File Explorer - Expanded Functionality

Double Heart for the hotkey that allows you to easily move up and down notes in the file explorer.

My use case is that I have one note locked, then basically scroll through notes in a second pane looking for any connections between the notes.

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Would love to see this hotkey as well!

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@curtismchale No, enter does NOT rename a file on macOS.

@Klaas Yes it does. Here’s a video to make sure we’re talking about the same thing:

@nickmilo I agree that the Obsidian File Explorer plugin needs to behave more like a Windows File Explorer or Finder. I don’t neccesarily agree on your choice of default shortcuts which seem mac specifc

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This is a crucial topic - when you have a large amount of notes, it is hard to use Obsidian without a more fully functioning File Explorer. I find myself moving away to VS Code Foam, which is a shame because I love a lot about Obsidian.

Here are related posts for file explorer bugs/feature requests:

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Yes it does. That’s always been the default behaviour for Mac. Have you changed it by any chance?

You are right. My apologies for the misunderstanding, which is from my side entirely.

I just wanted to add my vocal support for this feature; having predictable delete/rename facilities within the file explorer would be an amazing QoL feature to have.

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Would also be useful to have the search return matching filenames.

Ideally the file explorer would outline functions for navigating branching note sequences ( Folgezettel.

The value of this structure is controversial, but I’m convinced it provides a powerful complement to a purely heterarchical structure. The maps of concepts and structure notes address this issue to some degree but still seem lacking to me.

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It would be great to have a hot key for navigating files in a folder.

I often go through files in a folder, for example they are all notes for an article I’m writing or because I want to check and add tags to improve my notes.

The hot key for navigating the last notes does not help me here.

It would be similar to this feature, but for all files in a folder:

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I would strongly support this feature. For me (and with growing number of files/notes), quick navigation through search results/file tree is a very important feature for effective workflow. Thanks.

CMD + F will jump to Search. I would love to be able to map CMD + E to the File Explorer to quickly switch between them.

I also support the features suggested by @nickmilo.

Furthermore, I’d like to a add open the rename dialog of a folder upon a second consecutive click that follows the initial one that selects the folder. This would also mimic Finder behavior.

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+1 on this. Essential. The same on the tag bar.

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I agree with most of this. However, instead of using a hotkey to move focus over to the file explorer, why not just use the same hotkeys that move focus from pane to pane?

Assuming you have your file explorer on the far left, CMD+Left would pop focus over to it. Up and down arrows would then allow you to navigate the files.

This would be a huge improvement in my opinion.

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+1 for this, super useful. @scooks this is actually a great idea! Up and down to navigate, and Alt[CMD]+up or down to move the files up and down (crazy idea though not sure about this one :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

+1 to this. More freedom and speed to control the file explorer would help me a lot in using Obsidian not only for knowledge management, but also for project management as well!

I would also add Searching Folders to the list. It could be a separate search function or it could be part of the note search function. If part of note searching, it would be nice to have a switch to search folders only. Also, doing incremental (i.e., search as you type) searching would be very welcome.

BTW, I wholeheartedly agree that this is a vital topic.

Let me add another one:

  • Being able to favorite a folder
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I went through this thread and didn’t see it, but I would suggest that you should be able to sort your files/folders manually and not just rely on alphabetical sort. It’s the ONE THING that I really dislike about the file explorer. Let the user dictate how they want files to display.

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