Folder as markdown note

I love this idea, it’s exactly what I’m looking for!

Not every note is simple, you’ll inevitably have a complex note containing multiple images or other types of attachments, or a complex idea which needs multiple notes to describe it. Folder Note is the perfect place for such notes. All materials for the same note or idea should be in the same location, the folder of the Folder Note.

And I think this should be the internal concept model of Obsidian, plugin is not a good choice for it.

7 Likes

I felt like sharing a (single) concrete example of my workflow for a specific project. I have more uses for this plugin, but I want to illustrate at least one purpose of this plugin to people who don’t understand how or what I’m writing, because it seems like we’re just not on the same page1.

I write a lot of fiction and tabletop roleplaying games. Those projects do indeed require hierarchy, because eventually the printed material will in fact be printed. I need to be able to organize my thoughts into discrete chunks, so that I can focus my writing.

When using a specific outlining tool (uv outliner, scrivener, manuskript, etc) I use a loose version of The Snowflake Method. In the context of my work, that means starting with the broadest possible strokes (breaking up the content of the project into the biggest categories) and then successively subdividing every section until sufficient detail is reached. For example, a rough initial outline might look like this:

  1. Front Matter
  2. Character Creation
  3. Extended Rules
  4. Specific Subsystems
  5. Running the Game
  6. Lore
  7. Creatures

A next level might look something like this:

  1. Front Matter
    1. publishing info
    2. TOC
    3. introductory fiction
  2. Character Creation
    1. Classes
    2. Cultures
    3. Options
    4. Spells
  3. Extended Rules
    1. skill checks
    2. combat
  4. Specific Subsystems
    1. vehicles
    2. Magic Duels
  5. Running the Game
    1. keeping players entertained
    2. planning the game
    3. balancing combat
  6. Lore
    1. world
    2. factions & groups
  7. Creatures
    1. villains
    2. npcs
    3. wandering monsters
    4. gods

Now, in an outliner application I’d be making notes about what goes into each chapter as I do the initial breakdown. As I transition into subdividing each chapter, I’d start working on the frontmatter of each chapter in the chapter section. So if each chapter has a pullquote, then I would at least mock that up with a blockquote. It takes a lot of revision to summarize these chapters, so I start on that as early as I can and continuously rewrite as the content of the chapter and the rules change.

In other words, in this particular workflow I would be using this plugin both in the initial planning of the manuscript as well as in the production of the final manuscript.

Having that built into Obsidian instead of having to use underscores or chapter numbering would just make things that much more straightforward and efficient for me.


As for why, I have never seen a tabletop roleplaying game where the chapter title is immediately followed by a second-level heading, such as the following:

Races of Middle Earth

Elves

The Elves are an ancient race of long eared, annoying, utterly un-dwarven–etc.

As far as I can find, there aren’t any. They always include some kind of summary or preparatory remarks at the start of each chapter. That content isn’t the content of a second order section, it’s second-order content itself. The content is at the same level as the following sections.

  • Heading 1
    • Summary
    • Sub-heading
    • sub-heading

Now, I don’t read a huge amount of scientific research papers, but it seems to me that having chapter summaries is the norm in almost every other kind of writing I can think of, or find in my library.

I also understand that a lot of people are looking at Obsidian as only the first step into their writing process, but I am not. There’s no reason I can’t write an entire project in Obsidian. I am in the process of doing so with 2 separate manuscripts at the moment, and nothing besides not having chapter summaries is really giving me any trouble at all. Conversion from markdown to HTML and then on to publishing is fantastic and much more efficient (by a matter of months) than my traditional process of laying out each page in Adobe Indesign or Affinity Publisher.

I just wish that I could more efficiently associate chapter summary text with a folder that represents a chapter.

Now, I hope I’ve sufficiently justified why I think this plugin would be useful, to at least some people in the community. I encourage everyone who supports this request to chime in with their own specific use case, so that we can show what we’d do with it!


As for improving the plugin proposal, I agree that some sort of regex matching would probably be both highly desirable and necessary in the long run. I believe that index.md is a solid contender because it is the de facto standard (markdown was designed to be translated to HTML after all) but I would definitely prefer for the plugin to be as configurable as is feasible for devs to implement as possible.


1: Pun absolutely intended.

1 Like

Hey i am a new user, so maybe thats why i came here looking for exactly this.
For example:
If i create a new note called “projects” and then in there add different nested articles, the file explorer on the left will grow longer and longer.

In my opinion #foldernotes or whatever they will be called, help decluttering the file explorer. I dont see why a note about “what screws are needed for project X” from the deepest detail levelwould be right next to one about “my food habits”
I mostly use the graph-view for navigation, but occasionally an alternative strictly treelike sorting is good.
Now i end up creating folders with the same name as the note talking about the contents, and this is unnecessary work in my opinion.

The file explorer i see as something that could look similar to dynalist or workflowy.
Because in the graph view you cannot collapse individual notes.

