Note Auto Creator

Note Auto Creator for Obsidian

Automatically create notes when links are created to them.

How to use

After enabling the plugin in the settings menu, you will be able to trigger an alternative link suggestion drop-down. The drop-down is triggered by typing the characters configured in the settings menu. By default, the trigger is @. The suggestion drop-down works as the standard link suggestion activated by typing [[ with some notable differences:

Some general notes:

• To exit out of the note selection process, press ESC. Note that the drop-down will be shown again as soon as you being writing on the same line.
• The type of link that is created by the Note Auto Creator is the same type of link that is created when using the standard Obsidian way. If [[Wikilinks]] have been enabled, then wikilinks are used. Otherwise markdown links are used.
• The new note that is created when using the Note Auto Creator will be an empty note unless a template is applied.
• The sorting of the suggestions is not quite the same between the two link insertion methods, but the contents are the same.

Inserting templates

If you would like to apply a template to a new note you can achieve this by triggering the template selection drop-down by using the Templater or QuickAdd selection trigger ($/€ by default). This will change the note selection drop-down to a template selection drop-down, and you will be able to select which template to insert. When you have selected a template, the note will be created and the selected template will be applied to the note.

If you have a specific template you use often, you can define it as the default template in the settings. The template defined here will be shown as the first template in the list of templates.

Prerequisites and limitations

• You may need to restart Obsidian after adding Templater, QuickAdd, or Note Auto Creator. Otherwise, Note Auto Creator might not be aware of the template folder configured in Templater or QuickAdd.
• Inserting templates only works if either the Templater or QuickAdd plugin is installed and enabled.
• You need to have defined a template folder in Templater or QuickAdd
• Inserting templates does not work with templates created for the core Templates plugin.
• You cannot apply templates to already existing notes.

Limit note suggestions

If your vault is organized into separate sub-vaults you might not be interested in getting suggestions for items in other sub vaults than the sub vault your current note is in. To achieve this you can define relative top folders. When a relative top folder has been defined, and you are inserting a link into a note that has that relative top folder in its folder tree, you will only get suggestions for notes that also have that top folder in their folder tree. You can both define the full path to a folder or just use folder name parts. You can define as many relative top folders as you want. They are checked in the order they have been added in the settings.

Be aware that note creation is not affected by the defined top folders. The location of a new note is still controlled by the Obsidian core setting "Default location for new notes".

Example

/
│   General notes.md
│   My 10 year goal.md
│
└───Work/
│   │   Contact info.md
│   │   Birthdays.md
│   │
│   └───Tasks/
│       │   Prepare meeting with Jim.md
│       │   Collect offers.md
│       │ 	Remember to buy birthday gifts.md
│       │ 	
│       └───Less important task/
│           │ 	Clean up my desk.md
│       
│   
└───Private/
    │   Birthdays.md
    │
    └───Tasks/
        │ 	Remember to buy birthday gifts.md
        │ 	Buy new house.md

In the vault described above there are some notes that have the same names in the two sub vaults. If you are inserting a link to a note somewhere in Work you might not want to get suggestions for any notes in Birthday. In the following table you can see examples of what suggestions are returned based on the note you are inserting a link into and the relative top folders you have defined.

Limiting Plugin Functionality to Specific Folders

Under some circumstances you may want to limit the folders in which the trigger symbol will trigger a note suggestion. To achieve this you can define a list of enabled folders. When defined, the plugin will only respond to the trigger symbol in notes that are in (or are descendants of) the folders you specify. If no enabled folders are specified (the default setting), the plugin will be active throughout the entire vault.

Example:

• If you configure "Projects" as an enabled folder:
  • The plugin will be active in "Projects/Project1/note.md"
  • The plugin will NOT be active in "Personal/diary.md"

Note: If you want to both enable the plugin only in specific folders AND limit suggestions to those same folders, you should add the same folders to both the "Enabled Folders" and "Relative Top Folders" settings.

