Remember recent undo-redo history for each recently opened note

[malecjan]

usecase:
sequence: I have just cut (Ctrl+X) large piece of content, created link, copied link title, opened link (Ctrl+Click) (this saves actual version and forgets history of changes), pasted title, realized I do not have content in clipboard, navigated back to now irreversibly lost content.

Now I have motivation to implement some clipboard history solution but undo-redo history and/or parallel backup vault containing previous file versions would cover many more potential accidents. I could just open ‟backup vault” or ‟list of recent notes” (to be implemented) and retrieve what I destroyed.

Current workaround: (added 2021-06-09)

• In last several months, “RealTimeSync” from FreeFileSync together with WinMerge allows me to visualize / restore changes between any two points in history of a file. I store old versions locally so they are always available and searchable.
• Obsidian now has File recovery plugin.

[malecjan]

related (overlapping) request: Remember position and undo history when switching between notes

[Ehsan]

I agree that Undo can be improved particularly around scenarios where multiple documents are being edited. I also just made this same mistake trying to cut something from one doc to another but ended up loosing what was in my clipboard.

I think what would solve this problem is to allow undo to work across multiple documents. Here is how I would expect it to work:

• Open Obsidian
• I make one edit on Document A
• I move to Document B
• I make one edit on Document B
• I press undo, undo edit on Document B
• I press undo again, move back to Document A (nothing is undone)
• I press undo again, undo edit on Document A
• Now all of my edits are undone

[kbavier]

Along these same lines, In the Mac client, I’d like to see the cmd-Z and shift-cmd-Z undo/redo menubar functionality brought to Obsidian. I have accidentally deleted a block of text only to find the undo function does not do anything. The clipboard manager I use saves me from losing copied text, but the undo/redo functionality would be more broadly useful.

Thanks for your consideration!

[Klaas]

@kbavier: in Obs on macOS ⌘+Z works, as does ⌘+⇧+Z.

[kbavier]

I just retried it and it does, in fact, work. I’m not sure why it wasn’t for me before. Most likely user error Thanks for confirming.

[Kir]

I was about to create this request, but found that it already exists (not in Bugs, but in a Feature Requests category)

I recently almost lost a part of my note. I deleted a piece of text, because I was almost sure it was duplicated in my other note. Then I switched to other note to double-check it, but it was not duplicated😱. When I returned back to my initial note, and was unable to undo. Thanks to cloud storages like Dropbox/OneDrive which store multiple copies of a single file for recent periods of time. If I worked with bare file system, I would have lost what I removed.

There was also another episode when I mixed up with hotkeys and removed the whole content of a note and then switched to other note which led to content loss.

Missing undo for each file I work with during a session is really disappointing. And for me, as a software developer used to work with IDEs, it is also counterintuitive. Obsidian writes changes to notes when you switch between them implicitly, and at the same time does not allow to undo your work. Intellij (which I mostly work with) also saves files implicitly, but you have an undo buffer working until you restart the app.

So this improvement would be really nice to have.

[darth_obsidious]

@Ehsan

what would solve this problem is to allow undo to work across multiple documents. Here is how I would expect it to work:

• Open Obsidian
• I make one edit on Document A
• I move to Document B
• I make one edit on Document B
• I press undo, undo edit on Document B
• I press undo again, move back to Document A (nothing is undone)
• I press undo again, undo edit on Document A
• Now all of my edits are undone

Simplenote has an excellent per-note edit history. In fact it’s a nice little slider at the top of the note. Just move the slider back and forward by notches and you can undo and redo all your edits.

[lumenwrites]

Yeah, that would be perfect! We really need this feature.

[ludovicchabant]

I would love for this to be fixed/implemented – it was actually a bit of a surprise the first time I switched to a previous note, hit Ctrl-Z, and nothing happened

(FYI it was actually the same use-case: I had overwritten the clipboard when it contained some cut piece of text)

@Ehsan

I think what would solve this problem is to allow undo to work across multiple documents. Here is how I would expect it to work:

I actually wouldn’t want this. If you add a third document to the mix, you end up having to undo all changes to document B before you can undo things in document C. Also, undoing UI actions (opening a new note, closing a note, docking something, etc.) as part of the undo stack is a giant can of worm that generally doesn’t lead to anything good in my experience.

IMHO Obsidian needs a new panel of “opened documents”. It would be useful to switch between all the notes I’m currently working on, and it would also be the thing that holds these notes in memory with each their undo stack, like any MDI software, really (which I understand Obsidian isn’t, but we’re talking about making it into one I think).

[malecjan]

@ludovicchabant

@ludovicchabant

needs a new panel of “opened documents”.

This role is already fulfilled in some way by following plugins:

• Sliding panes / Andy mode plugin
  • displays filenames of inactive opened documents in vertical bars alongside active document.
• Recent Files List Plugin
  • Displays filenames in separate pane, ordered by time of recent activation.
  • Relevant enhancement is suggested in post #14 from 2021-02-03.

[ludovicchabant]

@malecjan

This role is already fulfilled in some way by following plugins

Thanks, but the key element here is that these recently opened documents retain their undo stack until explicitly closed, like with any multi-document editor. I was merely suggesting that a good way to communicate that is with an “opened files” panel, but that’s just the UI on top of a much more advanced functionality.

The first one sort-of could work as a workaround (until the actual feature is hopefully implemented), so I’ll check it out. Thanks again.

[WhiteNoise]

will be implemented in 0.13.16