Alias Picker

Alias Picker

The Alias Picker plugin for Obsidian introduces two commands: 'Pick alias' and 'Pick block'. These commands simplify the process of modifying wiki or Markdown links within your notes.

Features:

• Pick alias: Easily select an alternative alias for the current link from the available aliases for the file.
• Pick block: Modify the referenced block within the file using the '#^BlockIdentifier' syntax.
• Automatic alias renaming: When renaming an alias, the plugin automatically updates all instances of that alias throughout your vault.
• Alias Overview: Use the "Open Alias Overview" command to view all aliases in your vault and see the usages of each alias.
• Add known aliases to files: Use the "Add known aliases to file" command to add all known aliases for a file, folder, or the entire vault to the frontmatter of the respective files.

How to use:

With the cursor on the link, execute the 'Pick alias' or 'Pick block' command from the plugin menu or via keyboard shortcuts. Choose from the available blocks or aliases to make your desired changes.

You should assign a keyboard shortcut to the 'Pick alias' and 'Pick block' commands for a more efficient workflow.

Context Menu in Alias Overview

The Alias Overview provides a context menu (right-click) on alias entries with the following actions:

• Rename: Rename an alias directly from the overview
• Copy to Clipboard: Copy the alias text to clipboard
• Move Alias to Other File: Move an alias from its current file to another file. This is useful if you realize that an alias corresponds to another concept and should be moved to a different file. The backlinks to the alias will be updated automatically.
• Open in Backlink Search as exact alias: Opens the Backlink Search modal with the selected alias as an exact match, allowing you to find all files that reference this alias and filter the results further.

Open Backlink Search

The Open Backlink Search command opens a search modal for finding files that contain backlinks to specific notes or aliases.

Search Syntax

The search supports combining multiple backlink references:

Include Files with +:

• Use +File to include a referenced file. Results show files that contain backlinks to this file.
• Multiple + selections are combined using an intersection, so the results only include files that contain backlinks to all selected files.

Exclude Files with -:

• Use -File to exclude a backlink file and narrow down the + selection. The + selection only considers files that are referenced by backlinks, without including files excluded with -.

Exact Alias Match with *:

• Use *Alias to select a specific alias. The search will only include files where a backlink uses the exact alias text (not just the file reference). This is similar to +File, but requires the exact alias to be used in the backlink.

Settings

The plugin provides the following settings in Obsidian's plugin settings tab:

• Include Aliases in Backlink Search Results: Controls whether aliases are included in backlink search results (default: false)
• Remember last filtered files and aliases in backlink search: Controls whether the last filtered files and aliases are remembered in the backlink search modal (default: false)
• Focus first backlink search result on open: When opening a file from the backlink search modal, the cursor is automatically positioned at the first backlink match (default: true)
• Split Sidebar for Alias Overview: Controls whether the sidebar splits when opening the Alias Overview (default: true)
• Open New Leaf for Alias Overview: Controls whether a new leaf is created or an existing one is reused (default: true)
• Interpret file name as alias: Controls whether the file name is interpreted as an alias (default: true)
• Add aliases automatically: Controls whether to automatically add aliases to the frontmatter of files when they are linked to (default: false)

For a complete changelog, see the CHANGELOG.md.

Permissions

For your convenience, the plugin requests the following permissions:

• Clipboard access is write-only and used for copying selected aliases to the clipboard. The plugin does not read from the clipboard.
• Access to all files is used to find all known aliases and enable searching for backlinks in all files.