What is Waypoint?
The Waypoint plugin by Idrees Hassan can be installed via the Community Plugins menu inside Obsidian or manually via the Github page. The Waypoint plugin adds a keyword you can add to your Folder Notes that will add a dynamically updated markdown list of the notes and directories within that folder.
Prerequisites
- Install the Waypoint plugin by Idrees Hassan can be installed via the Community Plugins menu inside Obsidian or manually via the Github page.
- Install a Folder Note plugin. A Folder Note is a note with the same name as the folder it resides in and opens the note in replace of expanding the folder in the Explorer pane. I use LostPaul’s Folder Notes available via the Community Plugin menu or the Github here.
Settings
By default there are two commands you will be adding to your notes: A Waypoint command and a Landmark command. They function very similarly in that both of them allow for an automatic, dynamically updated note and directory list in your notes. The difference is that a list generated by the Waypoint command will not list the files inside another folder with a Waypoint command but it will list the files inside a folder with a Landmark command. Let’s look at an example because it can be confusing!
Useage
With both plugins installed, let’s right click on a folder in the Explorer pane and create a Markdown Folder Note. The note can be populated however you want, with any text or images or other data! In note, where you want the directory listing to go, you will put in that same Waypoint command from the settings. By default, that would be:
%% Waypoint %%The plugin is case sensitive so keep that in mind! Once you type that in your note, if the Waypoint plugin is enabled, it will quickly change to a markdown list of sub notes and folders.
So that Waypoint flag will change into something that looks like this:
%% Begin Waypoint %%
- Folder 1
- Note 1a
- Note 1b
- Note 1c
- Note 1
- Note 2
- Note 3
- Folder 2
- Note 2a
- Note 2b
- Note 4
- Folder 3
%% End Waypoint %%You can continue to add or remove markdown around those two Begin/End comments and the Waypoint plugin will still maintain that listing between the comments fine.
In the above image, there are three folders in that generated list. Adventurer, I Hate These Formats, and My Favorite Formats. In the list, all three are bolded but only two of them have their own contents listed out.
The last two folders are regular folders without Folder Notes. Adventurer is pretty different — It is a link and does not have its contents listed. That is because the Adventurer folder has a Folder Note, which turns it into a link in the list, and has a Waypoint flag inside it, which stops its contents from being listed in other Waypoints.
Examples
Lets say this is a Waypoint that resides in a Folder in our Obsidian Vault.
%% Begin Waypoint %%
- Folder 1
- Note 1a
- Note 1b
- Note 1c
- Note 1
- Note 2
- Note 3
- Folder 2
- Note 2a
- Note 2b
- Note 4
- Folder 3
%% End Waypoint %%This is a plain markdown list genereated by the plugin. Anything that is a Note will ALWAYS be a link to that note. This link will appear in backlinks, on the graph, and work fine with Obsidian Publish.
Folders in the list will only be links if they have a Folder Note — Without a Folder note, there is nothing to link to!
Lets say we add a Folder Note to every folder that appears in that list.
%% Begin Waypoint %%
- Folder 1 (Underlined and clickable)
- Note 1a
- Note 1b
- Note 1c
- Note 1
- Note 2
- Note 3
- Folder 2 (Underlined and clickable)
- Note 2a
- Note 2b
- Note 4
- Folder 3
%% End Waypoint %%That alone won’t change how Waypoint displays this list of content! What if we add another Waypoint in Folder 1?
%% Begin Waypoint %%
- Folder 1 (Underlined and clickable)
- Note 1
- Note 2
- Note 3
- Folder 2 (Underlined and clickable)
- Note 2a
- Note 2b
- Note 4
- Folder 3
%% End Waypoint %%The Waypoint would stop listing the contents in this list because it understands that clicking trough to that Folder Note will have its own Waypoint in it, listing those files and folders!
Remember that there are two Waypoint commands though. Lets see how this list changes if we add a Landmark command in Folder 2.
%% Begin Waypoint %%
- Folder 1 (Underlined and clickable)
- Note 1
- Note 2
- Note 3
- Folder 2 (Underlined and clickable)
- Note 2a
- Note 2b
- Note 4
- Folder 3
%% End Waypoint %%No changes! Landmark commands don’t stop a Waypoint list from listing its contents.
Breakdown
- Waypoint and Landmark commands are put in Folder Notes and both generate a list of notes and folders inside of it and subfolders.
- These generated lists are dynamic and automatically change as you add or remove notes and folders in your Vault.
- These links appear in Backlinks, the Graph, and work with Obsidian Publish. They are just markdown.
- These generated lists will not list the contents of Folders that have their own Waypoints.
- These generated lists will list the contents of Folders with Landmarks.
