Obsidian Hotkeys: Favorites and best practices

Was supposed to learn VIM keybindings to make good use of the keyboard but found that it distracted me too much from getting things done. After watching your outlining video, I decided to take your suggestion and implement left-hand hotkeys myself to be more efficient in using both the keyboard and the mouse (which I found that I still needed to use even with VIM anyway), so much so that I made a note of these left-hand hotkeys should I forget them—which would become unlikely after frequently using them.

Left hand keyboard shortcuts

Pairs

  • Navigate back and forward: Cmd + Opt + Z & Cmd + Opt + X
    • Was pleasantly surprised that you had a similar setting for navigating notes lol
  • Toggle left and right sidebars: Cmd + Shift + A & Cmd + Shift + S
  • Previous and next daily notes: Cmd + Opt + A & Cmd + Opt + S

Misc.

  • Toggle highlight for sentence (Extract Highlights plugin): Cmd + Opt + Spacebar
  • Toggle highlight for selection: Cmd + Shift + Spacebar
  • Split horizontally (duplicate active pane): Cmd + Opt + D
  • Reveal active file in navigation: Cmd + S
  • Random note (Smart Random Note plugin): Cmd + Opt + R

Outlining (four of these hotkeys might be familiar :wink: )

  • Swap line up and down: Cmd + Opt + 1 & Cmd + Opt + 2
  • Toggle bullet and unordered list: Cmd + Opt + 3
  • Toggle fold and unfold: Cmd + Opt + 4
  • Fold and unfold all headings and lists: Cmd + Opt + - & Cmd + Opt + +
    • Best with full-sized keyboard

I have some frequently-used hotkeys that I deliberately didn’t change to left-hand; these are the ones where I would need to type out something, thus would require my two hands anyway.

  • Create new note and in new pane: Cmd + N & Cmd + Shift + N
  • Insert template (Templater plugin): Cmd + ;
  • Jump to Link plugin: Cmd + '
  • Move file to folder: Cmd + /
  • Command Palette & Quick Switcher: Cmd + P & Cmd + O
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