# Set universal Markdown shortcodes for links

**URL:** <https://forum.obsidian.md/t/set-universal-markdown-shortcodes-for-links/35430>\
**Category:** Plugins ideas (Archival in progress)\
**Created:** [April 7, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/set-universal-markdown-shortcodes-for-links/35430 "2022-04-07T21:45:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xplosionmind](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/xplosionmind/32/14808_2.png) [@xplosionmind](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/xplosionmind)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/set-universal-markdown-shortcodes-for-links/35430/1 "2022-04-07T21:45:37Z")

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Markdown provides the great opportunity of creating link shortcodes/placeholder, as represented below.

```nohighlight
[example](https://example.com 'Hey, I am an example!') is the same as [example]

[example]: https://example.com 'Hey, I am an even cooler placeholder example!'

```

How awesome it would be if I could provide to Obsidian a data/markdown file with a list of all the values in between the square brackets, their corresponding URL, and the title, so that I do not have to specify it on every single page, if it is a link I use often inside the vault?

example of what I envision, in `/links.csv`, where `name` is `[shortcode]`:

```nohighlight
title,name,url
Hello there,Hello there official website,https://hellothere.xyz
Howdy here,Howdy here brand,https://howdybuddy.co

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jwl](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/jwl/32/64519_2.png) [@jwl](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/jwl)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/set-universal-markdown-shortcodes-for-links/35430/2 "2022-04-07T23:18:39Z")

</div>

Try using [Espanso](https://espanso.org). It is a text expander that does exactly this. It is a stand-alone application, not an Obsidian plugin.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xplosionmind](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/xplosionmind/32/14808_2.png) [@xplosionmind](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/xplosionmind)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 6:22am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/set-universal-markdown-shortcodes-for-links/35430/3 "2022-04-08T06:22:56Z")

</div>

Thanks for the suggestion! I know Espanso very well, and I take advantage of it daily. Nevertheless, this does not solve the problem on mobile and, above all, I do not need this for speed typing as I need it for elegance and neatness in my notes’ code.