↓Skip to main content
  1. Blog/

Quick Capture with QuickAdd

·312 words·2 mins

I was in Obsidian the other day, wondering how best to implement a quick capture functionality. Some plugins can achieve this but they didn’t fit my workflow. So, like every Obsidian lover, I spent 15 hours researching, testing, and implementing a 5 minute functionality—good times.

Not the best solution, but it works.

Dependencies
#

  • Quickadd
  • Advanced URI
  • AutoHotKey

Setting up QuickAdd
#

  • Create a “multi” choice to house other choices

For example, I have the following choices:

  • Project notes (Template choice)
  • Lecture notes (Template choice)
  • Rants (Capture choice → goes under a “Rants” heading in my daily note)
  • Research log (Capture choice → for those “OoOo, I wonder if that’s possible” moments)
  • Media (Macro choice → using the media extended plugin to take notes on videos)

QuickAdd lets you run each of these as commands accessible from the command palette. But we want to access these choices globally, from any app and anywhere while using the PC. For that, we need Advanced URI and AutoHotKey (AHK).

Setting up AutoHotKey
#

  • Right click the Desktop, select new then AutoHotKey script.

  • Name it quick_capture or whatever you like.

  • Right click and select Edit script.

  • Paste the code below.

    SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir, %A_ScriptDir%
SetTitleMatchMode, RegEx

!+o::
    WinActivate, i) Obsidian

    Run "obsidian://advanced-uri?vault=<vault-name>&commandname=QuickAdd: Run QuickAdd"
Return

  • Replace <vault-name> with your vault’s name. For example, vault name “ZettelKasten” becomes:

    SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir, %A_ScriptDir%
SetTitleMatchMode, RegEx

!+o::
    WinActivate, i) Obsidian

    Run "obsidian://advanced-uri?vault=ZettelKasten&commandname=QuickAdd: Run QuickAdd"
Return

  • From line 5, !+o = Alt+Shift+O is the global shortcut. Change that to your preferred keybinding.*

  • Run the script (or restart your PC).

  • (Recommended) Add a shortcut of the script to your StartUp folder**

* (More on AHK syntax here.)

** (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp)

Extras
#

To get the best experience, I recommend you have Obsidian startup super fast. Check out the Plugin groups plugin or this post to implement a similar system with Templater.