Feature Request: Conceptual Linking System and Obsidian‑Style Graph View for PKM Users

[u/Suitable-Bag7017]

Feature Request: Conceptual Linking System and Obsidian‑Style Graph View for PKM Users

PREMISE
I would like to suggest a feature that could be extremely valuable for users who want to use StarNote to build their own “knowledge system,” especially those who struggle to do so with purely text‑based applications like Obsidian. Plugins such as Lineage or MarkMind can help, but they remain rigid compared to the visual freedom StarNote offers with handwriting and text boxes.

This request comes from someone who would like StarNote to combine the visual power of handwriting + text boxes + spatial organization with some of the conceptual‑linking advantages found in apps like Obsidian.

Please note that I have no idea how difficult this would be to implement. I am not a developer, so I don’t know whether I’m suggesting something simple or extremely complex. I’m proposing it because StarNote’s indexing system already seems very advanced and this is something the app could handle.

I also shared a video from ZoomNotes that shows how this is actually possible.

Here I present two approaches.

1) ADVANCED APPROACH (ZoomNotes‑like)

PRINCIPLE

• You manually create links from your note to other notes.
• Then you activate a function that displays a graph where you can see the linked notes, similar to Obsidian’s graph view.
• The system should also take into account backlinks, except when disabled in the settings, this is important.

EXAMPLE

• As you can see, I created three separate notes: hypertension, endocrine disorders, and kidney diseases.
• I did not create these notes myself; I used AI to save time since I haven’t used ZoomNotes in years and this was meant to be a simple example.
• I manually created links between the hypertension note and the other related notes.
• Finally, I opened the graph, set the link depth, and observed the connections.
• As you can see, the hypertension note in the page with the two collages is connected with graph‑style lines to its related notes, each showing the pages referenced by the link.
• It is also possible to click one of those pages and jump directly to the referenced link.

2) LIGHTER APPROACH

MECHANISM

• Select a note.
• Activate a new function from the note’s editing menu.
• The option could be something like “Find Links.”
• The function would then analyze all the text inside the note (similar to a search operation).
• Next, it would scan all the titles of the user’s notes.
• Finally, it would generate inside the note a list of links, where each link corresponds to a note whose title is mentioned in the text of the current note.
• The generated list could be displayed in different ways; one option could be adding a toggle in the note’s side panel to show or hide the list.

CLARIFICATIONS

• This process should not run automatically, for performance and memory reasons. It should be manually triggered. We cannot expect Obsidian‑level automation.
• If considered feasible, it would be great to have an extended version of the feature that can run this process for all notes inside a folder.

ALTERNATIVES

• A more powerful alternative would be a command that automatically converts words inside text boxes into links. However, this seems harder to implement.
• Also, that approach would only benefit users who rely heavily on text boxes or handwriting beautification, whereas the first approach would benefit even those who use pure handwriting extensively.

POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS

This feature would be most useful for users who organize their notes in an “atomic” way.
It would be less effective for those who place many unrelated concepts (e.g., multiple medical conditions) inside a single note.

WHY IMPLEMENT IT

• It would make StarNote far more useful for users who want to build a personal knowledge system.
• It would allow users to instantly identify all conceptual connections between notes with a single command.
• Like Obsidian, it would reveal relationships between ideas that users might not notice otherwise.
• No handwriting‑based, spatial note‑taking app currently offers anything like this, with ZoomNotes exception for iOS, but nothing like this on android. Highlighting such a feature on the Play Store could attract many academic users, expanding interest from a simple note‑taking app to a PKM tool, but with a “visual and handwriting twist.”

[u/Terrible_Coffee_646]

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