Working with Relative Top Folders

When using both "Enabled Folders" and "Relative Top Folders" features:

• "Enabled Folders" controls where the plugin is active (where the trigger symbol works)
• "Relative Top Folders" controls which notes are suggested when the plugin is active

For a completely isolated experience within specific folders, configure the same paths in both settings.

Settings

Link suggestion trigger

By default, @ is used to trigger the link selection, but you can configure it to be any string by changing the value in Trigger for link selection.

A warning is shown if the chosen trigger is either an empty string or among the special symbols used when writing markdown. You can choose to ignore the warning and still use any of the special symbols as triggers, but it will make it harder to write normal markdown since you always will have the drop-down show up.

Suggest existing links to notes that do not exist

By default, Note Auto Creator will suggest links to notes that have not been created if such links have been inserted in other files. Disabling this feature will hide suggestions for links to notes that do not exist.

Quick insert header as alias for note

If you are creating a link to a header in a file, you can use a trigger symbol to insert the value of the header as the alias of the link. The trigger is ! by default, but can be configured in the setting Trigger for using header as alias.

Examples Assuming the trigger symbol is !, the following the links will be created:

Enable relative paths

Set this to true if you want an easy way to link to notes in the same folder as the active note or in the parent folder. Use './' to link to a note in the same folder as the active note. Use '../' to link to a note in the parent folder of the active note's folder.

Include folders in suggestions

By default, Note Auto Creator will not include paths to folders in the suggestions it gives when link insertion is triggered. If you enable this feature you will also see paths to folders in the suggestions. When selecting a path to a folder from the suggestions, the path will be inserted, and you can then continue writing the rest of the path to the note you want to link to.

If you don't want to always include folder paths in the suggestions you can choose the option "Only on trigger" from the setting "When should folder suggestions be shown". This will let you define a specific trigger that changes the suggestions shown from notes to folders. When this option is enabled, only folders are shown when the first character(s) you write matches the trigger in the setting "Trigger for showing only folders".

Templater template insertion trigger

Any symbol can be used to trigger the selection of a Templater template to insert. By default, the trigger symbol is $. This symbol can be configured by changing the value in Trigger for executing Templater templates. This setting is only shown when Templater is installed and enabled.

A default template can be configured in Default Templater template. This will ensure that the chosen default template is pre-selected when inserting a template. You can of course still choose another template from the suggestion drop-down if the default template isn't needed.

QuickAdd template insertion trigger

Any symbol can be used to trigger the selection of a QuickAdd template to insert. By default, the trigger symbol is €. This symbol can be configured by changing the value in Trigger for executing QuickAdd templates. This setting is only shown when QuickAdd is installed and enabled.

A default template can be configured in Default QuickAdd template. This will ensure that the chosen default template is pre-selected when inserting a template. You can of course still choose another template from the suggestion drop-down if the default template isn't needed.

Relative top folders

To add a new relative top folder click the "+"-button. This will add a new input box where you can write the relative top folder. Click the search icon if you want to get suggestions for folders.

Enabled folders

To add a folder where the plugin should be enabled click the "+"-button. This will add a new input box where you can write the enabled folder. Click the search icon if you want to get suggestions for folders.

Compatibility

This plugin should work on all operating systems supported by Obsidian, but has not been tested everywhere. See the table below for tested systems:

Todo

• Enable block linking if inserting a link to an existing note
• Suggest links to other file types than markdown
• Make it possible to create links and notes with relative paths
• Set specific top folders to collect note suggestions from
• Enable header linking if inserting a link to an existing note
• Support searching for notes by alias

How to install

From within Obsidian

You activate the plugin from within Obsidian by doing the following:

• Open Settings > Community plugins
• Make sure Safe mode is off
• Click Browse community plugins
• Search for "Note Auto Creator"
• Click Install
• Once installed, close the community plugins window and activate the newly installed plugin

From GitHub

1. Download the Latest Release from the Releases section of the GitHub Repository
2. Put files to your vault's plugins folder: <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-note-autocreation
3. Reload Obsidian
4. If prompted about Safe Mode, you can disable safe mode and enable the plugin. Otherwise, head to Settings, third-party plugins, make sure safe mode is off and enable the plugin from there.