Writing and organizing

Clicks, right-click menus, bulk mode, and drag cover most everyday work. Settings change the default click and drop behavior; explicit menu actions remain available.

Open a card

Direct click uses Default card open behavior. The default reuses an unpinned root editor tab when possible and otherwise opens a new tab. Other choices are a new tab, right split, or new window; see Settings.

Opening cards from Linked notes is a useful way to inspect context while keeping the source note pinned in Card Workspace. With Jump to link location when opening a link card enabled, opening the card also jumps to its reference or search-match location; see Settings.

Drag into a Markdown editor

Drag a card to a precise position in an open Markdown editor. The default is Ask every time. Depending on card type, the menu can insert:

• Markdown — wikilink, embed, content, or title and content
• Base, Canvas, images, PDF, audio, and video — wikilink or embed
• Excalidraw and other files — wikilink only

If a requested action is unavailable, Obsidian shows This card type does not support that drag insertion action. On phones and tablets, use the card menu’s insert and copy actions instead; see Phones and tablets.

Drag into Canvas or Excalidraw

Drag a card into an open Canvas or Excalidraw drawing to drop it as an ordinary Obsidian file. The canvas decides how to show it and handles any modifier keys. Even in bulk mode, the drag carries only the card you started from.

To organize notes by dragging them onto folders, tags, property values, or card boxes, see Drag cards onto navigation.

Insert a heading section

Enable section drag insertion in Settings is off by default. Turn it on, then drop a Markdown card to choose a heading section or the whole note. The section actions are Insert section link, Insert section content, and Insert section heading & content. They follow the selected drag insert behavior.

Section content includes nested headings and stops at the next heading of the same or higher level. The inserted text is the original Markdown. If heading metadata is still loading, drop the card again. When Obsidian cannot link to one heading, insert its content instead.

Create notes and files

The toolbar New button creates a note in the current folder, including the vault root. Selected tags and active property filters are written into its frontmatter. In a card box the note is saved in the box’s new-note folder and added to the box; in a linked-note source it goes to the folder you visited last. The note starts blank by default; New note content can add an empty tags property instead. See Quick input and templates for the details, templates, and quick input.

From a folder menu you can create a note, folder, canvas, Excalidraw file, or base inside that folder. New Excalidraw file needs the Excalidraw plugin; it creates an .excalidraw.md drawing and opens it directly in Excalidraw. A tag menu can create a note in the current folder with the tag already applied. Creating from a folder while a card box is open switches back to that folder source.

Navigation and card menus

Navigation menus cover creation, rename, duplicate, move, path copying, reveal in the system explorer, favorites, tree expansion, section ordering, filters, and card-box actions. Renaming or deleting a tag updates or removes its references in notes, active filters, favorites, and box rules after confirmation.

Card menus can open in several destinations; duplicate, move, rename, or delete the file; manage favorites and box membership; change the card’s Background color or icon; and, for Markdown, copy content or open Add/remove tags… and Add/remove properties…. Those two actions use the same dialogs as bulk mode, applied to that one note. The complete inventory is in Commands and menus.

Copying Markdown content omits the leading frontmatter and gives you the body. Duplicating the file preserves its original contents.

Bulk mode

Turn on Bulk, then click cards to toggle them. Shift-click selects a range from the last selected card.

• Select all or clear selection
• Move selected notes
• Add or remove tags
• Set or remove properties across Markdown notes
• Add to a card box, or remove from the open box
• Set a background color for the selected cards
• Delete selected notes
• Merge selected Markdown notes

You can also drag any selected card onto a folder, tag, property value, or card box in navigation to apply that operation to the whole visible selection.

Merge needs at least two Markdown notes. Its dialog controls the title, target folder, source order, and a live preview. The separator defaults to Blank line, and can also be a Horizontal rule or a Line break. Trash source notes after merge is off, so the source notes stay in the vault until you turn it on; trashing then follows Obsidian’s delete preference. Only the first source note’s frontmatter is preserved at the top of the merged note; the other source frontmatter blocks are omitted.

Bulk tag operations

Select Markdown notes in bulk mode, then click Bulk tag operations in the toolbar. The dialog shows how many notes it will affect. Add tags and remove tags in one operation. Removing a parent tag also removes its child tags, and removals run before additions. Apply reports modified, unchanged, and failed counts. If any notes fail, applying again retries only those notes. A single card’s Add/remove tags… action opens this same dialog for that note.

Bulk property operations

Select Markdown notes in bulk mode, then click Bulk property operations in the toolbar. The dialog shows how many notes it will affect. You can set several properties and remove other properties in one operation.

• Set properties: enter a name, type, and value to create a property or overwrite its existing value across the selection. For example, set status to review for a group of notes.
• Types and values: choose text, list, number, checkbox, date, or date & time. List items support text or numbers; setting a list replaces its existing contents.
• Suggestions: search existing property names and values, or enter new ones. The removal picker lists properties present in the selection and how many selected notes contain each one.
• Results: click Apply to see modified, unchanged, and failed counts. If any notes fail, applying again retries only those notes.

Operations edit Markdown frontmatter while preserving the body and other properties. A property cannot be set and removed in the same operation. A single card’s Add/remove properties… action opens this same dialog for that note. Use Bulk tag operations for tags.

Delete behavior

Deleting a card, selection, or folder follows Obsidian’s Files & Links delete preference: system trash, the vault .trash folder, or permanent deletion. Card Workspace does not add a separate recycle bin.