When I select multiple files in the file browser side bar and then right click, I am presented with a menu of operations – that all only operate on the first file in my selection.
I’d like for the operations that are presented in the menu to apply to all of the files that I have selected (not just the first file)
Proposed solution
When multiple files are selected in the sidebar, and a user right clicks on them, only present a menu of operations that would operate on all of the files. Add support for the current ‘single file operations’ that exist:
Rename: maybe there is no ‘multiple’ operation for this one, in which case don’t show it in the menu
Delete: confirm deleting all the files that are selected.
Open in new page: open all the selected files in new panes.
Move file to: “Move files to”…move all the files to whatever folder the user selects (this is the one I personally care about the most).
Open in default app: open all the selected files in their default app.
Show in system explorer: show all selected files in the system explorer.
View Sync version history: don’t show?
Merge entire file with…: “Merge files with…” - merge all of the selected files into the selected note.
Make a copy: Make a copy of each selected file.
Current workaround (optional)
Currently I can drag the files to a visible folder in the sidebar - for all other operatons there is no ‘multi file’ workaround that I know of, but one could perform the operation for each file individually.
In order to speed up file movement I would propose that you should be able to move multiple files into a single directory/folder at once. (For example multiple image files into a directory called images)
Proposed solution
What I would like to see done is the following:
Select Multiple Files in File Explorer (You can do this now)
Right Click
Select Move
Click the directory that you want to move the files to
That ALL of the files will move - right now only one moves (whichever was selected first)
Current workaround (optional)
Right now I can highlight them all and then drag and drop them into the folder. This has become harder, however, as the number of my folders has become large.
But until it is fully implemented, at the very least Obsidian needs to get rid of the misleading visual multifile choice.
Currently, I can select many files using Ctrl and Shift keys, right-click for a menu, and be really surprised that the choice was not applied to every selected file. I might not even notice that deficiency and will assume that everything is fine while it isn’t. To fix it, all the other files should be visually deselected except for the file my mouse cursor was on when I made the right-click.
Just so you know next time: There are still .md files on the hard disk, you can also move them using your operating system, to save yourself the time-consuming work.
Agreed!! I just discovered this bug/limitation today when trying to delete a set of files. Why even allow the selection of multiple files if you can’t actually do anything to them collectively? This seems like it should be a fundamental element of the UI…and yet I don’t even see it on their roadmap? This should absolutely be higher priority than a number of things listed there, like “YAML frontmatter improvements.”