Dunno i hope this clarifies why some people want #foldernotes

2 Likes

+1
Dendron certainly does this. Its approach is based on a tree view plugin that interprets the syntax of file titles. The syntax is based on points “.”, For example:

Food.md
Food.Vegetables.md
Food Vegetables Broccoli.md
Food.Vegetables.Spinach.md
Food.Cereals.md
Food.Cereals.Wheat.md
Food.Cereals.Corn.md
Food.Cereals.Linseed.md
Food.Fruits.md
Food.Fruits.Mango.md
Food.Fruits.Strawberry.md
Food.Fruits.Banana.md

The tree view plugin panel interprets this and shows a folding scheme like this:

  • Food
    • Vegetables
      • Broccoli
      • Spinach
    • Cereals
      • Wheat
      • Corn
      • Linseed
    • Fruits
      • Mango
      • Strawberry
      • Banana

It works almost perfectly, why almost? Because logically when linking to [[Broccoli]] you will get [[Food.Vegetables.Broccoli]] so you will have to use the alternative text [[… | …]]. Depending on who you are, that may or may not be convenient.

Like everyone I really would like this feature or plugin.

Hello, I came to this discussion for the very reason outlined by others, i.e. the need to create subnotes into a note - or, to put it in a different way, to add content and linkability to a folder.

For those like @icouto and others who are experts on the Zettelkasten system, if a note is a macro-topic that can contain completely different sets of information, how would you handle it?

Eg.: Let’s say that I want to create a note called “Morocco” under “European Union Neighbourhood policy (ENP)”: in my mind, that “Morocco” page would contain all information that refers to the strict topic “ENP in Morocco”. At the same time, I could have another main “Morocco” note/folder addressing what pertains to Morocco only, or a sub-note under a folder “Middle East”, etc.

How would the Zettelkasten method replace the hierarchy in this case? Would it simply create a main note “Morocco”, which within time would become very long, or separate mini-notes all called differently (eg.: ENP-Morocco, Middle East-Morocco) with a general tag #Morocco inside each of them?
In the latter case, every time i mention “Morocco” in the context of the ENP should I write [ENP-Morocco]?

Thanks

Anyhow, I would definitely be interested in a plugin allowing the option of subnotes.

2 Likes

I have created an simple plugin to do that, you may have a try. I am not an expert of TypeScript, but the plugin can do what you described.
https://github.com/xpgo/obsidian-folder-note-plugin

4 Likes

Your plugin works almost perfectly, it only takes two things.

  1. It would be great if the about.md note takes the name of the same folder. I don’t know how possible that would be for you. Objective: Make it possible to navigate with the quick jumper to the folder note.

  2. Due to the collapsible behavior of folders when you want to go to the “folder note” it collapses. A solution for this could be for the folder to collapse with just the arrow and not with the name (that is, the entire label box). Objective: navigate with one click in the tree of notes and folder notes. If you want to collapse, go to the arrow.

Congrats, I hope you can get it. You’ve really come close to “note hierarchy” request.

In your manual installation note, it says I just have to copy three files into the folder, including main.js but there is only a main.ts file in the folder. Also what should I do with rest of the files? Are they all useless?!
Thanks you

You should:

  1. go to the release page: https://github.com/xpgo/obsidian-folder-note-plugin/releases
  2. download the related files: main.js, styles.css, manifest.json.
  3. create a folder ‘folder-note-obsidian’ in the plugin folder
  4. Put the downloaded files into it.
  5. Go to Obsidian plugin settings page and enable it. refresh it if the plugin is not shown.
    Hope it works.
2 Likes

now the note name can be configured to the same as folder name or some other style.
for the 2nd suggestion, it seems hard to control the collapse behavior base on API.

Thanks. It works. It is going to save me so much trouble

1 Like

I am not a developer but do you think that inspecting the element of the elements label box can reduce its size to just the triangle / arrow box?

It’s easy to capture the triangle, the problem is that we can not prevent the collapse behavior when a folder is clicked.

Does this work on Mac?
It doesn’t for me: command clicking a folder does nothing but open it and control clicking just pops up the usual menu (with no item for creating a folder note).

I had the same confusion actually:

  1. Control + click
  2. Click create new note
  3. Name this note whatever you set the option to inside the settings for “folder name” plugin (if it has the name the plugin will recognize it as the note for this folder)
  4. Restart obsidian (the note will still be visible until you restart obsidian) but even without restarting if the name is correct clicking on the folder will automatically open the note now.

I hope this was clear.

i.e. the folder note is just a normal note with the special title that you set in the settings for the plugin to recognize / hide / show it as needed

I don’t use Mac, so the plugin does not detect the command key for Mac. Now I have tried to fix the problem and you may try the updated version 0.3.1.

No, normally, Ctrl + Left click or (Cmd + Left click on Mac) will automatically create the note file for you. you don’t have to create it manually. I have tried to fix the problem on mac, please try the updated version 0.3.1.

1 Like

Just updated it, it works now!

Great plugin, thanks a lot! Makes life much easier! (and better index notes for folders ><)

After update and restart, it works!
For a longtime Scrivener user, it’s great to have folders (virtually) double as documents again.
Thanks a lot for the quick reply and fix.

@xpgo
When I create a new folder I can’t make a new note for it at the time by Ctrl + Clicking . i have to restart the obsidian again to be able to do that. I also can’t rename the note when I am renaming the folder. I think it supposed to be the case. It works but needs a lot of restarting and double checking things manually for now.