Hello everyone, been using Obsidian for a couple of months now and absolutely love it. Just wanted to share a hotkey mapping configuration that has left me very happy, I believe that it truly has sped up my workflow.
It’s based on the following convention:
- CTRL: reserved for making modifications on the Current Tab.
- CTRL+ SHIFT: reserved for making modifications on a New Tab.
- CTRL+ SHIFT + ALT: reserved for making modifications on a New Window.
- CTRL + Right Hand: reserved for editing.
- ALT + Left Hand: reserved for handling and navigating Tab Groups.
The editing and navigation hotkeys are super convenient and intuitive to remember.
I also included others for folding and for periodical notes.
You can find the detailed layout in my vault:
Thank you for reading, have a good day!
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Hi. Great. Currently the pictures are hard to see without client zooming.
Do you have your reason why don’t you use RightAlt—which should be the modifier key next to space—for inline editing actions. RightCtrl could be used for new note creation. I find Unique note creator: Create new unique note as RightCtrl + N suitable choice for default new note. RightCtrl + M could be used for something useful as well like Move current file to another folder.
Some people like you maybe press LeftCtrl + N to create default new note but
- LeftCtrl is hard to press compared to LeftAlt for example. Both are easy to locate though but LeftAlt is the modifier key next to space.
- It requires two hands
- You need to locate the key and/or move your right hand finger. This isn’t needed when using RightAlt + M for example—you just place your right hand there without looking and moving fingers.
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No reason for not using RightAlt other than my previous habit of using LeftCtrl and I think you’re right, it’s a habit worth evaluating changing.
Nevertheless I use a US English, Latinamerican and a Korean keyboard and in some of those, RightAlt changes to RightAltGr which invalidates the usefulness of RightAlt.
Great recommendation about using M for Move current file to another folder, I use that action a lot and hadn’t found a suitable hotkey.
Do you have any hotkey recommendation for the Rename file action? That’s the only one that I sorely miss.
This is good observation. Do you think this could be a feature request or a bug report since Obsidian should preserve every keyboard shortcut across different keyboard layouts. In your case these keyboard shortcuts are not preserved.
First I would optimize your shortcuts only once a month or more infrequently. During productive session you shouldn’t worry about keyboard shortcuts. I personally don’t like shortcuts for side bar toggles for example. I use different workspaces for views which I prefer in the situation. Similarly I don’t like rename to be a separate shortcut because in the end the number of effective keyboard shortcuts are limited—you should use them wisely. In the case of rename I prefer touchpad left click. Also left click with drag can be used when renaming which is super cool.
About tab title bar (Settings → Appearance → Interface → Show tab title bar):
It takes vertical screen space only a little and displays the note’s full name nicely. This full name can be seen when hovering the tab itself and the time delay is really fast. Tab title bar is very effective if you use its buttons. Custom buttons can be added as well using Commander community plugin, however I guess buttons ←, →, 📖, ⋯ cannot be set to hidden which is sad. In addition tab title bar shows folders—when left clicked these folders are highlighted in the files view which is really cool feature.
About status bar (this cannot be set to hidden without community plugins):
It has dynamic width and it also appears and disappears dynamically. I personally find this behavior distracting. Status bar shows current editing status—I wish this button could be in the tab title bar. The button 📖 in the tab title bar implicitly displays that you are editing but I like more the similar button in the status bar that displays 🖋️ and </> when you are editing instead of 📖.
Great inputs, thank you for your answer.