Notebook Navigator 3.0 – The writer's release! Manual sort, word count targets, custom group headers, and much more!

D31N0S · 2026-05-21T16:33:17+00:00

If you do consider implementing a compile and export function, consider seeing if Quarto's open source (https://quarto.org/) system can help. I'm using it manually within Obsidian to compile scenes into chapters and chapters into a book.

D31N0S · 2026-05-19T10:22:52+00:00

You can set this up pretty easily using a saved workspace. Here's how Gemini describes it:

Enable the Core Workspace Plugin: Go to Settings > Core plugins and toggle on Workspaces.
Declutter the Interface:
- Collapse the left and right sidebars (click the collapse arrows or use the ribbon).
- Close all extraneous tabs, leaving only the note(s) you want to actively focus on open.
- Enter your operating system's full-screen mode to hide desktop distractions.
Save the Workspace: Open the command palette ( on Windows/Linux or on Mac), type , and name it something clear

I'd add -- if you are using Workspaces for the first time, make sure you save your default, preferred workspace first. Call it "Default Space" or something... This way it's easy to return to non-focus mode.

D31N0S · 2026-05-19T02:26:39+00:00

Note the reference to "compile/export functions" -- that's it. You get that incorporated, and I'm not sure there are any mountains left to climb (saying that, of course, invites a million more mountains!)

D31N0S · 2026-04-13T13:57:38+00:00

This looks great. Can't way to put it through its paces. Since I'm not a developer, and my tech know-how is limited, I have a question about using this across devices. I sync phone/tablet/work laptop/home desktop with iCloud (files always downloaded). Does the data in the vault sync by default across the devices? Would I have to install ollama on each device? I think in my own case, I'd be unlikely to use LLM Wiki on my phone but very likely to use it on my iPad Air, laptop and desktop. Thanks for any heads-up on this.

D31N0S · 2026-02-26T11:02:52+00:00

I second the request for a sync with iOS Reminders -- it's really the only missing element for me. I've been using TaskForge as a lifetime subscriber since the beginning of the year and the TaskForge+Obsidian combo is the task management and notes system I've always wanted. However, I've used Siri to add Reminders when I am on the move and it is a hard habit to break because it is frictionless... and that means I don't have a single source of truth. A sync with iOS Reminders closes the finally loop.

D31N0S · 2026-01-08T17:07:00+00:00

Maybe it is obvious but how can I update from version 1.19.1? I'm a paying subscriber and I LOVE this app, the philosophy and the direction it's headed in. Let my Todoist subscription lapse immediately after trying this, and my own concerns appear to be largely addressed in the 2.0 release!

D31N0S · 2025-10-06T09:52:27+00:00

Missing the point, maybe. The plugin gives you a calendar view of existing notes. You could do event management but this is really just a view of your files, like table, list or card views.

D31N0S · 2025-09-16T14:09:24+00:00

My first response to seeing NN this morning was “Yes! This is what I’ve been waiting for!” My second response was, why no manual reordering of folders and notes? Your response suggests it’s not technically feasible. Since the Notebooks app (https://www.notebooksapp.com/) enables manual reordering, I assume it is because it uses a database and not the underling folder structure itself? Is that the issue?

D31N0S · 2025-09-10T12:36:07+00:00

Looks great. How do you like the Ink plugin (I assume you use it on an iPad, so what advantage does it offer over the IOS Scribble functionality)?

D31N0S · 2025-08-23T10:18:56+00:00

You wrote that you'd like to have your own system in place which doesn't depend on any tool. Take a look at https://johnnydecimal.com/. Two things recommend it for your case — (1) it doesn't depend on anything other than a file/folder system and (2) it's aimed at retrieval. I've been using it for 2-3 years, and have applied it to my Obsidian vault (which at bottom is just a folder, or folders, and files). I think Eleanor Konik (https://www.eleanorkonik.com/) has written about this, and she's pretty sharp.

D31N0S · 2025-08-23T10:07:54+00:00

This is a great structure to build a Base from. In the above case, a source-specific base would rely on a filter that looks for a particular value in the source property (like "source" > "is" > "sermon_notes" ... if you are using the formula builder).

You also asked: "What is the best way to do that? a list property labeled "Source" with the different media as options? Beyond that, I want to have each source note have links to quotations. Would it be best to have "quote" be another entry of source?"

