Linking to external files is mentioned in the drag and drop help documentation
Hold Ctrl on Windows/Linux or Option on macOS to create file:/// absolute links to those files instead of importing a copy.
but there aren’t any examples of the options available. I’ll write up a request to add some examples to the official help documentation, but for the time being, here’s a list I’ve collected.
Windows
UPDATE: from Obsidian v1.5.11 on, use forward slashes in paths
external link to file (Windows) →
[link text](file:///C:\Users\USER\Desktop\file.txt)
[link text](file:///C:%5CUsers%5CUSER%5CDesktop%5Cfile.txt) ( %5C for \ )
In my testing on Windows, \ or / both work fine for local paths.
[link text](file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/file.txt)
Enclose paths that contain spaces in angle brackets (< >)
[link text](<file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/path with spaces.txt>)
or encode the space(s) with a %20
[link text](file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/path%20with%20spaces.txt)
external link to a folder (Windows) →
[link text](file:///C:\Users\USER\Desktop\folder)
[link text](file:///C:%5CUsers%5CUSER%5CDesktop%5Cfolder)
[link text](file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/folder)
[link text](<file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/path with spaces>)
[link text](file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/path%20with%20spaces)
linking to a network share (Windows) →
URL encode the \\ as %5C%5C before the share name/IP address, so →
file →
[link text](file:///%5C%5Cfileservername\path\to\file.docx)
[link text](file:///%5C%5Cfileservername/path/to/file.docx)
[link text](<file:///%5C%5Cfileservername/path/to/file with spaces.docx>)
directory / folder →
[link text](file:///%5C%5Cfileservername\path\to\folder)
[link text](file:///%5C%5Cfileservername/path/to/folder)
macOS
external link to file (macOS) →
[link text](file:///Users/USER/Desktop/file.txt)
[link text](file:///Users%2FUSER%2FDesktop%2FCfile.txt) ( %2F for / )
Enclose paths that contain spaces in angle brackets (< >)
[link text](<file:///Users/USER/Desktop/path with spaces.txt>)
or encode the space(s) with a %20
[link text](file:///Users/USER/Desktop/path%20with%20spaces.txt)
external link to a folder (macOS) →
[link text](file:///Users/USER/Desktop/folder)
[link text](file:///Users%2FUSER%2FDesktop%2Ffolder)
[link text](<file:///Users/USER/Desktop/path with spaces>)
[link text](file:///Users/USER/Desktop/path%20with%20spaces)
Linux
Should be similar to macOS above. I don’t run Obsidian on any Linux devices at the moment to check.
related: