Obsidian is designed to be vault-centered from day 1, and seems to prefer absolute paths over relative paths most of the time. This essentially denies itself of portability and scalability. I doubt the closedness could easily be changed anytime soon. 
Is there a separate feature request for having this be an āObsidian Liteā standalone app, rather than a feature of Obsidian?
Iām looking for something that is basically just notepad, but with Obsidians markdown editor, and nothing else. Typora, but with Obsidians engine running the show, which I prefer very much over Typora.
Would that be simpler to maintain in parallel, than trying to weave it into the highly conflicting workflow in base Obsidian?
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Use case or problem
Edit Markdown files that do not belong in any vault, from Obsidian.
Proposed solution
Hidden directory in the vault, with a symlink or copy of the file getting created there upon open and destroyed on close. All plugins would then be available (Iām thinking āeditingā plugins, such as Advanced Tables, Templater, etcā¦)
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Adding my vote to this! I imagine there could be a global set of settings and plugins for this.
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I feel like this would be particularly nice for mobile >.>
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Yes, please! I want to be able to open files from within Obsidian, or within the Mac Finder ā whichever seems most convenient at the moment.
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This would open up some alfred workflow possibilities 
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I would love this
YES, PLEASE.
Iāve been looking for something to take over Typora, and I absolutely love Obsidianās real time rendering, and really want it to be my one-stop-shop for markdown editing too.
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I have written a program that implements the proposed solution for Windows. One difference is that it doesnāt delete the symbolic link (actually junction) when closing Obsidian, but you can limit the maximum number of directory links (10 by default).
See VaultRecent/Recent mode.
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For macOS, this script does approximately the same thing. Installation & configuration is described on that page. The link from inside the vault to the file is not auto-deleted, but you can do that by hand if you want to.
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Exactly this!
Obsidianās inability to open individual Markdown files outside of a vault is quite unusual and feels out of place in todayās software landscape.
For those who prefer a single Markdown editor, being able to open files directly is essential. Thatās why Typora became the go-to choice. Despite Obsidianās many features, this fundamental limitation made it a deal breaker.
Hoping for a resolution soon, itās worth noting that this feature request has been around for a while with limited progress. If Obsidian introduces this capability in the future, returning to it would definitely be a no-brainer.
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For me, I donāt care that much about using Obsidan to edit standalone Markdown files. I do very much want to be able to use the Finder (the Macās system file explorer ā Iām a Mac guy) to navigate the vault.
I use folders extensively and I find Obsidianās folder and built-in file explorer support to be weak.
Could Obsidian support opening standalone Markdown files without needing to put them in a vault? Sometimes I just want to quickly edit or review a file without the extra steps of setting up or switching vaults. Itād make Obsidian way more flexible for people working across multiple projects, letting us access those great features without having to fully commit each file to a vault.
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I would love this feature as well. I write a blog in Markdown, and often miss the superior editing features of Obsidian. I have yet to find a markdown editor that is superior to Obsidianās Live Preview mode, Table editing, Frontmatter GUI editing and so much more. I often find myself putting a file in my vault just so that I can use these fantastic editing features.
Itās a long shot, but is this possible to be done via a plugin?
Shouldnāt this FR be merged into this one as my feature request here was?
IMO, the upvotes for the three merged FRs should also be merged, for a total of 204 (so far). This is a much more popular request than it currently appears.
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Yes. And now (at long last) it is!
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Great. This request really has a lot of support. Personally, I have been avoiding Obsidian only for this reason, and every few months I come back to see if anything has changed. 
Donāt we have at least a feedback from the developers on whether they are considering this feature? Thanks.
The developers donāt typically say, but here are some signs you can check:
- Has the request been closed (and not merged into another request)?
- Has it been tagged as āvaluableā (see tags under the thread title)?
- Is it on the Obsidian Roadmap?
- Are there replies from accounts with the yellow āObsidian Teamā tag by their name (usually WhiteNoise but sometimes others)?. But: Donāt tag them asking for updates because thatās against our community code of conduct.
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3 posts were split to a new topic: Obsidian as a kind of flexible and personalized File Explorer