#1

Many times I tend to use a backlink with a slightly different name only to realize later that I have already created an internal link for the same topic with a different name.

A full list of all the internal links preferably in alphabetical order will be good enough to have a glance of all the internal links I already have in my vault.

edit: the file explorer search might not be sufficient as we might have internal links without a existing file in our vault.

Thanks

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#2

Can you explain the difference between a backlink and an internal link please?

#3

to me both are the same :sweat_smile:. isn’t it ?

#4

To me too.

So, before making a link from note A to note B, could you not check the list of backlinks to note B?

Or is that not your issue?

#5

I can check links to note B. But the problem comes when I have to recall all the existing internal links in the vault to judge if a similar link has been created before.

For example, If I have few existing links in the vault in all the md files I have such as:

  • [[acids]]
  • [[bases]]
  • [[water]]

When taking notes I was typing [[H2O]] while being unaware that a same link water was already used by me. Therefore, I have two links H2O and water which are different in my system even if I dont want.

I can avoid this problem if say I have a list of all the internal links I have (not from note B you mentioned, but all the links in my vault). I will be aware that I have used water somewhere in the vault and I do not have to create a new internal link H2O.

Does that clear things ?

1 Like
#6

Isn’t the list of possible backlinks, by definition, the same as the file list in the explorer?

I wonder if this problem would also be (at least partially) solved if there was a plugin or feature for aliasing as discussed in these two threads:

In my opinion, aliasing would be a superior solution because it wouldn’t matter if you used water or H2O and it removes the friction of having to consult your entire list of linkable notes to see which title you used.

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#7

It’s clear but I have no answer to that. Sorry.

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#8

Isn’t the list of possible backlinks, by definition, the same as the file list in the explorer?

lot of my internal links do not have existing files yet, so I cannot see a complete list.

wonder if this problem would also be (at least partially) solved if there was a plugin or feature for aliasing as discussed in these two threads

I believe the alias feature is handy when the words used in the internal links are commonly used words. But I have doubts that the alias feature will miss lot of words which are too technical, for example any long chemical compound name like CH3NH3PbI.

I agree browsing through the full list can be cumbersome, but atleast I can ascertain that the I am not created duplicate links

#9

Oh yeah, I think you would have the define the aliases yourself if such a feature/plugin existed.

#10

Can a regex search be setup (with some combinations of [[ ]]) to show
each internal link (but only 1 search result for each internal link)? That will solve my problem.

#11

@verma
List of all links in vault is done by following tool: "Link Pane" Note - Bash Script
Somebody could convert it to Obsidian plugin and add sorting options. Then this request would be completely fulfilled.

If I understand Original post correctly, then it should correct term “backlink” also to “internal link”, to avoid confusion:

(internal) links vs backlinks:

1 Like
#12

Autocompletion after typing “[[” displays list of all links, including those pointing to non-existent target. The list can be scrolled. When you start typing it will filter suggestions to show only the relevant, including those with alphabetically matching beginning. Does it solve your use case?

List of all links from the whole vault can be matched alphabetically sorted and deduplicated e.g. in https://www.emeditor.com/
Using Regular Expressions and “Find in files”. Other editors or python script would allow that too.

There might be some CSS solution to make the window larger to display more suggestions at once. At least I have seen it somewhere here on forum for pop-up page preview.