#6

yes.
Continue from the example above: I would like to hide all paperXXX1
paperXXXn
So in each of those nodes, i will put a < noshow > or something like that.

1 Like
#7

Sortof like something that would enable my workflow - ability to turn off Daily notes from graph view(because my new page template inserts a daily note link and time stamp in everpage, and this clutters the graph view.)

1 Like
#8

I think this should be possible with tags? Add a #report tag and then exclude it from the graph.

Or, exclude a folder of notes.

1 Like
#9

You can do this with the new graph filter feature as long as your daily notes have something in common like a tag, title etc.

1 Like
#10

That is a great tip @sam.baron!

1 Like
#11

I just noticed, that I do not actually how how to filter for a specific search term, and the manual does not explain it either. Can you help me out :slight_smile:

1 Like
#12

I know that it can be done using tags, but I was asking for the specific option to exclude daily notes from the graph view. I ve tried typing in the specific query every single time, and it is annoying. atleast, if we had sticky filter queries

1 Like
#13

You can put a - in front of the search term.

1 Like
#14

You’re right, applying the search filter is not a proper substitute. I’ve been doing it now, and it is OK, but not ideal.

@sam.baron, many thanks for the help though :slight_smile:

1 Like
#15

Happy to help. You might consider revising your post title to be more specific because technically Obsidian can already remove certain notes from graph view.

2 Likes
#16

Use case or problem

Although the graph view is very useful, I don’t always find it useful to be able to find ALL notes there. For example, daily notes: You can create a whole lot of them, and most often, not really useful to see 300 of these notes in the graph view.

Also it sometimes makes me think whether I’d want something to show up in the graph. And if no, maybe I shouldn’t create that note. Because it’ll also clog up the graph, make everything less clear and make the graph slower. I think the graph view is great to get an overview over your notes, but seeing unnecessary notes there takes away from the clear organized overview.

Yes, you can use the search function to exclude certain folders, but it gets pretty annoying to type in a certain query everytime you want to use the graph. Not to mention that the search query can become pretty long if you want to search for something, and at the same time want to exclude a bunch of folders.

Proposed solution

Best option imo is to simply create a checkbox in the right click menu of folders (and maybe separate notes) that says something like “hide from graph view”. If that option is selected, all notes in that folder won’t be displayed in the graph view.

4 Likes
#17

@Soncro: I like it. Maybe, for flexibility, there could be a graph view search keyword that, if included in the filter query, would revert the graph to temporarily including all of those hidden notes, folders, etc. If the keyword method is not preferred, maybe there could be a hotkey to toggle this functionality.

Thanks.

2 Likes
#18

Ah yes, the option to see everything would indeed be useful. You can choose between a checkbox or a query like you mentioned, both have their pros and cons. A checkbox would be easier, though you’d also want to make sure the search menu doesn’t become overly complicated. A query would be a little more difficult to remember, but also leaves the menu a bit cleaner. I personally think a query would be better, since you wouldn’t mark folders as “hidden” without reason. Something simple like ‘path:all’ would suffice I think, since Obsidian already has the ‘path’ filter. But that’s up to the developers.

1 Like
#19

I edited the title to add permanently to reflect the difference between the current filters and what you’re requesting. Personally, it sounds like this could be confusing for users, i.e. “why is note X not showing up any more?” because the filters and the ignored folders don’t live in the same interface.

1 Like
#20

You think so? Some other software developers I work with also have the tendency to “make everything fool-proof”, but for that you need to look at your target audience. Windows has the option to hide certain folders, but I suspect the average Obsidian user is a little more intelligent than the average Windows user. To prevent that kind of confusion, it could also be possible to show a little message on top “x files are hidden from the graph-view”.

But then again, I’m no developer, maybe I’m just overestimating the average user.

#21

We have many types of users with different areas of expertise and different levels of technical backgrounds, my best guess is that this would confuse at least some. In my opinion, something like Graph View presets to save and load filters & display settings would work better if you can preload a filter that does not include X folders.

1 Like
#22

I agree. It’s a better UX to keep controls for graph view, like hiding files/folders, in the graph settings. And Graph View presets to save and load filters & display settings is a clean way to fulfill this thread’s feature request.

1 Like
#23

I think we could have both:

  • Graph UI could have the controls for temporarily hiding stuff. Basic users without advanced skills can use this.
  • Have a meta option that can be written at the top of a file that should be hidden, like hide-from-graph or something. This would serve the purpose of permanently hiding individual files, and it would be out of the way of people who do not use it, because there is (maybe) no UI controls for this.

For the latter, I personally think that it would be a good feature because if I want to hide something permanently from the graph, I find it a bit annoying if I need to preserve it in the graph filter string. It Takes up space there and I might accidentally remove that filter. But if I have written that hiding mark into the hideable file, it stays there permanently.

@Soncro also had a good idea about showing a message “x files are hidden from the graph-view”. That should help to make users understand why some of the notes are not visible in the graph. Maybe make that message clickable so that it can then show which files were hidden.

#24

I will love to have a metadata key to “hide” a specific file from graph

1 Like
#25

+1 for filtering out notes via meta data in the note itself or even better a saved setting in the graph filter, which filters out notes with a certain #tag . The later would then also enable the user to search graph view for tags that have this certain #tag (eg #not_in_graph), which could lead to interesting visualisation of the interconnectivity of notes that are for whatever reason not deemed to be “worthy” of the graph view.