# Properties: Alias key gets changed to "aliases" **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Tags:** properties\ **Created:** [September 1, 2023, 11:44am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217 "2023-09-01T11:44:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ReaderGuy42](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@ReaderGuy42](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/ReaderGuy42)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 11:44am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/1 "2023-09-01T11:44:05Z")
I imagine this is because `aliases` is a default key of the properties, and this is mostly an aesthetic thing, but how can change it so that if my key is `Alias` it also shows up as such, and isn’t changed to `aliases` (with a small a) Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![ariehen](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/ariehen/32/46932_2.png) [@ariehen](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/ariehen)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 11:45am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/2 "2023-09-01T11:45:55Z")
If you use the Properties view GUI, it will be reformatted. > **[Properties - Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Properties#Default+properties)** > > Properties help you organize information about a note. Adding properties to a note helps you track structured data such as text, links, dates and numbers. Properties can also be used in combination w… ---
**Author:** ![ReaderGuy42](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@ReaderGuy42](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/ReaderGuy42)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 11:47am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/3 "2023-09-01T11:47:39Z")
Does that mean I can’t format it as `Alias` at all any more? ---
**Author:** ![gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/gino_m)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/4 "2023-09-01T12:49:56Z")
Oh dear, do I need to run search and replace on all my files again and update my templates and Linter settings? BTW, - from a semantic point of view, the plurals sound okay, and sciences e.g. zoology use them – as in Library of Congress Subject Headings employed in the Linked Data Vocabularies plugin, for instance, which means I need to delete from e.g. `Lions` the plural `s` each time, which is a pain; - from a point of view where we would be focusing on technical terms, ellipsis of plural should be used: in this case, `alias`, but `tags` indeed sounds better than `tag` so I kind of understand the motive for homogenisation of property names. Still, when Properties is not used (turned off), Obsidian under the hood still should (and I am guessing _will_) continue to support the singular forms as valid frontmatter keys. I would need confirmation, though. ---
**Author:** ![biscotty](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/b4bc9f/32.png) [@biscotty](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/biscotty)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/5 "2023-09-01T15:22:06Z")
The plural is standard to indicate that the data type is a list (array), even if there is only one value. Here’s a Python script for bulk updating your metadata which I haven’t tried but looks good. [GitHub - natelandau/obsidian-metadata: Batch updates to metadata in an Obsidian vault](https://github.com/natelandau/obsidian-metadata) ---
**Author:** ![gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/gino_m)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/6 "2023-09-01T17:04:21Z")
People who don’t know Python: Go into your text editor program (VSCode or Notepad++; Sublime Text I don’t recommend here if you have many thousands of notes with [prospective] properties), tick the regex function, may want to filter for `*.md` and run on your full vault/folder: Match: `^alias:$` Replace: `aliases:` - With `^` and `$` we make absolutely sure we only make changes to what’s needed. Because your Templates are also located in your vault, this will update your templates as well. I just went through my templates first and double-checked if every key or property is correct. So my regex changes did not update my Template files, I had done those manually. When you restart Obsidian, the program will start reindexing your vault. To edit the Linter plugin’s YAML section is rather easy. Also: you can run a similar search and replace for `cssclass:` \> `cssclasses:` as well, but I only changed those I had assigned in my frontmatter myself, not those that were inserted or are possibly still maintainted by an external plugin or js source. In case anybody was wondering – the Various Complements plugin’s handling of internal links with these alias changes ostensibly won’t change as the plugin should be using Obsidian’s internal index/cache. ---
**Author:** ![jimwrites](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/90ced4/32.png) [@jimwrites](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/jimwrites)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/7 "2023-09-01T18:34:06Z")
Brother, your Notepad++ workflow saved me a ton of work. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Jopp](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jopp](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/Jopp)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 6:52pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/8 "2023-09-01T18:52:36Z")
