[Solved] Different notes pointing to the same data

Not sure if this is a feature request or more of a help question regarding the behavior of the app. However, I can’t see how I can make it so that different notes will point to the same data. Like, I can just make two different files for each folder, but then when I edit one of them the other remains unedited. Some of my notes belong to more than one category so I would like to access the same information from different folders and edit it without copying and pasting the text over and over. In other words: place the note into multiple places in the tree. I’m using Linux if that makes a difference. Thanks in advance.

1 Like

@arizmenda

Not sure if I am understanding correctly, but wouldn’t embedding a note work for the described use case ?

The syntax for embedding note: ![[note title]].

Yeah, that works. The only nitpick is that this way I have to create a note for the sole purpose of embedding the other note inside which may seem like a crutch? I was thinking more of a note ‘cloning’. But on the bright side, I can add some comments or whatever so it’s fine. Sorry if I was unclear in the topic. I’ll mark the thread solved.

1 Like

If I understand the demand correctly, it would be what DEVONthink calls a replicate. In DEVONthink, when an object is a replicate, you get (virtually) two times — or more — the same object and you can edit either replicate, the other is updated in real time. They must reside in the same database though.

Maybe an alias in the Finder (Mac user, here) may give you the functionality you’re looking for.

@arizmenda I don’t think Obsidian plays well with file symlinks, but I could be wrong. Test this first before going haywire with it!

@arizmenda To be clear, are you talking about keeping the same note in different vaults?

If you are talking about referencing the same note in the same vault in multiple places, I think you’re missing the fundamental affordance of linking in the context of folders. The embedding solution suggested by @minhthanh3145 belies a deeper solution, in the form of a question: why do you need to re-represent the note in multiple places in the folder structure to begin with? You can reference or embed a note from anywhere in an Obsidian vault—the location of it doesn’t matter.

It may help come up with suggestions (or clear #feature-requests) if you can explain a bit more about why replicated notes in the File Explorer would be useful to you!

So I’m reading this as you want to see the same note in two different folders.

Trilium Notes has a good implementation of this https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Cloning-notes, but Trilium is backed by a database.

Echoing @ryanjamurphy, this is definitely #feature-requests