New plugin—Workbench: collect your thinking in a running list

Announcing a new plugin!

Workbench

Make a mess.

Workbench allows you to capture and collect thinking from all over your knowledge base in a single place as you work. Link or embed notes, sections, and even blocks, or copy the current line.

You can also use alt+click to link or embed content a targeted link, or cmd/win+alt+click to link or embed a targeted block.

Demo:

Find it in your friendly neighbourhood plugins gallery or on GitHub.

34 Likes

@ryanjamurphy you are killing it with useful plugins. Nice work!

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Very, very cool idea! :+1:

2 Likes

A Wonderful idea made me go “ahhhh yes that’s just the ticket I need”

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Sadly no one will get the chance to use 1.0.0…

Because I just added a “Clear workbench” command and an “Insert contents of workbench” command in 1.2.0!

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I would love to try it, but I get an error when installing. Is there a place with error logs to share? I mean, where are the logs?

2 Likes

Sorry, I misclicked when uploading the latest release. Will fix this AM and let you know!

PEBKAC: developer edition. Forgot to upload the plugin files in the release. Fixed and now working! Sorry!

Wow - this is so f… great! One of the few things I have been still missing in obsidian up to now… :partying_face:

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To compensate for failing to actually include the plugin files in the last release, I just added an option to use cmd/win+alt+click to copy the current line.

This is simply a phenomenal plugin. I have recently been transitioning all my notes from Notion, roam and Evernote to Obsidian and I was in need of a tool like this for that transition!

2 Likes

Pushed a couple of Workbench updates recently, by the way. 1.3.1 made sure you didn’t lose editor focus when you use the plugin’s commands, and 1.4.0 introduces a “copy line as blocklink” command to allow you to copy lines in markdown link format, where the link leads to the line’s block.

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Thanks to @Licat in more ways than one, Workbench now has the ability to quickly change your Workbench to a new destination (has to be an existing note).

Use it e.g., in combination with the click-to-make-block functionality to quickly recombine and manipulate your ideas in different notes.

3 Likes

This is a great plugin. Kudos @ryanjamurphy

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Sorry for the probably dumb question, but how is this different than just using a second pane with a regular .md file?

I’m not really sure how to answer the question without re-listing the features. It’s about speed and remixing, I suppose. You may not have a need for it! But probably best to try it and fiddle with the settings to get a real sense of the functionality.

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The plugin appears to not be working in v0.10.1. I installed the plugin, and hit the Workbench icon in left hand dock, but nothing happens. I am new to Obsidian, so I could have missed something. Thanks.

Update: I found the “Missing Link”. For those having the same issue, you have to create a Note using the name you defined in Workbench config. By default it’s Workbench and I dropped it in the root folder.

Possible Enhancement: If the file does not exist, create the file when clicking the Workbench button.

ce

2 Likes

This may seem like a plugin that doesn’t change the Note taking process; doesn’t add much. Use it for a while, and you will soon realize the benefit. Thanks Ryan.

ce

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Good idea. I should at least post an error notification explaining why it’s not working. Thanks for the feedback!

An error dialog with a small description and solution would definitely work for a workbench file that doesn’t exist. My Workbench has become a collection of links to open projects. I also use it to take quick notes during meetings which I later merge in where they belong. Thanks again.

Possible Enhancement: Can you detect if the workbench file is already open, so it doesn’t open it multiple times?

ce