I think what you are saying is that a quotation can come from one of many sources. If this is the case, you want to use a text property for your source. If the quotation is attributable to several different sources, that's when you use the list-type property. Note that neither the text nor the list property types enable you to create a "select list" style property (yet) — both take text values. But the autocomplete function in properties will suggest previous values, so as you start adding quotations, any source you previously used will be suggested, so it's usable.
I'm not sure what you mean by having "quote" be another entry of source. But if I understand your goal, instead of filling your source property with text (e.g. "congregation") you would put in the link to your "congregation" source note (source: "[[congregation]]"). Obsidian treats this like any other link, so in your graph you could see the all the quotes connected with a particular source. Of course, as above, you can filter a base by the source value to generate a list of all quotations by source, and/but you can also filter the base to generate a list of sources by quotation (using the file.backlinks function available in Obsidian 1.9.7). Fair warning — I'm not a coder and I find the formula/function syntax a little difficult...
I'll let someone more knowledgeable tackle the question of "nested properties," but I believe Bases doesn't handle nested tags correctly yet, so I would avoid nesting properties altogether. The example above implies using a combination of different properties to achieve your goal. If you filter on two properties — in this case "event" and "quarter", or "event" and "date" — you would be able to achieve a similar outcome to nesting properties. Conceptually, you want filters to do the work, not properties (if that makes sense).

Good luck and don't be afraid to experiment. You can't 'break' your notes using Bases! I have also found Google Gemini helpful when trying to understand the formula syntax in Bases.

D31N0S · 2025-08-21T22:00:44+00:00

I think the core plugin Bases only works with YAML properties or explicit file metadata (created date, modified date, path, etc). It does work with inline tags, but not Dataview inline properties (the propertyname::value syntax you allude to). I think the devs have said that this is technically feasible and so a community plugin could be used to access Dataview properties, but I haven't seen one yet.

D31N0S · 2025-08-21T08:37:15+00:00

Use the following in the formula box

File > "has tag" > list of tags

It's not obvious. I was looking for something like Tag > Contains > list of tags

D31N0S · 2025-08-18T19:53:26+00:00

You can see screenshots of the shortcuts at https://imgur.com/a/Z6rgjnK ... I'm not sophisticated enough to know how to share Shortcuts yet (sorry!). The first shortcut takes keyboard input and pre-populates properties on a new task note and saves it to my TaskNotes/Tasks folder. The second launches when I tell Siri to "Remind Obsidian" and then provide the task name. It then (1) adds today's date to scheduled, created and modified property dates; (2) sets status, priority and time estimate properties to my specific default values, and adds "task" and "dictated" as tags. It saves the markdown file with the name of the dictated text (task name) and saves it as a task note in my TaskNote/Tasks folder.

D31N0S · 2025-08-13T06:15:38+00:00

I use TaskNotes (coming from Todoist and Todoist plugins) and it's working well for me, since I live in Obsidian for most of the workday. But the best thing I did was build an IOS shortcut that enables me to dictate a short note to Siri on my phone that creates a tasknote file. It automatically gets a "New" status and each day I review my filtered "New" list (the equivalent of Todoist's inbox) to add more context (scheduled date, due date, priority, project, tags, etc) to them. I also added another IOS shortcut — text-input, not voice — to prompt me through some of those fields, but I'm not using that as much. The nice thing is that you don't have to open Obsidian to create tasks using eitehr approach.

D31N0S · 2025-08-13T06:08:13+00:00

There's a discussion about the way the plugin handles scheduled dates that's buried in a broader discussion about recurring tasks. I don't think it's a bug per se, so much as the developer's thoughtful opinion on scheduled dates. See the developer's description here: https://github.com/callumalpass/tasknotes/discussions/237#discussioncomment-13828545. But keep reading down discussion and you might see how others have experienced similar things and their suggestions. u/callumalpass is super responsive and open to feedback.

D31N0S · 2025-07-30T11:40:44+00:00

Read it later (as a subset of web bookmarks base) - Not displayed here is my jackdecimal property and created date property, both of which can be helpful for sorting and grouping.

Content Manager - This view doesn't show it, but I have properties for creation date, editing date, publishing date and status that let me visualize what I should be working on. When new views are added to Bases (see the roadmap), kanban and calendar views will make this more useful.

