Obsidian works great right up until your vault gets big enough to fight back. At that point, searching turns into this annoying little quest. I’ll remember the idea of a note, but not the exact title I gave it. Or I’ll be in the middle of a note, trying to get one detail fast, and all of a sudden, I’m wasting time looking through the wrong notes.

That’s why I decided to use Omnisearch. It has the features that I wish the core search feature in Obsidian had. I don’t have to worry too much about spelling and still find what I need. My notes won’t get buried under random matches, and I can get a small preview of the note I’m about to click on. These are the three ways Omnisearch made it easier to search for my notes.

Omnisearch still finds notes when I mistype

Typos don’t derail my search anymore

Omnisearch saves me when I have to type the name of a folder that has a word I have trouble spelling. When I’m in a hurry, I’ll type “algorthm” instead of “algorithm”, or I’ll only remember half the word. Omnisearch still shows me what I’m looking for despite this, and it’s a time saver. It saves me from that dumb spiral where I fix one letter, hit Enter again, open two “almost right” notes, and still can’t find the one I need. Since it’s made to be resistant to typos, it’s a writer's best friend.

I don’t have to stop to correct spelling or rerun the search. It’s also really helpful when my vault naming is not what it should be. I’ll name something “Onboard checklist,” “User onboarding,” and “Onboarding ideas,” and Omnisearch still helps me find the right one without making me guess the exact title first.

Omnisearch ranks the right note first

Relevance-based results save me the scroll

Omnisearch puts the most relevant notes at the top. It ranks well, so I find what I need without digging through a bunch of close-but-wrong results.

However, to take full advantage of Omnisearch, I need to press Ctrl + P to open the Command Palette -> Omnisearch: Vault search -> my query. I can also create a hotkey to skip one step. If I want it even faster, I can set a dedicated shortcut in Settings -> Community plugins -> Omnisearch -> Hotkeys for that Omnisearch command and never touch the sidebar.

I always use Omnisearch when I’m looking for a note because Obsidian’s core search isn’t enough for me. I’d type a keyword, and the note I actually needed wasn’t easy to find. With Omnisearch, the note with the heading or title I wanted appeared near the top. It may not sound like much, but it saves my brain from having to do extra work every single time.

Omnisearch shows results as I type

I spot the right note before I even press Enter

The Obsidian Omnisearch preview feature is a huge help for me because I can see various files at once. I open the Command Palette -> Omnisearch: Vault search -> search for my note. I don’t even have to finish typing the filename to see the list of files with those words.

This helps me because I have a lot of them with similar names, and I can tell them apart using the context the preview shows. I’ll type “Internet security” and see some files that contain those words. After that, I add another word to see if I find the one I was looking for. Most of the time, I see the note I need before I even press Enter, and I move on.

In the preview, I can see various things besides the file name. For example, the plugin shows me note titles and folder paths. I can also see how many matches it found, so I can easily spot the right one and not waste time opening the wrong file.

Search less, write more

Omnisearch doesn’t make my vault perfect. It just stops the search from slowing me down when I’m looking for a file. If I misspell a folder name or only remember half a word, it still displays the note I meant. If a keyword matches various notes, the plugin shows me the best one at the top. After that, it’s up to me to decide if that’s the note I need. But the preview gives me enough context to pick the right note, and not waste time with the wrong one.

The preview shows me various useful things, such as tags and folder paths. The cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts I can do with my notes is also something I like. One of my favorites is opening a note in the background while I’m still searching for a file. I don’t have to worry about memorizing them because they are there every time I press Ctrl + P -> Omnisearch: Vault search.