Toggle *Settings > Editor > Show line numbers" via Command Palette

[shender]

Use case or problem

I have worked on software my whole adult life. Sometimes I feel disoriented when I cannot see line numbers on the left of a long file. Sometimes I write really long notes in Obsidian. I love Obsidian.

• Yes, there is a scroll bar which indicates position in the document; however, while jumping around my notes, I often yearn for a quick read on the file size, and invariably end up looking left for line numbers.
• Yes, I can enable line numbers everywhere all the time via the option in Editor settings. But part of the beauty of Obsidian is it’s clean content presentation. I don’t want to see line numbers most of the time; yet, sometimes, I’m lost without them, albeit momentarily.

Proposed solution

Obsidian has a global setting *Options > Editor > Display > Show line numbers". I propose that this option can be toggled via the Command Palette, whereby users can reach it quickly and potentially even assign it a hotkey should they see fit.

I personally have found myself searching the Command Palette for this option numerous times as a new user, as it seems like a natural fit. I can understand not wanting to crowd the Command Palette with every option under the sun. Perhaps a settings for “expose all settings in Command Palette” could work here, but I digress. I just think toggling line numbers should be a first class command.

Current workaround (optional)

Command+, for settings, Control+/ to activate Shortcat, type “editor” and Return, Control+/ for Shortcat again, look for key combination of radio input for line numbers, enter key combination and press Return, press Escape to exit settings.

Related feature requests (optional)

Hotkeys for toggling the editor options "Use Wikilnks" and "Show line number"

A toggle hotkey for either using wikilinks or markdown links would make the cross-platform issues with pasting/inserting images faster. Since one could just toggle it via a hotkey. The “Show line number” seems useful for those who use latex/html inside their markdown files, but don’t want to view line numbers all the time.

Turning line numbering on and off for different notes

Is it possible to create a new note without line numbering? Why? Because I’ve created a new Vault folder for specifically learning Markdown language. Seems silly, but I’m completely new at this whole Obsidian routine and have absolutely NO other computer learning for this…just a retired architect learning new things!

[blue_emperor]

You might be also interested using Advanced URI community plugin to access setting pages:

Shell (mac):

open "obsidian://advanced-uri?&settingid=editor&settingsection=Display"

Using Raycast quicklinks:

obsidian://advanced-uri?&settingid=editor&settingsection=Display

You can specify vault parameter i.e. advanced-uri?vault=myVault&… if you want to target specific vaults. Without vault parameter advanced uri targets your last used vault.

Other settingids: https://publish.obsidian.md/advanced-uri-doc/Actions/Settings+navigation

The cool thing about Raycast is that you don’t necessarily want to use keyboard shortcuts for every action—just use ⌘Space and then search your action.

[shender]

Thanks @blue_emperor! This was definitely an improvement on my Mac. And I already had Raycast installed :).

I ended up finding a cross platform solution including optional hotkeys. I have a custom CSS snippet and snippet-commands-obsidian installed, which exposes commands to toggle CSS snippets via the Command Palette.

/* snippet: hide-line-numbers */
.cm-gutters .cm-gutter.cm-lineNumbers {
    display: none !important;
}

Steps:

1. Add CSS snippet to Obsidian Vault
   • CSS snippets > Adding a snippet - Obsidian Help
2. Install and enable Snippet Commands
   • Any CSS snippets loaded from .obsidian/snippets are now available by name as toggle commands in the Command Palette. In this case, a new command Snippet Commands: Toggle hide-line-numbers is available.
   • No additional plugin config needed
3. Optional: Map a hotkey for the new command in Settings > Hotkeys
4. Restart Obsidian. This would remove any modifications made in DevTools debugger while testing the CSS snippet if it were to be forgotten and confuse a silly programmer such as myself.

It’s working well on macOS and iOS so far between restarts and device syncs.

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<aside>I wish Obsidian would implement a built in way to change settings via a command palette like interface. Maybe as a separate picker interface or by enabling an option as it might cause new users to get stuck accidentally triggering settings updates. I’m kinda paranoid about running so many community plugins if I were to really adopt obsidian as my full pkm/second brain/GTD datastore. That’s not to say anything against all the wonderful community contributors though. Much love. </aside>

[blue_emperor]

Hi. There is also Code Editor Shortcuts community plugin that introduces toggle line numbers command.