I must say, I really dislike the new name convention for “cssclasses”, “aliases” or “tags” but i bet this was just an example and plurals will become the standard for more properties, sooner or later - This new naming sounds not just more complicated but is, visual speaking, more clutter to write and more clutter to read for users. - Also, adding an **es** or **s** might sound like a little, innocent change but messes with the old way to deal with properties and requires more typing as well. My guess is, this name consolidation must be more a technicality, other reasons aren’t very much reasonable, imo. Hopefully I don’t need to rename all my old notes to keep my tags, aliases and cssclass properties in the future . No matter if a property contains one value or an array of values, properties are just a very quick description to identify very quickly values, Properties have nothing to do with the values itself, they aren’t meant to be a nice, formally correct thing to read like a book text, therefore plurals should be avoided in code projects at all cost, imo. ---
**Author:** ![gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/gino_m)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 8:13pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/9 "2023-09-01T20:13:51Z")
@Jopp I mostly agree, but as @biscotty hinted as well, these syntactic changes are down to how Obsidian YAML formatting itself was changed to favour multi-line values. - Although when I see in the Obsidian Help site that `alias` is now deprecated (?!!), I don’t see how a developer who needs to insure base backward compatibility could not account for both `alias` and `aliases` in the code. The only motive I’d see for enforcement was monetization but neither Properties nor core Obsidian is a paid feature/app. I would really like(?) someone to come out and say for confirmation “Yes, you can use any `xyz` frontmatter key you set yourself but we only support `aliases` to work for frontmatter key/properties and internal link management.” - In which case I’d say, “Why don’t you please support both?” – Which is no longer a semantic and syntactic question. It’s just the principle of the thing. ---
**Author:** ![CawlinTeffid](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/cawlinteffid/32/82899_2.png) [@CawlinTeffid](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/CawlinTeffid)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2023, 5:30am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/10 "2023-09-02T05:30:16Z")
How it works is: - If you only use Source View to manage your properties, they will stay as you formatted them. - If you ever use Properties View to edit them, they will be reformatted. - I _think_ if you view your properties in the new UI but don’t edit them, they won’t change, because I remember reading that deprecated forms of keys will still be recognized by Properties View for reading. But I might be mistaken. This had been discussed a lot and the team has explained their reasons (mainly in the insider-desktop channel on Discord) but I’m having a hard time finding those posts now. There’s a brief partial explanation at [Properties: Do not strip hashtags in tags - #16 by WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-do-not-strip-hashtags-in-tags/64466/16), and the user post right after that goes into some detail, but I know I’ve seen other posts about different aspects of it. ---
**Author:** ![CawlinTeffid](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/cawlinteffid/32/82899_2.png) [@CawlinTeffid](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/CawlinTeffid)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:28am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/11 "2023-09-03T02:28:29Z")
Aha! Here’s a post from Obsidian cofounder Licat: > [@API: processFrontMatter removes string quotes, comments, types, formatting](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/api-processfrontmatter-removes-string-quotes-comments-types-formatting/65851/6): > > So we’ve had long debates about this, and it mostly comes down to a trade-off between allowing user to store arbitrary comments and formatting in the YAML, vs making it not painful for plugins to interact with YAML. I will say that it is rather unfortunate that YAML became the most popular way markdown documents store metadata. YAML is difficult to write by hand because it provides way too many options to write the same thing, and there’s a lot of “gotchas” such as reserved keywords, the many m… ---
**Author:** ![risibledog](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/d07c76/32.png) [@risibledog](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/risibledog)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 5:54am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/12 "2023-09-08T05:54:16Z")
I can see the value of these changes, and reckon I will come to appreciate & enjoy them; but currently the aliases v alias issue is doing a real wrecking on my dataview tables. I’ve got use cases where it’s helpful to list all the aliases, but I stupidly used singular instead of plural in my templates. ---
**Author:** ![anon63144152](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@anon63144152](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/anon63144152)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 7:27am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/13 "2023-09-08T07:27:07Z")
> [@CawlinTeffid](#): > > If you only use Source View to manage your properties, they will stay as you formatted them. My understanding is that the underlying API rewrites (and has for some time) the YAML whether source mode is selected or not. Think the toggle removes properties from the editor but not what it is doing in the background. Have I misunderstood this post by WhiteNoise? There is only one API handling the YAML, yes? So that API rewrites the YAML in all circumstances, because even if properties is off in the editor, it is still on in the app itself? > [@Show raw YAML in live preview (with hidden properties)](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/show-raw-yaml-in-live-preview-with-hidden-properties/63830/39): > > The rewriting of the YAML section isn’t a new thing. It has been happening since we introduced the API (used by plugins) to read and write YAML. You are just noticing it now because you indirectly interact with that API (and the underling parsing library) every time you use the properties UI. “Rewrites” can happen any time that API is involved (of which I can’t foresee all future and third party use cases) and again we are fine as long as what is written is semantically the same to what you ma… Thanks ---
