#1

Use case or problem

I’m an engineering student, and I use Obsidian for my note-taking and writing. As a consequence, I tend to write lots of equations (both in-line and block). I find that it hinders my momentum every time I try to remember what shortcut exists for this purpose, then shortly remembering after that there’s no such thing.

Proposed solution

I migrated my stuff from Notion here, so a shortcut like Ctrl + Shift + E would be useful for at least the inline equations. If that is not possible, then filling in the other $ or $$ when typing for in-line and block equations would be a good feature to implement as well.

#2

If you select text, and type $ it will surround your selection appropriately. I’m not sure I see the advantage to adding a hotkey for this, wouldn’t it be the same (at least in terms of key presses) as typing $ directly?

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#3

I second the request of Godwin and agree with him on the fact that starting to write and equation could be made simpler. @argentum: selecting text and pressing $ is nice but still not very convenient (you have to take the mouse, select, press $). Several improvement could make equation inserting more fluid

  • typing $ automatically add a second $ to set the equation environment upfront. It would work exactly as “" automatically typing a second "”. This would be the simplest way
  • making a hotkey (in my LaTeX editor I use Cmd+Shift+M) that type both “$” and put the caret in between

Is it possible to add these features to the app ? Or maybe there is already this solution with a plugin ?

#4

The first option was already added a while back, but had to be removed since most users don’t really use $ for latex equations. I have nothing against the 2nd option, but personally I still don’t see a lot of benefits from using a hotkey ctrl + shift + M (3 key presses) instead of typing $ (2 key presses) twice.

#5

Hi!!

I have written a plugin for speeding up latex math typing in obsidian. It includes the function mentioned above, where typing one $ symbol will automatically be add another $ symbol and put the cursor in between them. The function can be toggled in the plugin setting where needed.

there are quite a few other handy functions such as autoFraction, where you can type 1/2 followed by a space key and it will be replaced with \frac{1}{2}, very much like how it works in word equation~

The plugin can be found in community plugin list with the name “quick latex for obsidian”

Here is the source code:

Hope this helps!~

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#6

On the Mac, check out macro utilities like Typinator and Keyboard Maestro. I use a combination of these to make Latex entry a lot easier.