Using Graphmark with an Obsidian vault
Open any note in your vault with Graphmark and its lists become a map. Wikilinks in the map work as links, Graphmark saves them exactly as you wrote them, and the note stays a normal Obsidian note.
Open a note as a map
Choose File > Open in Graphmark and pick a note, or Control-click the note in the Finder and choose Open With > Graphmark. Save it as Markdown, which is the default, so it stays in the vault as an ordinary .md file.
Graphmark keeps a map’s layout and colours in a companion file beside the note, such as Project.md.graphmark.yaml. Each note has its own, so maps in the same folder never share settings. See Your map is a Markdown file.
Wikilinks
Graphmark recognises the wikilink forms Obsidian uses:
| You write | Graphmark opens |
|---|---|
[[Project]] | The note Project.md |
[[Project|the project]] | The same note, with “the project” shown as the link text |
[[Project#Budget]] | The note, at the branch or heading called Budget |
[[#Budget]] | The branch or heading called Budget in the same map |
[[Project#^gm-a1b2]] | The note, at the branch with that mark |
Matching a heading ignores case and punctuation. Graphmark never rewrites a wikilink into another link format.
An embed, such as ![[Project]], is shown with its name but is not followed, because it asks to include a note rather than to go to one.
Following links
- Click a link to open the note and bring it to the front.
- ⌘-click a link to open the note in the background.
- ⌘[ and ⌘], or the arrows in the toolbar, go back and forward through the notes you followed.
A note that is already open is brought forward instead of being opened twice.
To find a linked note, Graphmark looks next to the current note first, then from the top of the vault, then in the folders directly below the top. The top of the vault is the folder of the first note you opened in that window. If the name has no extension, Graphmark adds .md.
If a linked note does not exist, Graphmark opens a new, unsaved map with that name. Nothing is written to your vault until you save it.
Folder access, once per vault
Graphmark comes from the Mac App Store, so macOS lets it open only the files and folders you give it. The first time you follow a link to a note that Graphmark cannot reach yet, it asks for access to the folder of the note you started from.
Make sure the panel shows the top folder of your vault, moving up a level if it does not, and choose Grant Access. Graphmark remembers the folder, including after you quit, and from then on every note inside it opens without asking. If you grant a smaller folder, you will be asked again for notes outside it. Graphmark asks for access to a folder explains the other situations in which this panel appears.
Pictures in a vault
Pictures you add to a map are saved in a folder beside the note, by default one named after it, such as Project_assets. Graphmark > Settings > General lets you choose a different folder name. Graphmark shows pictures that are in the note’s own folder or in a folder inside it, so a picture in a shared folder higher up in the vault does not appear in the map. See Pictures.