For more than a decade my default note taking app was Notepad++. That changed with me discovering Obsidian, but… I still find myself going back to Notepad++. So, I asked myself: what are the issues that drive me back to np++?
- Proper autocomplete functionality. Obsidian has amazing friction-less note taking flow, but good autocomplete would make it almost perfect. Imagine you write a text and long words just appear and you select them with a TAB or Enter key. I’m referring to Notepad++ autocomplete functionality that autocompletes words already used in the note. This makes it blazing fast and still provides greater speed of typing.
If there would be a will, I guess it would be possible to go beyond current note and use some kind of word index file of the vault, but with a condition that it would not affect the speed (it could be an option that user can select).
Currently there is a plugin (GitHub - Yeboster/autocomplete-obsidian: Obsidian plugin to provide text autocomplete), but you need press a key shortcut to activate autocomplete, this makes it useful for programing, but useless for regular text entry.
- Compare feature. I find myself in need to compare different versions of notes or even different notes that may have similarities. Notepad++ has nice Compare plugin. Of course, just to do comparison, I could just use Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code, but that is a thing that makes me to leave Obsidian
- Speed (Resolved). Once, I was trying to switch from Notepad++ to Visual Studio Code + FOAM plugin, but VSC loading speed would drive me back to np++. And of course, FOAM is a great idea, but still in its infancy compared to Obsidian. I find Obsidian’s speed pretty balanced for great work experience.
Now, what are the things that keep you from making the final switch?