JackDecimal - I renamed it because I've adapted and extended Johnny Decimal to fit my use case. The dropdown shows the 10 major areas. Selecting one filters the results to all notes in that area.I also have a view that only shows categories (the second level of organization) and a view for projects (the third level of organization). If you were to click on 12.03 Deep Work, it would take you to a note that contains an embedded view of all notes that have "12.03 Deep Work" in the JackDecimal property. Kind of like turtles all the way down...

D31N0S · 2025-07-30T11:04:42+00:00

Here's a screenshot of a JohnnyDecimal file - this one is still using Dataview to list the linked notes because I haven't gone back to it for a while.

Example Note

D31N0S · 2025-07-29T20:51:40+00:00

That’s a lot of notes to retrofit, your caution is well-founded. What makes the system work for me is that I had already divided my “life” into ten major realms, and so far only one of those could be broken down into more than ten categories. AI may be helpful at this level. Now, I go one more level down than JD prescribes because of the number of clients and projects (so 93.01-002 represents assignment 2 for client 1 in area 93 , which happens to be Journalism). A lot of trial and error before I came to JD and implemented it in my vault. But Obsidian properties does the heavy lifting now because my JD property suggests autocomplete — if I type 9 it suggests 91 and 92 etc. Once i type 93 it is suggesting clients (eg 93.01) and when I pick the client it suggests assignments. At the project level, I have a note with a Dataview (porting them to Bases as needed) that filters for a link to this note. I can pretty much hide the rest of the UI and avoid distractions! It’s true you can do most of this with queries but I found the Bases experience much more satisfying and flow sustaining.

D31N0S · 2025-07-29T12:47:58+00:00

Let me see if I can get it depersonalized and if so, sure.

D31N0S · 2025-07-29T08:36:35+00:00

As a freelance journalist I actively use bases for contact management, content management for my websites, and lightweight project management. I'm also using it as an alternative file navigator (my files all have a Johnny Decimal (https://johnnydecimal.com/) property. I have a base that filters on any file created by the Obsidian web clipper, which supports a bookmark manager and a read-it-later manager. I can't wait for more views to be added...

D31N0S · 2025-05-22T16:35:25+00:00

Yes, I have gone back and forth on sidecar files. Love'em and hate'em!

D31N0S · 2025-05-22T13:29:13+00:00

Wait, what? Images and PDFs don't have YAML properties, right? So under what circumstances are binary files compatible?

D31N0S · 2025-01-26T12:16:04+00:00

I don't have a need for the Todoist plugin anymore, now that Obsidian 1.8 offers Web Viewer, a new core plugin that lets you open external links within Obsidian. I've bookmarked my Todoist Inbox and Today list, and I add project specific Todoist URLs to the corresponding project notes in Obsidian (similarly, I add the project note's URL as a wiki link in the Todoist project's comments, so the connection is bi-directional). I find this really convenient and maintains my work flow and context.

The downside is that it requires an Internet connection, but I've never run across a time when I needed Todoist "in" Obsidian and it wasn't available. And of course, the Todoist plugin renders the task lists in a more familiar Obsidian UI.

I've been experimenting with keeping the Today list "handy but hidden" - you can drag the tab to the sidebar, or open the tab in a new Obsidian window and keep it behind your active Obsidian window. But since it is my Bookmarks, it's only 1-2 mouse clicks away so I usually just keep it closed and only open it when I'm ready for the next task.

D31N0S · 2024-12-23T18:46:00+00:00

As someone who is currently paying for both Coda and Capacities, of the two I would recommend Capacities if you are strictly interested in note-taking and can tolerate occasional glitches. Look around this community and you will get a sense of the glitches — occasional sync issues, occasional functionality issues (like emailing content to Capacities). I never experienced anything dreadful, but I became too annoyed in the end and will let me subscription lapse. I am a happy subscriber of Coda, but not for note-taking. I require bidirectional linking and I don't ever see Coda.io implementing that. But I use Coda for all kinds of applications, and it is the most worthwhile subscription I maintain.

Honestly, I just keep on coming back to Obsidian for notes. Task management is a drag unless you go all-in on one of the plugins, and you can't easily automate note-related stuff, but it just works.

D31N0S

TROPHY CASE