Use case or problem
When viewing notes, I often want to explore thematically similar content in my vault through shared property values. While Strange New Worlds shows backlink counts for internal links, there’s no equivalent quick visibility into how frequently specific property values appear across notes. Currently, I have to manually search ["property":value] for each value I’m interested in, which breaks the flow of thought and exploration.
Proposed solution
Add an optional count indicator next to property values in frontmatter, reflecting the number of other notes that share that exact property value. For example:
status: In Progress (12)
type: Article (45)
topic: Psychology (28)
author: Daniel Kahneman (7)
This would:
- Enable quick assessment of how “connected” a note is through its properties
- Surface potential connections between notes you might have forgotten about
- Help maintain consistent property usage by making frequently-used values more visible
- Guide knowledge organization by showing which property values are becoming common enough to perhaps warrant their own MOC (Map of Content)
- Encourage more intentional property usage by making their network effects visible
The count could be toggleable in settings for those who prefer a cleaner look.
Current workaround
Use property searches like ["status":"In Progress"] to check counts, but this is cumbersone and doesn’t even provide search suggestions for property values. One could maintain manual MOCs for important property values, but that would require constant updating or some unsophisticated workaround.