looking through community plugins, but the problem I have here is really an embarrassment of riches; there are about six million plugins to do lists. Obviously I can systematically try them all but that will take a very long time, and I don’t really know how to describe the above plan in a search query in such a way as to narrow down that search for plugins. So, I come for advice. Is this something that an existing plugin (or many of them!) can be easily configured to do? Or is this too specific and weird a need and I should be looking at building myself a plugin with the API?

[ariehen]

@noonehere Thanks for helping!

This is an English speaking forum. Please post in English or include an English translation. Thanks!

[noonehere]

我用翻译软件浏览了你的问题，你是想要一个相对完整的清单管理？首先你是给你或你的朋友家人整理好想要的东西，然后在后续对应的节日或者一般日子获得了这些礼物，你就会把他们变成已获得状态
我不知道你是否具体研究过obsidian软件，我有个大概想法，并且也准备做一个这样的清单

1. 给对象建立笔记，比如说父亲 母亲 好朋友等等，这里面可以配和quickadd还有template插件（搭配起来十分强大，配合上快捷键非常非常好用），比如某一天父亲想要什么东西，你可以记录下想要的东西，同时记录下时间
2. 与1类似，你在给对象记录想要的物品时，给物品也建立笔记，物品笔记里，你可以添加物品的商店地址，或者打折信息等等，所有你可能觉得需要的关于某件物品的信息
3. 现在我们已经有了对象，还有对象想要的东西，现在我们要把它汇总一下，base插件做一个查询视图，这里面需要规划好笔记的yaml部分，你可以给物品笔记新建一个yaml属性，名字任意（比如：是否已获得），类型选择“复选框”，在以后如果你已经获得的时候，选择这个复选框，有了这个属性后，你在base里就能通过这个属性的状态来筛选是否获得，然后到了这里，因为我还没具体实践，还没有想好怎么记录下获得的时间（这里面有一个复杂的办法，我之前用过，插件里有个叫kanban的，配合quickadd和template，可以在创建笔记的时候，在kanban里创建一条记录，kanban支持完成态，拖拽扔进去就行，但我不建议，我觉得这个功能过于繁琐）
4. 关于3，还有部分使用交互我想说明下，比如说我在2026年春节收到了一个想要的礼物，那我以2026春节作为主题建一个笔记，然后我会在笔记里写一些春节的内容，里面包含我收到的东西，在这里就会有各种办法，把收到的礼物跟愿望单关联上，比如我用软件提供双链来记录物品，如果里面的东西是我想要的，我也记录了，我可以快速找到，然后进入那个笔记去修改是否已获得的状态，或者这个礼物没有记录，但是我也会记录下来，那我就可能使用快捷键调用quickadd，快速建立一个物品的链接，所以，在1中给对象建立的笔记，我补充愿望单物品时，也使用双链进行添加，如果出现了已获得物品，你就可以找到，这样的场景，可能还能帮你回忆起你已经收到但忘记的东西
5. 以上，是我的一些想法，看了你的这个问题，我觉得我也需要这样一个vault

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I used translation software to read your question. You want a relatively complete list management system, right? Here’s my proposed approach:

1. Recipient Note Creation

Create notes for recipients such as “Father”, “Mother”, or “Good Friend”. Use the QuickAdd and Template plugins (highly effective when combined, especially with keyboard shortcuts). For example, if your father wants an item on a specific date, record the desired item along with the timestamp.

2. Item Note Documentation

Similar to step 1, create separate notes for each desired item. Include details like:

• Store addresses
• Discount information
• Any other relevant item-specific details

3. Aggregation with Base Plugin

Use the Base plugin to create a query view by configuring the YAML frontmatter:

• Add a custom YAML property (e.g., “Obtained”) with a checkbox type
• Filter items by their “Obtained” status using this property

Note: I haven’t finalized the acquisition time recording method. A previous approach involved the Kanban plugin with QuickAdd/Template integration for drag-and-drop completion tracking, but this is overly complex and not recommended.

4. Usage Interactions

For example, when receiving a gift during the 2026 Spring Festival:

1. Create a festival-themed note (e.g., “2026 Spring Festival”)
2. Document festival activities and received gifts
3. Link gifts to wishlist items using:

• Bidirectional links for pre-recorded items (modify “Obtained” status directly)
• QuickAdd keyboard shortcuts for new items (instantly create item links)

5. Additional Benefits

• Use bidirectional links in recipient notes to track wishlist items
• Automatically surface forgotten received items through link navigation

These ideas emerged from your question, and I realize this system would be valuable for my own use as well.

[noonehere]

I supplemented the English translation using AI. Could you please review if this way is acceptable?

[stuartlangridge]

ah. I don’t really want lots of separate notes for each person and event; I did think of that, so thank you for the suggestion, but this fragments things a bit too much. My current setup where it’s all in one note is much more convenient. I appreciate the idea, though; I will look at those plugins that you mention!