I can’t believe this still isn’t implemented after 3 years. This seems like basic functionality to me.
Without MAKE.MD obsidian is basically useless to me. My workflow mainly uses folders & links, but finding the ‘starting point’ folder for many topics is a pain without manual sort.
This is a dashboard technique tutorial that I’ll be trying to implement this month: Dashboard++ — a simple organization and navigation method for Obsidian Vaults | by TfTHacker | Obsidian Observer | Medium
Well… I’m a relative newbie to Obsidian, I so want to like it, but every time I try to use it I bump up against something that just feels off to me. I know that Obsidian is said to have a bit of a learning curve - but I’m pretty close to just giving up.
I, too, would like to sort files in the file explorer manually. I’ve tried all of the different plug-ins mentioned here and each introduces new complexities that make them unworkable for me. Or they’re just incomprehensible.
I guess this post is just a ramble. Or a plea… I so wish Obsidian was more fun to use, rather than ideologically pure. lol.
Please implement this. It is a shame that obsidian misses this feature, that EVERY other second brain got.
All the plugins don’t work convenient or stopped working b/c maintainer left.
The lack of file explorer customization is sorely lacking in Obsidian. I use Windows Explorer to browse my notes at this point. No it doesn’t have manual sort but at least it has other basic quality of life features for dealing with and sorting files.
That should tell you a lot.
Side note: I never could get bookmarks to behave. I’d create a folder but any time I try to add the current file to the folder, it ignores that and just adds the bookmark at the bottom. I have to manually drag it into the folder for it to actually comply.
At least folders listen to me in Windows Explorer.
I use paid file explorers that do have custom sort - and many other features inc tags. Also Tangent Notes will open directly from the file explorer; if you set its workspaces to mirror Obsidian vaults, then you have access to setting wikilinks to new or existing files, which will also work in Obsidian.
That’s smart. I didn’t think about that. I’ll experiment with what’s out there.
Still it’s quite a shame that there is pretty much no good way of actually browsing your files in Obsidian. There’s a fancy graph view but no custom sort let alone column sort? Shame, really.
For an example of a Windows file explorer that allows manual sorting of notes see Directory Opus: https://www.gpsoft.com.au/. They’ve had this feature for years, along with other advanced way to sort files and folders.
Not only is Obsidian far behind other ‘second brain’ systems like Notion when it comes to sorting files and folders, it’s behind traditional file explorers.
Directory Opus is rather more powerful than a traditional file explorer.
As is https://www.xyplorer.com which is much cheaper - and also has this ability.
(I have both)
I truly want to like Obsidian, it has so much going for it. I gave up on Obsidian (I was a paying customer too btw) over a year ago because this was a critical feature for me that is obviously very low on the dev priority list. I decided to check up on Obsidian a year later and it’s laughable that it’s still an issue. Is there a timeline for the implementation of this basic feature?
Just throwing in my thoughts that this is critical organization feature I would really like added, please.
To all the people expressing their frustration, I want to remind you about the plugin that was mentioned above.
There is a plugin Obsidian Custom Sort.
It’s powerful, and has a long manual. But it has a few simple things you can quickly try too.
I finally discovered and tried it this afternoon, and I’m still reading the manual. It lets you create a file to manually sort, or use bookmarks to manually sort. And you can also sort using your own custom Properties!
So for example, I just made a “sortspec” that lets me sort my notes by my custom number property, “Priority”. So high priority files will go to the top. Or you could sort/group by Chapters or Projects, or whatever.
It can also group things via rules too, which I’m excited to learn and figure out. And it sounds like you can change how folders/files inter-sort as well.
I need to look at that plugin again. I found it alphabetized differently than both Obsidian and Finder and have been meaning to post a feature request to change that, but maybe it’s changed since then or I missed an option. (I was just using it to sort folders together with files per Mac standard.)
You’ve got at least two different alpabetical orders. One called natural sorting which identifies numbers within texts, and use numerical order on these (so “ab2” comes before “ab10” since 2 < 10. And the other, called true(?) alphanumeric sorting where “ab10” comes before “ab2” since “1” < “2”.
I’ve used this plugin for reverse sorting some subfolders, and for moving single files/folders to the top/bottom of the list due to personal preferences. Both of these are easily achieved alongside more generic sorting on combination with either of those.
Thanks. My problem was how substrings were sorted. I was used to them being first or last, and the plugin would put them in the middle somewhere (maybe based on something numerical, or capitalization, I forget the exact details now). I’ll have to check it out again and reread the docs. EDIT: I turned it back on and activated my old sortspec. It would be easier to check if I remembered the exact problem, but so far everything looks OK.
I appreciate there are plugins, but users can’t be expected to trust a plugin for such a feature. If for some reason this plugin breaks, the order is gone.
It would be like if one had a physical project binder where the notes were carefully sorted into a logical order, and then someone opened the binder and threw all the notes into the air. If this was a project from a while ago, good luck trying to re-create the order from memory.
This needs to be a core feature or nothing at all.
Hi,
currently I’m using the make.md plugin to sort my folders in a proper way.
It would be convenient, if Obsidian would add the feature, which allows you to sort each individual folder in a separate way, because currently it’s only possible to sort the whole vault the same way (A-Z, Z-A, new-to-old, old-to-new)
Thanks in advance!
Marvin
Custom sort is cumbersome in comparison to something like Bartender which seems to now be defunct. MakeMD is closest in functionality to an actual drag and drop sorting plugin, but its bloated in terms of how many features it offers and cuts down on flexibility with other plugins. While added functions to make plugins more versatile for a variety of needs is great, having to manually engage in folders and files by bookmarking or tagging before sorting really defeats the purpose.
Huh? One of the main parts of Obsidian’s philosophy is data portability. It should not be a question of whether or not this is core functionality nearly as much as it should be a question of how portable the format is, regardless of which bit of code is managing it.
And, in the grand scheme of things, ordering tends to be the sort of auxiliary metadata where, whilst losing it would be inconvenient, it wouldn’t be nearly as inconvenient as losing actual document content.
It’s one thing for you, specifically, the draw the line at…ordering…as far as trusting third-party plugins, but the assertion that this is commonsense is kind of absurd.
The Plugin File Tree Alternative solved the Problem for me better because i dont have to do anything other than explore the settings. Its not perfect with colors but thats fine
