Metadata on blocks for zotero highlight

[smartisez]

Hello everyone.

I use obsidian for years now and i am trying to make it the most effective possible for my thesis writing.

I have particulary developped a quit efficient way to manage my articles highlight but want to make it even more effective as i am starting to get a lot of articles highlight.

let me get it clear

i tag every highlight i do on zotero depending on the subject and the section i want the information to be. for example :#introduction #epigenetic or #methodologie #sequencing.

i then transfer every highlight using zotero integration on Obsidian and i have created a code that make every highligh a block that possess the tags. the blocks are saved in a note labbeled as the keycitation of the article.
i can then do a research on the research bar to have the highlight that i want by just tiping the tags depending on what i am working on

here is an example

i am working on the general introduction of my thesis

so when i want to refer on a specific highlight i just do [[citationkey^the block of the highlight]] and i can quickly get back to the information i am refering to

however i would like to improve it further and make it that when i site the information, the block dissapear from my research

i have added a small reference properties on the bottom of the block that get filled with the reference code when i site it for the first time

i would like to filter my research as a metadata by using [properties] on the research bar
it would be like [“reference”: null], so when i cite, the reference code would get on the reference properties and dissapear from my research.

but it doesn’t work as the reference: is not recognize by Obsidian as metadata since it’s not a note but a block in a note

so i was sondering if there is a way to introduce metadata for blocks

And if you have any tips to make this system better i am always open.

[Feralflora]

Interesting workflow!

but it doesn’t work as the reference: is not recognize by Obsidian as metadata since it’s not a note but a block in a note

Right, reference: is not a property, so you can’t search for it using the property syntax.

Properties are the metadata of the file in between two such lines: --- at the top of the file. See the help docs on Properties.

You could try adding a #cited tag when you cite a highlight. Then search like so line:(#introduction #general -#cited)

Here’s a demo:

As you can see, this can correctly identify the highlights with the right tags, which don’t have the #cited tag. Of course, this requires you to actually add this tag, whereas your proposed method simply required you to add a block-id.

You can actually get the same simplicity with this query line:(#introduction #general -^), as long as the assumption holds that only highlights with block-ids will contain the ^ symbol.

For simplicity’s sake, I assumed you would format your highlights as a list, like I do in my template. This simplifies querying.

The reason I use line: and not tag:#introduction -tag:#cited is because for some reason, the latter doesn’t work, as reported here.

[smartisez]

Hey, thanks for your reply.

i didn’t know you could use the (-) to filter.
but weirdly it seems that the -^ doesn’t work in the lin:( ) and if i put it outside the line:( ) it straight up delete the whole note rather than only the block

[Feralflora]

That’s weird. As you can see in my screenshot, -^ should work inside line:, so long as all the things you are searching for are on the same line.

What do you mean by delete in this context? Removed from the search results?

[smartisez]

as you can see it does detect the tags but not the -^ wich is weird.

but if i only put the -^ it does work but then i can’t put tags

[Feralflora]

I don’t think my suggestion works with your original format. Like I wrote here:

@Feralflora

For simplicity’s sake, I assumed you would format your highlights as a list, like I do in my template. This simplifies querying.

and here:

@Feralflora

As you can see in my screenshot, -^ should work inside line:, so long as all the things you are searching for are on the same line.

If your block-id is on another line, it won’t work.