Now that we have the color-groups for graphs i would like to request predefined groups that i can switch between.
Use case or problem
Why? I love the coloring to easy spot different things in the graph, depending on what i am after i use completely different search-phrases for the colors.
I.e. : i color all my MOCs, the status of notes (seed, fleeting, permanent etc…) and can get an idea of the overall “health” and state of my pkm
Then i filter only atomic notes and links between and color them to see what overall Themes they fit in - here i can see what Themes are bad linked (lots of orphans) or if there are themes often intersecting …
This goes on… To do it right now, i have to setup the coloring each time i change what i want to look at.
Goal: I would like to be able to define color-groups (maybe elsewhere, in a file or in another menu), name the whole group and just tell the graph to use a certain pre-defined “color-group” then.
Proposed solution
I can either imagine it being file-based (like a .ini file, can be xml or json) and there you define the properties (search termes and colors, grouped together)
In obsidian itself you would therefor only reference/choose the “title” of the group defined in the file, so you can quickly switch between different settings.
The other option is to make it UI based (altough i can imagine this way harder to implement in a practical way) but the same would apply:
Having a seperate UI (maybe in settings) where you can make a new “group”, name it, and in that group you have the same options like currently in the graph view, aka setting search terms and colors.
For ease of use (and so it doesnt hinder current workflows from people) this could be optional, so the ui in the graphview would stay the same, but you have the option to use a predefined group also…
Something I’d like to add, a small addition to Dsteinbock’s request, is that it would also be useful to set one of the previews as the default.
That way, if there’s a specific preset that a user deems to be better than the current default, you don’t always need to select the preset you want. This could also boost performance, if you want to use a preset that leaves out a lot of notes. That way the computer doesn’t need to initially plot all the notes you want to leave out.
Along the lines of what dsteinbock is requesting, the ability to add our own custom filters to the toggle menu would be a perfect way to save filter presets:
I’ve lately tuned out much of the PKM conversation and even keeping up with newer features being added to Obsidian. Instead, I’ve focused on tending the little garden I have here. “Work” happens all sorts of ways, much of it away from the computer. I’m pleased with the progress I’ve won by keeping it simple.
This thread confirms my method. Keeping Moore’s Law in mind, it was just the other day that I thought, “it might be nice to save graph queries.” And here it is — lots of others have already thought of it.
If that had been given to me from the start, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. In fact, most of the features in Obsidian are like this for me. I’m grateful to have the capability, but happy to leave it alone — almost like in a black box — until I see the need for something I can’t accomplish with the current tools.
Just yesterday when I wanted to close the filters panel I inadvertently clicked restore filters, so I lost all my color groups (as well as the other settings). I wish I could reload a saved preset profile then!
I have a small .md file where I keep a few lines of more or less complex and refined filter options (path, -path, etc.), so I can just copy and paste them as needed. But it would probably be faster and more relevant as loadable presets.
In any case, I find it very useful for color groups, because choosing consistent colors takes time, and being able to save conceptual, thematic or practical palettes would be great.
In terms of the queries we can save them in the starred section by copy-pasting the query into the global search box. Then we can search for the query by clicking on the star option to load it in the search tab, then copy-paste it back to the graph filter.
Although to leverage star tabs more (if the devs decide to go in that direction), I propose to add a drop-down option from a saved query that would send it to the graph filter.
Being able to load custom view including the colour groups is ideal though!
Files relate to each other in many different ways, and having only one Graph view causes a tangled web that is more confusing each time you create more and more nodes.
So I think its necessary, just like Juggl does, to have a save button and that way being able to open different configurations of graph view, each one with different colors, filtered tags and sizes
PS: yes, Juggl does it, but its system is not as fluid as the core Graph view.
I don’t know how long the “workspaces” core plugin has been around, but I just found it today. In short, it lets you save different pane layouts and sidebar states.
I think it would make a lot of sense to implement this request into the workspaces plugin. If the layout of different panes can be saved, then surely it would be very useful to also save the state of the graph.
+1 to this, it was so nice to discover that i could color-code my graph by queries, and was really disappointing to see that those settings couldn’t be saved. Saved graph groups, please!
Seeing this request from a year ago made me hopeful this exists already. Scrolling all the way down showed me this wasn’t the case.
Adding +1 - please add graph filter/color presets. Also, maybe a way to embed these in a link.
+1 People who use the graph view for exploration and inspiration likely hop between different views to include or exclude items to make the experience fruitful. This could be achieved a number of ways. A simple way could just be a drop-down menu in the graph view with presets. This was also a terrifc idea and in keeping with the Obsidian philosophy of using notes as the core medium of the system.
