Render text in backlinks, search results, and queries instead of showing raw markdown (reading mode rendering)

[lbgws2]

I use obsidian as my reading notes, and I use highlight syntax to highlight the summary,

At the top of the file, I use Embedded Queries to focus on the highlighted content, like this,

/==(.+)==/ file:"notebook" path:"notebook"

This is a good result, but there is also an obvious problem. The search results are not rendered using the markdown syntax,

Can I render search results in markdown syntax by default?

Or use any other third-party plug-in to do this?

[JayKim]

+1

It is very useful to tag certain equations but in the search results they are hard to identify because mathjax is not rendered.

[johw]

I have the query control plugin installed and I like it a lot but the backlinks are often from the previous page when navigating your vault. Both in live preview as is source view.

Just clicking on the linked references header (closing and opening it again) solves it but it is an issue as I sometimes forget to do that and the wrong references are shown.

[CawlinTeffid]

Workaround:

Apparently there’s a (possibly still beta) plugin that came enable this:

Rendering the markdown in the query/search results

Let’s go to the topic directly. The built-in query and research function is very powerful for text searching. However, the search results returned are just plain texts. And I think many people would prefer a result looks similar to the live preview mode. And I kept wondering why there is no such a core plugin or 3-rd party plugin that can do this. Accidentally, I red this post and found that there is a plugin, but is experimental, that can do this job: A very cool example of the use case is…

Related:

Render text in backlinks, search results, and queries instead of showing raw markdown (reading mode rendering)

A setting to display search results and backlinks in preview mode will make these more clean.

[vincer]

Just bumping the feature request. Ive given Obsidian a try 1-2 years ago and there were 3 main things that pushed me away(+no whiteboards, now with canvas i came back) - and despite appearing to be a ‘less relevant nitpick’ turns out to be bigger then the others because it gets in the way all the time- on backlinks, on search, making it a pain to even use the features.

I barely used backlinks and search then, also now on my second try- and i only realized how much this one thing is the culprit in my time with Logseq. After obsidian i was using Logseq - and all of a suddenly i was tapping on backlinks (and searching) like never before

Just returned to Obsidian and once again im avoiding the backlinks

I would also add, besides rendering, there should be a option/toggle/setting to making backlinks show the entire block of a mention by default.

This is most relevant to trully atomic notes (some barely beyond its title), where the main purpose is looking at the conections(backlinks). A presentable, readable render of those is a must for me, and from this topic many others

Im seriously considering filling my notes with redundant code, the query plugin, just to get this one thing… and it pains me to do so, since it screams ‘core’, the way it should be- and i hope will be someday… id rather not have to manually add said plugin code on every note already existing, and later removing when this is finally fixed.

Sorry if i sound blunt, but this barely feels like a feature request- it detracts so much from the rest of the ui and experience it feels more like a bug, a never fixed bug in 2 of the main areas of the ux (search and backlinks)

Sorry for the tone, just trying to convey my pain (and i was surprised it wasnt fixed after all the time ive been away), hope you devs get the feedback to the heart… im constantly thinking back on Logseq while im using obsidian on this alone

[hu4d]

Just bumping

[efemkay]

after all this while, i feel this should already be implemented. so i’m posting here reasons why it should get priority as a way to solicit the dev team.

there’s no technical limitation to implement

• as proven by NIL’s query control plugin, it can be done and it could work without significant change or even impact to performance.
• in fact, the way i see it, implementation can quite unintrusive since it can be an opt-in (as opposed to new redesign implementation in v0.16.0 / v1.0.0 when it impacted many)

there’s no conflict in philosophy

• having backlinks in rendered markdown is very much aligned to obsidian’s claim that “In Obsidian, making and following connections is frictionless” (as per homepage).
• on priority, there has been a number of features that aren’t exactly key to obsidian philosophy but got implemented in past year or so such as (a) Callout (even though i love it so much), (b) improvement to Outline plugin (it’s more for long form writing), and (c) popout windows (i don’t know about others, but so far i barely use it).
  • i’m not saying those features should not be there, just to revisit the priority a bit. the way i see it, rendering backlinks (and search) should get higher priority

there are interests from users

• apart from this post, there are countless forum posts asking for it and related FR such as request for Outline plugin to show as rendered markdown

hope this get their attention

p/s: also, i’m afraid NIL aren’t going to upkeep the query control plugin (noting that it hasn’t been updated for almost a year…)

[mike555]

+10000 I feel like this request may not be getting the attention it deserves because there are so many duplicate feature requests on this topic; perhaps no single one gets enough traction to get the visibility and priority it deserves.
For me, this feature is a deal-breaker. Other competing products have this capability and have it enabled by default. I appreciate the NIL plugin, but I find that it doesn’t work as expected all the time and I wonder about its long term support. This functionality really needs to be baked into the core product or as at least as a core plugin.
Thanks!

[jeetsukumaran]

I’m going to say +1 to this.

Links are so fundamental to Obsidian, the synapses of the brain. Backlinks are important to so many workflows, help in discovery, resurfacing etc. So many tutorials, guides, how-tos, etc. all talk about using backlinks. And they are correct. QueryControl makes Obsidian’s backlinks workable, what they should be out of the box. It would be nice if it was included in the box

[Schreibtisch]

TBH at first I thought it was a bug that it’s not rendered properly. If you use a lot of formatting, having the source displayed makes it barely useful

[Kai_11]

I’ve signed up just to bump this one.

I appreciate all the work the team has done. I believe in what Obsidian is about but the low quality UI/UX has always been a challenge for me to work with, until the more recent changes and improvements across the whole UI. I kept coming back to Obsidian and leaving for the likes of Craft. Hopefully this time I’m here to stay, at least for my knowledge system. The live mode is amazing and overall the user interface feels significantly better.

That said, there’s still significant room to improve, to get up to the level of some of the other apps out there. Obsidian does so many things significantly better than others, but I think a UI/UX lead from one of the competitors who’s done a good job could get it up there to perfect levels. We might consider it for business too if so.

Search results and Linked/Unlinked mentions rendering they way they do is very messy. It’s not pleasing to look at and just terrible to navigate. If the team can’t see this since the initial post here (May 20), then that’s another reason to hire a UI/UX lead that understands how to make software beautiful and pleasing to work with.

An exceptional UI/UX + Obsidian power will be unstoppable.

I hope this gets prioritised one day.

[ariehen]

Be sure to the first post. That will be the “bump”.

[zettx]

Left Obsidian for Logseq a long time ago due to this, hopefully one day it will be implemented.

[efemkay]

Not yet in core feature, but at least with these two updated plugins, it’s quite close to logseq style

Release 0.6.0 · nothingislost/obsidian-query-control

GitHub - ivan-lednev/better-search-views: Outliner-like breadcrumb trees for search,...

[ryadaj]

Just adding another example of why this could be a real improvement. External links are not eye-friendly in search results.

[chrsle]

Query control seemed to have gotten more issues, it breaks the possibility to expand the results when I use it in an embedded query.

[andriluccahannes]

Use case or problem

Obsidians core feature is linking files together. An imporved Backlinks appearance would enhance this core feature.

Proposed solution

If the backlinks would display not just the line the [[link]] is used in but rather all childrens of that line. Like for example all subtabs of that line

Current workaround (optional)

Sort of like Influx Plugin but there you have to use bullet points which is quite annoying and it is also not maintained anymore.

[renatomen]

+1 Please prioritise this.

• The markdown notation is very distracting. Headers, links, formatting make reading backlinks 10x harder.

[lucasd]

The plugin Better Search Views accomplishes this beautifully (as of this writing). Just be sure to quit and reopen Obsidian after installing.