Spotlight: Extremely useful plugins with the most "underwhelming" search descriptions

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Have you ever found an awesome plugin by accident because the search description was vague?
I’m working on a spreadsheet to organize plugins by purpose and I keep coming across great plugins hiding behind short descriptions.

What “hidden plugins” do you like to use?

My favorite example of a hidden plugin is Text Format by Benature.

This is the description: “Format selected text upper/lower/capitalize.”

This is what it does:

• Transform Selected Text Case via Command: Lower, Upper, Capitalize, Sentence, Cycle, Title, Snake, Slug;
• Change Selected Heading Level via Command;
• Transform Selected List via Command: Flatten List to Commas, Separate Commas to Bullet List, Separate Commas to Ordered List, Convert Table to Bullet List, Convert Table to Bullet List with Header;
• Sort Selected Task Checkbox via Command;
• Remove Selected Link Formatting from Text via Command: Remove WikiLink from Selection, Remove Markdown Link from Selection;
• Remove Selected Text via Command: Multiple Spaces, All Spaces, Trailing Spaces, Blank Lines, Remove Hyphens, Citation Index Numbers;
• Replace Ligatures in Copied PDF Text via Command;
• Refactor Selected Text via Command: Merge Paragraph in Selection, Split Line by Blanks, Split Paragraph into Sentences;
• Convert Selected Links via Command: Convert Markdown Links to WikiLinks in Selection, Convert WikiLinks to Markdown Links in Selection;
• Convert Selected Text Punctuation via Command: Convert Chinese Punctuation to English, Convert English Punctuation to Chinese;
• Convert Selected Text Selection via Command: Anki Card;
• Convert Selected LaTeX Matrix (Mathpix) to Markdown Table via Command;
• Detect and Convert Text to LaTeX for Math via Command;
• Import File from Clipboard and Transform Copied Text via Command: Zotero Note;
• Wrap Selected Text via Command;
• Find and Replace Selected Text via Command;
• Replace Selection via Command: Replace Text with Imported Data from API Call;
• Insert Selected Text via Command: Double Spaces at Paragraph End in File, Line Break at Paragraph;
• Format Selected Text via Command: Add Space between Text Character and Symbol;
• Format Selected Callout Block via Command;
• Format Selected URL via Command: Decode;

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Binary File Manager.

It makes companion notes for attachments so you can put metadata etc. in them, but the word “attachment” doesn’t appear in its name or summary (“Detect new binary files in the vault and create markdown files with metadata”) so searchers are very unlikely to find it. I must have found it by just scrolling the plugin list (back when the list was shorter). I posted an issue about it (Searching "attachment" doesn't find this plugin in the store · Issue #12 · qawatake/obsidian-binary-file-manager-plugin · GitHub) but the plugin hasn’t been updated in 3 years so I don’t expect it to change. I’m surprised there isn’t another one that does the same thing.

(This isn’t a plugin I use, but it’s a sensible use case that people ask about sometimes.)

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I thought about re-writing descriptions for plugin makers and posting issues on their GitHub, but the true problem is Obsidian’s plugin search system. With over 2,000 plugins, we need much more than a title and short description to go on. A simple tag and filter system would go a long way.

Software developers in general have a propensity for describing how their app works at the software level instead of what it does for the user. I think that standardizing the language used in plugin descriptions would be helpful. I’ve been working on that in my spreadsheet, too.

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I’m not sure tags and filters would help in a case like Binary File Manager. I’d like to see things like this flagged in review, but it’s probably not feasible right now.

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I’m not sure tags and filters would help in a case like Binary File Manager.

Here is an example of how a tag and filter system in the obsidian search interface would help users find plugins like these.

Binary File Manager
Example Tag: attachment

  • A user searches for “attachment management” and “Binary File Manager” appears in the results.
  • A user filters plugins by the “attachment” tag and “Binary File Manager” appears in the results.
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If the developer didn’t think to use the word in the name or description, I don’t think they’ll use it in a tag. Altho I guess seeing it in a small list of tags might make it click for them. I’m not opposed to tags, but despite occasional cases like BFM I think the current system is holding up OK.

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I’m not suggesting a plugin developer-led effort to tag plugins. That would be chaos!

I’m suggesting that, because Obsidian the software is popular due to its plugins, that Obsidian the company should maintain a standardized tag and filter system to search for plugins.

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