I use LaTeX to convert my notes to PDFs, and store all resulting files in a folder called Output, I’ve added that to the list of excluded files in Files and links, but Output still appears in the link suggester when I type [[
I’ve just started trying to add more “atomic” notes, which is why I’m probably noticing now.
The problem is that the path and file names in Output are really long, and also mostly unrelated to what I’m trying to do.
e.g. I start typing to create a link which doesn’t yet lead to a note, [[Teaching in England]] and it’ll suggest [[Admin/Output/Notes/some draft of a paper from months ago]].
The fuzzy search might be overactive, since random letters in that suggestion are bolded, or it’s searching the file, which is somewhat related, but I still don’t want anything from Output to ever be suggested.
Since Teaching in England isn’t a note yet, it doesn’t take my Enter or Tab key, since for both of those it thinks I’m trying to accept the first suggestion, which is somewhat annoying.
I don’t think this is a bug per se, but can anyone help?
Those notes should be deprioritized (pushed to the bottom of the list, if I remember right), but if they’re the closest match they may still appear.
The letters aren’t random (tho those suggestions usually aren’t helpful). The fuzzy search finds note names that contain the letters you’ve typed in the order they appear, disregarding anything between them in the match. So if you type “TEACH”, it will find (among other, hopefully better, matches) a note named “Tall housEs And CHurches” (I’ve capitalized the matched letters to make it more obvious).
Do Shift Enter instead of Enter and it will use what you’ve typed (this is pointed out in the shortcuts listed at the bottom of the Quick Switcher window: “Shift ↵ to create”).
Thanks!!!
I realized the letter weren’t entirely random but I still feel that it seems unhelpful.
But the Shift+Enter is super helpful! and either my theme (Shimmering Focus) or a snippet is suppressing the shortcuts at the bottom of the list.
I’d love to be able to exclude those folders or paths even more, since I don’t ever need to refer to those files, so if anyone has an idea how to do that, please let me know.
If the unwanted notes are only showing up because there isn’t anything more relevant, a simple option is train yourself to interpret “a bunch of random-ish notes” as “no results”.
Another low-tech option is to move those files out of your vault. It sounds like may not be using them much inside the vault, so storing them outside of it might make more sense.
If neither of those are feasible, there is a feature request for the ability to completely exclude files. The discussion in its comments may contain options (tho I don’t recall seeing any).
It also occurs to me that it might be good for Obsidian to treat matches past a certain threshold of fuzziness as not matches (at least optionally or via a plugin). If a request like that exists you could upvote it by pressing the heart button or by commenting if you have something new to add (like your use case). If one doesn’t exist, you could post it. (Or I might someday because it sounds like the way it should behave — tho I suspect it might be taking the more naive approach for performance reasons.)
