Support any character in filenames / note title (using encoding, substitution, etc)

[Salamander23]

If you have the original filename with the unallowed characters as an alias, then it wouldn’t be hard to search for the file just by typing the name normally, since it will come up in the search results.

[3Deditor]

I would like to see this too!

[peeragetalkers]

This would be very useful

A character map I prefer is:

'/': '∕',  // Unicode: \u2215
':': '։',  // Unicode: \u0589
'|': '❘',  // Unicode: \u2758
'#': '＃',  // Unicode: \uFF03
'[': '〚',  // Unicode: \u301A
']': '〛',  // Unicode: \u301B
'^': 'ˆ',  // Unicode: \u02C6
'.': '․'   // Unicode: \u2024

[peeragetalkers]

This was implemented in:

Automatically set the first line as note title

First Line is Title automatically sets the first line as note title, just like in Apple Notes! It lets you forget about manual filename entry or nondescript timestamps. [image] Features Rename notes automatically or manually. Move cursor to the first line on note creation. Put any first line content in title or headings only. Replace forbidden filename characters with safe alternatives. Strip markdown syntax in filename. Add custom replacement rules. Automatically add a first line alias prope…

[peeragetalkers]

I also saw this suggestion voiced here:

Use H1 or YAML property "title" instead of or in addition to filename as display name

@developers A similar app called Notable uses a nifty solution of this (other than using YAML for title): Instead of “:” it uses “꞉” (Wikipedia) in the actual file name, but interprets it inside the app (e.g. in header/title) as a regular colon. Instead of “?” it uses “ʔ”. etc As far as the user is concerned, no character is disallowed, and the OS is happy. ETA: yt-dlp uses the same method for illegal characters.

[Tom]

Now that I started using Obisidian, I notice that I really often want to use a question mark in my note titles. What is the reason that this is unsupported, and can it be changed?

[Caketray]

If you’re on windows, ? is forbidden from filenames at an OS level, nothing Obsidian can do about that.
If you’re on *nix (inc linux or mac) it is allowed by the system and Obsidian could allow it

[Tom]

Thanks, I’m on mac. Makes sense to block the ? there as well, for portability of vaults between operating systems.

[nbgoodall]

This would be really handy…

Not to shit on Windows, but I never use it. A toggle in Obsidian to allow * " \ / < > : | ? on *nix would be very handy! There are so many titles I’d like to use them in.

[ph3rin]

I think it would also be an option to use URL encoded characters on Windows as file name if a filename is unsupported.

I use both mac and windows, and ended up creating a file with ? on Mac - which obviously failed to sync to Windows!

[pedrodejesus]

Hi folks!

Following some suggestions on this topic, I’ve created a plugin that replaces special characters with similar unicode ones while you tipe in the note title. I took inspiration from the character map provided by @peeragetalkers on this reply. The Share & Showcase topic for the plugin can be found here.

Hope this can be useful for someone, any suggestions are welcome!

[SoroushTorkian]

Sometimes I want to use ! or *? etc in my file name because that’s the name of the thing I’m linking to; is there a plugin or way to do this? This is not an issue on my Apple devices but is an issue when I upload my vault to certain cloud drives or Windows.

[esv]

Whatever the default replacement symbols are (many great ideas suggested) they should be user configurable to match substitutions used in non-obsidian cases

By the way, why are filesystem legal and very useful symbols like [] also banned and require substitution?

Another potentially better solution is to disconnect file name from the note title, I don’t agree it’s beneficial enough to lose the naming flexibility, and also file sorting hierarchy has its own benefits, so doesn’t need to precisely match the note title

[ariehen]

@esv

By the way, why are filesystem legal and very useful symbols like [] also banned and require substitution?

Because they are used in links within Obsidian.

You are free to name a note [note] if you want, but Obsidian’s internal linking won’t work with it.