This is Samsung Notes. But this could also be Obsidian!
Basic Idea
The basic idea is a plug-in capable of generating a view of notes like this. Each note tile would contain a preview of the note body, the file name, creation date, and tags. From settings, the plug-in can also be configured to show modified date and perhaps metadata.
Click on a folder or a tag, and you get a grid of notes like this.
In settings, you can also configure it to show up as a list or carousel instead.
File Explorer Behaviour
When a folder is clicked, a tab opens in the main note pane with a grid of notes contained in that folder.
With Folder Note Plug-in
When a folder containing a folder note is clicked, the content of the folder note will be embedded above the note grid.
Subfolders in Note Views
Subfolders are contained in a row above the main note grid. When clicked, a separate view opens of the notes in that subfolder.
Tag Tree Behaviour
When a tag is clicked, a similar view opens up with all notes containing that tag.
Empty Tab Behaviour
An empty tab automatically becomes a view of all notes in the vault (similar behaviour to the Home Tab plug-in).
Yeah, I’ve used the plug-in, and it’s very nice. However, it’s not quite the same as having a traditional grid of notes. And also, a big benefit of the layout would be more visibility on mobile, but the plug-in’s not available on mobile.
And also, it’d be nice have a file explorer that shows a note’s tags. As of now, you have to go to the tag pane to see tags, but a grid layout could have an option to display tags automatically on each note tile.
Cool idea! What about the grid helps with your organization of notes? Is it being able to see the text structure of notes inside? For example in the Samsung notes there’s the handwritten markup which helps with visualizing what’s in the note. But for Obsidian text it seems like it would just be text which might not be as helpful.
Have you also considered screenshotting the notes and pasting in a tool like Figjam? I know that’s kind of roundabout but it could give you the 2D canvas functionality.
The main organization thing for me would be the ability to see the tags right under the note’s title. The text content is also useful because I am amazingly terrible at naming notes, and have a lot of notes called “Random” , “Something”, and “Test”, because such inconspicious names reassures me that anyone who secretly opened up my writing vault wouldn’t be compelled to snoop in my terrible short stories.
Pasting into Figjam is an interesting idea, but I don’t see much use without the interactivity. It’s still a semi-solution, though. I’ve been using the Page Gallery plugin to mimic a sort of Samsung Notes look. After a recent update to the plugin, the code block can be specified to only show the text of a note instead of images or the link fallback, so I’ve been using that, and it’s close to what I proposed here.
It would still be really nice to just click on a folder or a tag and get an automatic grid view, though.
