Obsidian Weekly 2025-07-20：Obsidian v1.9.6 catalyst is now available!

Obsidian Weekly 2025-07-20：Obsidian v1.9.6 catalyst is now available!

Abstract

Statistical time: 2025-07-13 21:00 ~ 2025-07-20 21:00
Statement: This column is inspired by a series of Obsidian Roundup articles written and published by Ms. Eleanor Konik from April 2021 to June 2023. Those interested may follow the original author’s personal website Obsidian Iceberg. The section’s content is sourced from the official Obsidian Discord channel and information on corresponding projects on Github or there independent websites. Descriptions may have been modified based on personal interpretation, and corrections are welcome if there are any inaccuracies. Thank you to the Obsidian team for bringing us such excellent software.

Official News

Obsidian v1.9.6 catalyst is now available!

v1.9.5 Desktop

New shiny things

• Bases has a new formula editor. It includes syntax highlighting, autocomplete, and shows documentation about the current expression.

Improvements

• The “Download attachments for current file” command now downloads attachments from file properties in addition to the note body.
• Canvas: It’s now possible to select a specific view for an embedded Base. Right-click and select “Pin view…”
• Improved how the Markdown parser handles large tables and large callouts. These notes will take slightly longer to load, but then the tables and callouts will be rendered instantly.

Bases

• Bases now remember your scroll position when navigating forward and backward in history.
• Card view can now display cards with no properties. Useful if you only want a cover image displayed.
• Formula properties and file properties now display dates and datetimes according to your OS locale.
• Checkboxes for non-interactive properties (formula properties or properties in card view) no longer have a hover effect
• Added new commands: “Bases: Add item” and “Bases: Add view.”
• Added “Edit formula…” menu item when right-clicking in table header.
• Added “Clear sort” menu item when right-clicking in table header.

Functions

• Breaking change: String#icon() has been removed in favor of a new global function: icon().
• New List#filter and List#map functions.
• file.links now includes embeds.
• link() now supports non-HTTP URLs.
• Added support for date == datetime. When comparing a date and a datetime, the time component will be ignored.

No longer broken

• Properties are now hidden inside inline embeds (i.e. ![[file]]).
• Fixed a bug where clicking inside a MathJax block ($math$) would highlight the wrong selection.
• Graph view: If you have saved filters, you’ll no longer see an initial flash of nodes when you open the graph view. The filters will be applied immediately.
• Bases: Fixed a few edge cases where a base not update when it comes into view, for example, inside a canvas card that is moved.
• Bases: Sort should now be “stable”. There were times when rows would move unexpected after editing a property. This should no longer happen.
• Bases: Fixed table styles for taller row heights.
• Bases: Fixed date and datetime properties not saving when input is cleared.

v1.9.5 Mobile

Includes all new functionality and bug fixes up to Obsidian Desktop v1.9.5.

No longer broken

• iOS: Long-pressing on links in Live Preview now shows the context menu.
• Android: Pressing the ‘back’ button to exit the app now minimizes instead of quitting.

v1.9.6 Desktop

No longer broken

• Bases: Fixed comparisons between dates and strings (e.g. date > "2025-07-18").
• Bases: Fixed logical operators in formulas not working (a && b).
• Bases: Improved detection of invalid formulas.
• Bases: Fixed query builder in filters menu not always updating the operator correctly.
• Bases: Improved layout of formula editor. Increased the initial height, and added a status indicator showing when the formula is invalid.
• Bases: Fixed link() not working if URL has spaces.
• Bases: The properties menu now filters according to the display name and the property name.
• Bases: Fixed “Image property” sometimes not showing the selected value.
• Bases: Fixed cards view setting incorrect scroll position when navigating back in history.
• Bases: Fixed filter menu showing the wrong input type when the selected property contains spaces.

V1.9.6 Mobile

Includes all new functionality and bug fixes up to Obsidian Desktop v1.9.6.

Improvements

• Tablet: Search inputs are automatically focused when an external keyboard is attached.

No longer broken

• Several improvements to the “Follow link” tooltip that appears in source mode. The tooltip now more reliably opens the link, it also shows and hides more consistently.
• Bases: Fixed external links not working in cards view.
• Bases: Fixed result count not appearing on smaller devices.
• Bases: Fixed cards not responding to “Card size” setting.
• Android: Fixed opening links in Live Preview when the editor is not focused.

Plugin News

Community Plugins

New

Object Oriented Thinking By Tiago Jacinto

Add inheritance-like behavior to notes.

Food Tracker By Forketyfork

Track your food intake (calories, macronutrients) and nutritional information

deepseek-ai-assistant By algernon

Easily ask questions to Deepseek AI in Obsidian.
In addition, this plugin can count and display the questions you have raised every day for the past three months, so that you can easily review.

Blueprint Renderer By goderyu

Render Unreal Engine Blueprint nodes as interactive visual diagrams using BlueprintUE rendering engine

Updates

Excalidraw v2.13.2 By Zsolt Viczian

• New
  • Excalidraw now properly supports drag and drop of obsidian links from Bases.
  • ExcalidrawAutomate exposes a new class: FloatingModal. This is a modified version of the Obsidian. Modal class that allows the modal to be dragged around the screen and that does not dim the background. You can use it to create custom dialogs that behave like Obsidian modals but with more flexibility.

Sidebar Highlights v1.17.0 By trevware

• Add HTML highlight support and fix footnote positioning issues (1.17.0)
  • Add support for HTML highlight syntax: <font color>, <span style="background">, <mark>
  • Support hex colors, named colors, and case-insensitive matching
  • HTML highlights display using background color, or font color if only font color specified
  • HTML highlights are read-only (no color picker) like native comments
  • Include HTML highlights in search and filtering functionality

About Blank v1.2.0 By Ai-Jani

• Features
  • Added appearance settings with new settings for vertical centering.
  • Changed the settings to hide “Clean up settings” by default.
  • Notify when “Add actions to the empty file view (new tab)” setting is changed.
  • Display the names of icons already set as placeholders in icon suggester.
• Fixed
  • Fixed typo (adopt cspell)

Appearance

RedShift: OLED Blue Light Filter Theme By Yazan Abu Queider

A Blue-Light-Free Night Theme for Better Sleep (for OLED screens)