**Author:** ![CawlinTeffid](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/cawlinteffid/32/82899_2.png) [@CawlinTeffid](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/CawlinTeffid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 7:46am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/14 "2023-09-08T07:46:01Z")
Whitenoise says, “you indirectly interact with that API (and the underling parsing library) every time you use the properties UI”. I believe if you use the source view setting then you aren’t interacting with the properties UI and so won’t experience rewriting. Perhaps I’ve misunderstood (I only use properties for an occasional alias), but, it’s easy to test. ---
**Author:** ![ariehen](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/ariehen/32/46932_2.png) [@ariehen](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/ariehen)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 8:17am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/15 "2023-09-08T08:17:08Z")
Around v1.4.3, I did a small and hardly scientific test, but I think it was sound, watching for file changes. As long as I didn’t touch the Properties view UI in the note or the sidebar, no YAML was changed by Obsidian. > [@anon63144152](#): > > My understanding is that the underlying API rewrites (and has for some time) the YAML whether source mode is selected or not. Think the toggle removes properties from the editor but not what it is doing in the background. I think what they were saying is that Obsidian (and plugins) has had the ability to do it for some time, but Obsidian hasn’t itself until now (out of necessity to get Properties view to work). That’s how I read it. ---
**Author:** ![anon63144152](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@anon63144152](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/anon63144152)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 11:58am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/16 "2023-09-08T11:58:28Z")
Thanks for the replies. Would be nice if the team made it crystal clear. ---
**Author:** ![gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/gino_m)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 12:05pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/17 "2023-09-08T12:05:59Z")
Was just skimming through info here so I may not have the relevant input (as usual 🙂 ): In an another thread I already pointed out that in my v1.3.5 Obsidian, the [Linked Data Vocabularies](https://github.com/kometenstaub/linked-data-vocabularies) and [Link with Alias](https://github.com/pvojtechovsky/obsidian-link-with-alias) plugins were already making changes to my YAML format: it was not about the `alias` key being changed to `aliases` but alias values turned to multiline versions, which is why I made vault-wide changes to my YAML (and felt my installs even a little bit lighter and faster for some reason) and set different settings in my Linter afterwards. So under the hood it was Obsidian making these changes, before Properties for Insiders came out. ---
**Author:** ![anon63144152](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@anon63144152](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/anon63144152)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 1:45pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/18 "2023-09-08T13:45:52Z")
So I start with a file created in TextEdit with the following YAML: ```auto --- alias: [the cat, sat on, the mat] tag: kitty, kat cssclass: mewot --- ``` I put the file in a folder and open the folder in Obsidian as a new vault. I open the file properties pane in the sidebar, and `alias` is shown as `aliases` with three different aliases. If I remove the commas in the alias, it is shown as a single alias. `tag` is changed to `tags` and `cssclass` is changed to `cssclasses`. In source mode, the YAML header in the note shows the original text. In preview and reading modes, the YAML header in the note shows the rewritten properties. When I display all properties in the sidebar, I see alias (1) and aliases (0); cssclass (1) and cssclasses (0); and tag (1) and tags (0). So properties changes how a YAML header is displayed but doesn’t rewrite the underlying text? ![properties](https://forum.obsidian.md/uploads/default/original/3X/8/9/89e07f7aa827f26e53f27b6a284f0773a7b26a9c.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@gino\_m](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/gino_m)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/19 "2023-09-08T13:56:20Z")
And now try editing the YAML in Obsidian, first in source mode and then in live preview: If you do it in source mode, all formatting stays, but if you do it in live preview, the formatting changes (forever: unless you CONTRL+Z out of it and make changes in source mode, then one can go back). Interesting. I am interested to know if this is intended. I think it could be worth leaving it like this as a “feature”. ---
**Author:** ![anon63144152](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@anon63144152](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/anon63144152)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 2:03pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217/20 "2023-09-08T14:03:22Z")
Ah, yes. As soon as I edit in live preview (in the middle pane in my screenshot), the YAML is rewritten and I can see the changes in the source pane (in the top of the screenshot). Not entirely transparent. Would all the files in a vault be rewritten if only one file is edited in live preview, or just the file being worked on? (Guess I can test that.) Wish this was clear in the documentation rather than leaving it to users to figure out. [Next page](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-alias-key-gets-changed-to-aliases/66217.md?page=2)