Autocomplete title suggestions when creating a new note

Curious. I’m sure duplicate files in the same folder would throw some error. Do you mean to say avoiding duplicates at the vault level?

Yes, at the vault-level, although on second thought, that’s not going to happen with the way my notes are organized now.

Yeah! Anyone who uses projects and templates for certain notes will need duplicate file names in subfolders. There might be other use cases too where it’s preferable but I can’t think of many right now.

Interesting, I may be not be understanding correctly though.

In Obsidian you can make a link without making a note file.

So lets say you have the link [[Note Philosophy]]. I have this in a few different notes, but I’ve never actually clicked on the link to create the file.

(this is a limitation to not being able to toggle an auto create file for new links, I have lots of links that don’t have files & I can’t find my blank ones)

But you’re suggesting that when you make a new file - say you’re about to call it “Note Philosophies” - it’ll suggest the link [[Note Philosophy]] (again, is a blank link that occurs in multiple places) as the title of the note in order to have those links become utilized and thus minimize the chance of them becoming duplicates (or just really similar notes) or forgotten?

This example as happened to me a couple of times, I forget that I never clicked into a [[link ideas]] and then later I create a [[ideas for links]] note.

Then much later I come cross [[link idea]] and click into it, which now means I have two separate notes that really should have been the same thing.

There’s a decent amount of cognitive load in recalling or having the foresight to search (or cross reference) for existing links. Whereas if the blank links also appeared in the link suggestion box or if links created files without clicking into them, then the chance the link suggestion box actually helps me increases.

3 Likes

Yes, you’ve got it exactly right. The thing of note is the suggestion box that shows up when writing a new link in the body of a note already lists these blank notes if the match the text we type. So obsidian already has those note names without an actual file in its index. It’s only logical that this is extended to naming new notes.

1 Like

This would solve my use case as well: How to find lots of orphaned mention? :slight_smile:

1 Like

Thanks. Just coming back from reading your thread, I realised I’ve also had the same thought at times. But I always thought for your use case, it’d make more sense to have that under search. Many apps these days show a suggested search when you’ve not typed anything but have focused the search field. I always imagined something like “Links without notes” in that list.

1 Like

Search would work as well - to be blunt, I just want that list, I don’t really mind how :-). I do really like your “Links without notes” idea though.

1 Like

+1 for this feature.

while naming the new file, a drop down should suggest similar names in the vault. This can be similar to the way it is done when inserting [[internal links]] inside our notes.

Seems like an important feature to me as well. I suspect I’ll be having many orphaned links and/or duplicate notes once I really get going.

+1 for this feature

Edited 2023-05-07 to correct my misunderstanding.

This feature has been implemented in https://forum.obsidian.md/t/obsidian-release-v0-12-4/18764 but only in quick switcher.

  • Quick switcher now has an option to show links to files that haven’t been created yet.

After pressing Ctrl+N or in “New tab” after clicking “Create new file” the suggestions are still completely missing. (Just tested in Obsidian v1.2). Showing suggestions there would by the way help avoid creating duplicate/redundant notes.

Alternative workaround: Always start creating note from some context, i.e. by writing a link in some existing file. During such process, suggestions are shown. This will reduce number of orphan notes and increase their retrievability in the future.

Hey you can try various complements plugin its available in obsidian store download it and enable and then like if you have note in your vault as xyz then if you want to link it then you dont require to asd [[]] these brackets to link it is very usefull

The title is not what the OP is asking for.

The OP is asking for obsidian to show similar notes if he tries to create a similar note. This feature has been implemented in two ways:

  1. In a note you can use double square brackets and as you type inside those brackets obsidian will try to auto-complete from notes or links from your vault.
  2. In a new tab you can hit open and type and Obsidian will try to auto-complete from files inside your vault.

It does not check other files exist in this way:

  1. When you cannot create a new note, obsidian only tells you if the files exists in the same folder if you try to create a similar one.
  2. It will not say same file name exists elsewhere when you create a new file. you have to use the first two methods.

I am here because I want Obsidian to tell me if my internal link has a note, visually. perhaps through a theme, or CSS I can drop in. SOLVED - Change the colour of internal links that do not have notes - #3 by ariehen

edited for clarity and solution: 2023-05-20 11-50

1 Like

Thanks @Allcry , I corrected my post above.


This issue is treated in:

related topics:

Use case or problem

Say I have a note on Aramco, and it has a link to a non-existent note called “Assets owned by the Saudi government.”
When I decide to create the note I might not remember what exactly I called it in that link, or I might not remember I ever created the link in the first place. So I name the note “The Saudi government’s assets” or something like that. I’ll now never notice this link that I created when first writing a note on Aramco, and I’m missing out on one of the main benefits of using a notes app that has links.

Proposed solution

Have autocomplete suggestions for the title of a note based on un-resolved links that you’ve created. If I start typing the title and it has the words “assets” and “Saudi” in it that should trigger an auto-complete suggestion as the title is similar to an un-resolved link I have.

1 Like

This already works

It doesn’t work for me, I don’t get any suggestions and the note doesn’t appear in the unlinked mentions for the backlinks either.

Ok, edited the FR title for clarity

Since this request partially deals with avoiding notes with duplicate names, I wanted to link this feature request: Warning: Note with same name exists in another folder

Thanks!