#1

Things I have tried

What I’m trying to do

New to Obsidian. Wondering if there is a way to add a new note without opening the app, a la Evernote Helper. I’ve looked at IFTTT, Zapier, and Alfred, but no joy. Is this just not possible, or am I missing something?

#2

Hi,

I can not really help you but finding a way to add a text file with md extension would be the way. From a theoric point of view, it should be the solution. Know, the question is how :slight_smile:

I am supposing you are on Mac right ?

#3

I do this all the time, for example with a python script that generates many .md note files. A note is just a markdown file within the vault folder and a link is the name of the note enclosed in double square brackets. Obsidian will parse these when it starts up. What else are you trying to accomplish?

#4

I have done programming in the past, but not in Python. Two questions:

  • Would you be willing to share the script?
  • How do you trigger it?

I was unaware that just putting a Markdown file in the correct folder would make Obsidian deal with it. I might also be able to achieve the same thing with some sort of Alfred script.

Thanks!

#5

Yes, on Mac. Looked for some way to connect Alfred, Zapier, or IFTTT to Obsidian, but didn’t find any. The other person who replied mentioned a script to create a Markdown file. I will have to look into that.

#6

I can’t really share it, but I don’t think it’s anything magical. It just creates a text file with an .md extension and places it in a directory (it reads from proprietary databases to create the content, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with the problem you’re trying to solve).

#7

I use the Drafts app on my phone and pad to capture “field notes” of all kinds (journal, notes of meetings with clients and other contents etc); it could also be used from my MacBook but I rarely have need to do so.

There is a Drafts Directory (a repository of add-on actions to integrate with third party apps and service). I have used actions from there to send notes to my task manager, journal and other applications so when I started up with Obsidian it was the first place I looked for the use case you are seeking.

Sure enough some Obsidian users had already contributed actions (it is also quite straight forward to write your own from scratch or modifying an existing one).

#8

So, I made a NewNote.md file in my personal vault, then created an Alfred workflow to open the file. The first line of the file says “Remember to Save As.” This will do what I need, I think. Thanks all!

#9

Alfred - Obsidian Utilities if you’re using Alfred, that workflow will give you just about every variation you need. (I wrote a much more limited workflow ages ago that I’m still using, but that set of tools is waaaay better :slight_smile: )

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#10

I’m using LaunchBar for quickly adding to my daily note from anywhere. But no matter which app you use, there’s one inherent limitation which should become apparent after just a few minutes. Outside of obsidian the inability to auto fill wiki links is a huge deal, much bigger than I’d have thought. How do you guys deal with the problem of missing autosuggestion for links and tags when using any other app/utility?

#11

I just capture ideas and material that I run across for later triage, it’s part of my daily (and weekly) rhythm to come.bao and sort it out later - in essence, I capture stuff and move on with the task at hand so that I don’t get distracted but I also don’t lose things. YMMV, but this works for me and means that I don’t have a need for linking and autosuggestion while capturing :man_shrugging:

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#12

I haven’t tried it yet, but others have recommended the Hook tool (MacOS)

#13

I’ve heard more and more about hook since the last year but they do a different kind of linking I think. The kind that allows you to open something inside any app. I don’t think we can create wikilinks with hook unless I’m missing something since I don’t use it. But that would totally sell it!

#14

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