Note selections via in-note links, queries, and tags

Use case or problem

Sometimes you have links, tags, or queries that together could produce a selection of notes difficult to accomplish otherwise.

Proposed solution

If you could hotkey initiate a mode that allowed Ctrl and Alt clicking links, tags, and queries in-note to build a selection set that could be previewed within a horizontally split explorer. You could then add or remove from the selection set using Ctrl, Shift and Alt clicking in both this temporary preview list and explorer.

This feature is tied to the ability to work on multiple selections with the right click whose feature request is linked below.

Connected request: Right Click Menu for Multiple Selection (file navigation, move, delete)

Thanks.

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Do you mean alt/ctrl clicking tags to append to a search?

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Thanks for asking.

The main difference from search is that it gives you explorer functionality and can be modified using selections of the links etc in a note as opposed to just in explorer and using query terms.

Actually I meant within the notes being able to modifier click links, tags, and queries as if they were notes in the explorer. Doing this would generate a list (possibly temporarily appearing as a separate pane or part of the explorer as a split pane) of selected files that could be further adjusted (add or remove items) within that list also using clicks. It would also allow you to add to the selection using modifier clicks on files within the explorer. While doing this, the explorer would update properly highlighting selected files.

The goal of all this would be to actually select the notes as opposed to generating search results like with clicking tags. And the secondary goal would be to then use right click functionality on that selection to move, delete, copy, or drag and drop into notes for link list generation, etc… (anything you already can do with selections in the explorer).

I still feel like this may sound confusing. I will try to edit this, but hopefully this clarifies the idea some.

Thanks.

I am having a bit of a hard time visualising this. This sounds like search, but isn’t search? Could you perhaps describe this with an example note/setup, and (fake) step by step instructions?

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Sure.

It is almost like using a note as a workspace to build a selection via a hybridized (almost manual Vantage plugin) click search approach.

As an example, imagine you have created a note that has a few tags, an embedded custom query, and a custom list of links that are not achievable via any query. These links are to notes scattered throughout your folder structure and would take an unnecessarily long time to select. This feels especially true because you have the list already created.

Before proceeding, assume that the right click menu within explorer works on multiple files in a selection. Now, with the goal of deleting all the files that match the query, plus all that match the tags, plus all that have their links listed in note, this is how you would proceed:

  • press hotkey for the command
  • click within the query block (noticing it highlights and lists the resulting selected files in new pane aside explorer)
  • ctrl click the few tags one after another (noticing that the selected tags in the note are highlighted)… (also noticing that the list of notes that matched the query is being added to with those notes that match the highlighted tags)
  • ctrl click each of the links within the note (they are highlighted as this happens and their corresponding notes are added to that selection list)
  • you notice that there is a note in selection list that you want to remove so you alt click it (this removes that note from the list)
  • you remember that you also want to delete a few notes from a folder, so you Ctrl click those notes in the explorer, consequently adding them to the selection list
  • finally you press hotkey to exit command (noticing that the selected file list disappears and exactly the files you want are all highlighted and selected in the explorer)
  • you right click on any one of them and choose delete (or any other explorer or right click functionality that may eventually work on selections of multiple notes)

Sorry that took so long. Let me know if that does the trick.

Thanks.

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Thank you! That does indeed do the trick and makes the use case much clearer for me.

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I would like this feature for tags, but also Saved Searches, if they come to fruition.

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