I will put this in help for now but possibly it might involve a feature request.
Most people on the planet do not have English as the native langauge. Multi-language support is accept in 2025. Remember you will type the language for your country all day long. It makes sense to have the OS, software and keyboards optimised for it. Issues arise with Obisidian in this regard. I have a particular interest in German.
Why do the help pages not exist in German? AI translations are not perfect.
English to German for commands that is not self evident for software - see Excel functions, Windows Powershell, etc. Is there English German dictionary for Obsidian commands?
None English languages have more letters (vowels and consonants) so that symbols are removed or awkward to get to on a none English keyboard. Sometimes this matters. The double square bracket [[ is commonly used in Obsidian but painfull on German keyboard. What options are avaiable to move [[ to a shortcut/hotkey?
Alternating between English (md syntax) and German (vowels) keyboards a few times per minute not an option.
Feature ideas:
Ideally, it would be possible to load for Obsidian keyboard profiles for different langauges. The shortcut keys could be optimised around the keyboard lanuage. In this way typing in the language harmonises with the Obsidian shortcuts - easy to use.
Command palette should include commands for all MD syntax including the Wikilinks (internal links) format, which is not the case - see Links notes. This would permit the [[-syntax to be allocated to shortcut key for the comand âlink notesâ.
Macros are note supported by operating system particularly well. To reallocated letters on the keyboard, say to move around the [ is not possible on Windows without downloading software (e.g. AuoHotKey). Some keyboards provide software for macro support (e.g. Logitech). Better still is to have a macro language/function built into the software its ie. Obsidian.
Obsidian keyboard picker. Addon for Obsidian that permits selection of letters in other language to that currently set as default - optimised around Obsidian and MD syntax. Could add favourites, etc. Similar idea to Adobe colour picker in Photoshop.
There is a command already, itâs not bound to a hotkey by default.
Itâs called âAdd internal linkâ or âInternen Link hinzufĂŒgenâ in the german translation.
This applies to Nordic layouts as wellâthey use â„8 or AltGr8 to type [[. The problem is not unique to Obsidian because you use [ ] when typing math in LaTeX or when programming. Likewise typing { } and \ are cumbersome to type on these layouts. Most programmers or scientists donât bother to use custom configuration for \ [ ]{ }in their systems because they likely use many systems and not only their personal machine.
Workarounds
Ctrl+Alt
Windows interprets Ctrl+Alt as AltGr, to accommodate some compact keyboards like those of netbooks which have neither the AltGr key nor a right-hand Alt key. Thus Ctrl+Alt+a has the same effect as AltGr+a. Because of this feature, Microsoft advises that Ctrl+Alt not be used as part of any application keyboard shortcut, as it would prevent typing the matching AltGr character on such keyboards.
While aText is our recommended solution, there are other options worth considering:
PhraseExpress: Offers advanced features like network synchronization and macro programming.
AutoHotkey: A powerful scripting language that can be used for text replacement among many other automation tasks.
Breevy: A simple, user-friendly text expander with cloud sync capabilities.
Espanso: An open-source, cross-platform text expander with a focus on privacy and customization.
Hereâs a comparison table of these tools:
Feature
aText
PhraseExpress
AutoHotkey
Breevy
Espanso
Ease of Use
High
Medium
Low
High
Medium
Customization
High
High
Very High
Medium
High
Cross-Platform
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Price
Free/Paid
Paid
Free
Paid
Free
Open Source
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
aText has cloud sync and offers portable version. In addition you can use it between mac and windows.
Available keyboard shortcuts in Obsidian
The problem is that you might want to configure many actions to have a specified keyboard shortcut. Inserting internal links is just one of such example. Basically you can just hit âP and run any frequently used action so separate keyboard configuration for each action is unnecessary.
Some common available keyboard shortcuts in German layout:
Single hand (left):
many combinations with Alt like AltS or you can replace CtrlS or CtrlD
EDIT: Btw, if anyone is interested in contributing to the German translation of Obsidian Help, please open an issue on the above repo - Iâd be happy to open it for colaboration.
Thank you. Yes, I was assuming that it is a personal machine and not the SOE we find at our workplaces. I have seen LaTeX for academic publications. The AltGr is not always on notebooks and international keyboard but Ctrl+Alt is possible - as mention in the comment below. Germany keyboards are not really sold outside of Germany and the physical keyboard layout changes with country, or even keyboard manufacturer and model. This is particularly true for the keys right of the space bar.
