It looks like this almost does everything I want…
Sorry, my fault - it is ALT (not SHIFT) + Click, as WhiteNoise explained here. This explains the strange behavior observed above - thus no bug (and I was pretty certain I hadn’t observed such a behavior before - now I know why… 
).
So, just to be sure, after selecting any folder or file (or several of them), you can both use the DELETE key and right click in order to delete it.
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So, yes, you can select.
But it would still be good to create new folders/files after selecting them.
Funnily, we haven’t actually resolved the topic of the thread really. 
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Actually we have - deleting files from search results is not possible at the moment.
I admit that everybody has a very specific and subjective way of working - still I don’t really see the big difference:
If you first select a folder by clicking it and then create a new note inside this folder by clicking the “new note” button at the top sidebar menu, it takes you two clicks. If you right-click a folder and then select “new note”, it also takes two clicks - and it is actually even faster, because you don’t have, for the second click, to move to the upper area of the app. Thus I currently see this as neither a really missing nor a really necessary feature - but yeah, subjective working habits may vary.
I can just advise to all users of obsidian: if you want to use that app, try to use it for the stuff it is especially made for and it is really good at. Don’t try to be too restricted by antique habits and routines, don’t try to think in folder hierarchies too much. If you still want or need this, there are certainly apps that are better suited for working as kind of alternative file explorers. The strength of obsidian is, on the contrary, that you can get rid of thinking in folder or hierarchy structures. It allows you to develop a formerly unknown flexibility of your thinking and working habits, to start thinking in links and relationships between notes and thoughts, it relieves you of the pain to define an exact place in an artificially constructed hierarchy for each thought. This said, use obsidian if you are open enough to start this adventure. Don’t try to do too many things the app is not made for in the first place (you can then still use it in combination with other apps that are more suited for specific tasks). In this way, you would unnecessarily rate down its true potential.
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Well said.
I’ll just add my own workflow adaptation. I use the root folder as an inbox. (Except Unique Notes, I put in a specific folder. And Daily Notes, get a folder too.) So if a note is sitting in the root, it is automatically grabbing my attention to process and move to a folder (with a move hotkey and folder name search. All done by keyboard.)
I don’t consider that an extra step. I consider that a part of my process. (Your mileage may vary. I only use a small collection of specific folders.)
You can also create a note inside a folder by using the quick switcher and typing Path/To/Note/Title for a note name, and it will put it in that folder manually. It’s not the most wieldy technique, but it’s there.
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Definitely survivable and not a dealbreaker. Just helpful for my publish process.
Thank you all.
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It would be great if there was a resolution as the lack a way to perform actions on results is discouraging to potential adopters of
Obsidian who are importing thousands of notes, and frustrating to current users who are restructuring their notes.
I’m on my 3rd try to adopt Obsidian, and curating thousands of imported notes one at a time isn’t a pleasant prospect.
For contex, I imported 7k notes from Evernote, and they were dumped into a single folder. They contain digital documents , emails, etc along with notes and I just want the notes I wrote in Obsidian and will delete the rest.
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You are free to manage your files outside of Obsidian. For situations like that, there is no need to do one file at a time from the interface.
Editing externally won’t auto update links, if you rename files. Otherwise restructuring and moving thing around will often just work. And if you need to rename a large number of files, sometimes it would be better to use a plugin or write a script that can bulk-edit the files.
While I commiserate with you, I don’t think Obs is a good tool to " fix what didn’t go well in evernote".
Obs works well with some idea of structure out of the gate. You “build” a vault and associated links.
Having 7000 unlinked md notes is fine for search but little else in Obs.
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