New notes and templates

Making a note

There are three ways to start a note:

• From the switcher: type a name that matches no note, and pick Create note at the bottom of the list.
• From a link: follow a link to a note that doesn’t exist yet (it’s dimmed), as in Obsidian.
• From the command line: n0 "Trip to Lisbon". A name that matches no note opens the switcher with the name typed in, and Create note is the last row, already selected when nothing else matches.

The note goes where Obsidian would put it, following Obsidian’s Default location for new notes: the vault’s root, a chosen folder, or next to the current note. A name with a slash, like Projects/Acme/Retro, is a path in the vault. Characters Obsidian won’t allow in a file name (\ : * ? " < > |) become dashes.

Templates

If you use Obsidian’s Templates core plugin and its folder has templates in it, n0te asks how to start (otherwise the note simply starts blank):

• Blank note: just the title, as # Trip to Lisbon.
• One of your templates, from the templates folder you set in Obsidian.

The one you picked last time is already selected, so making a run of notes from one template is Enter, Enter, Enter.

n0te fills in Obsidian’s template variables: {{title}}, {{date}}, {{time}}, and formats like {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}}. An empty # heading gets the title too, and so does a heading that ends with a colon, like # Decision: .

Where the caret lands

The new note opens ready to type, at the first place in it that asks for something: an empty list item or label (like - [ ] or **Owner:** ), or an empty section, whichever comes first. If there’s nothing to fill in, you start typing at the end of the note, which for a blank note is just below the title.

Nothing is written until you type

The status line says NEW NOTE until the note is saved. If you leave without typing, no file is left behind, so a mistyped name costs nothing.

New files outside the vault

Anything that looks like a path opens as a new, empty file instead of a note: ./idea.md, ~/todo.txt, /tmp/scratch.sh, or a name with a file extension other than .md.

n0 ./new-idea.md

It’s created the first time you type.