Add Filter bar in File Explorer panel (filtering)

Search is invaluable and i like to see search results in context so that is all good.

On the file list, i often want to be able to FILTER the file names, much like nvAlt and probably other tools. I am not looking to find content, i am looking to quickly navigate to a file that i know exists – like a project name, a person’s name. A quick filter will return a very short list for me and I can get right in.

This could be a plugin possibly or an core feature that can be shown or hidden via settings.

Have you tried using the Quick Switcher? It is a core plugin that is enabled via toggle in the settings. The default hotkey is ctrl + o. It allows for quick navigation between files.

I could see this being useful. While there are no direct ways to achieve this AFAIK, you could use the expander plugin which will render the files matched by your search terms within the current note.

Thanks for the suggestion, it is not so much toggling between a set, but more quickly accessing a given project (out of 20-30) or a given person (out of 40-50) to add a note.

If you have a mac, you can run nvAlt on your same MD files and see what I mean. It is super fast (but more single focused). I often use nvAlt or its successor nvUltra for quick notes and would like to fully use Obsidian.

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The ability to filter the File Explorer has been added as an experimental feature in the latest Bartender release https://github.com/nothingislost/obsidian-bartender/releases/tag/0.5.0

You can find a video of it in action here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/931552763467411487/939943412147306596/Obsidian_fLiLiVToEc.mp4

The plugin is still in heavy development and is not yet in the official community plugin browser but can be installed via the BRAT plugin by adding the beta repository “nothingislost/obsidian-bartender”

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Actually looking back, Quick Switcher is pretty close to what I wanted, thanks @jwl . (except that I wanted it right in the file list)

@NothingIsLost – your filter in Bartender is spot on for what I want, but I have a few comments/tweaks. Where do you want feedback?

Use case or problem

It is possible to craft searches to pretty effectively target both the location and other searchable data, but sometimes it isn’t the quickest or most ideal for certain workflows. It also requires some forethought and doesn’t necessarily always feel as fun and exploratory as what may be possible. Of course, this depends on the vault structure and notes. It would be nice to be able to get the benefits of the explorer and the flexibility of search simultaneously.

Proposed solution

Add filtering via search within the Explorer pane. One consideration would be whether to allow toggling of folders. It might also be reasonable to have an option for individual folders to not be visible when they contain no notes that are matches for the current query. There could be a lot of opportunity for unique ways the actual filter or query is built.

Related feature requests (optional)

This: Flat view - Folder toggle - (mode to only show files in Explorer pane) is somewhat relevant as the two features could be implemented in tandem. This was archived: Filtering Everywhere!

Thanks!

This could be the same filter used in quick switcher (matching the full path).

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