Use case or problem:
When taking notes, it’s common to paste URLs and immediately convert them into Markdown links with custom descriptive text. Currently, Obsidian’s link creation shortcut (Ctrl/Cmd + K) isn’t optimized for this workflow, causing friction and extra manual steps each time users link external resources.
Specifically, after pasting a URL (e.g., https://example.com) and selecting it, pressing Ctrl/Cmd + K currently results in:
[https://example.com](|)
(Cursor | is placed inside parentheses, waiting for the URL destination, even though the URL is already available and selected.)
This requires users to manually cut the URL from the brackets [ ] and paste it into the parentheses ( ), then type their desired link text, significantly interrupting workflow.
Proposed solution:
When the selected text is recognized as a URL, pressing the Markdown link shortcut (Ctrl/Cmd + K) should automatically:
- Move the selected URL into the link destination parentheses
( ). - Leave the link text brackets
[ ]empty. - Position the cursor inside the brackets
[ ]to immediately enter descriptive link text.
Example of desired behavior:
[|](https://example.com)
(Cursor | is ready for immediate text input.)
This improvement would make creating Markdown links faster, more intuitive, and aligned with typical user expectations found in many other Markdown editors.
Current workaround (optional):
The current process requires multiple unnecessary manual steps:
- Paste URL → select pasted URL → press
Ctrl/Cmd + K. - Manually cut URL from the brackets
[ ]. - Paste URL into parentheses
( ). - Return cursor to brackets
[ ]. - Type custom descriptive link text.
Related feature requests:
-
Pasting as Markdown (Forum post #89174):
Suggests automatically converting pasted URLs into Markdown-formatted links to streamline note-taking. -
Drag and drop link from browser to create full-fledged Markdown link (Forum post #8128):
Requests support for creating Markdown links by directly dragging URLs from browsers into Obsidian.
Thanks!