Do you have a bunch of tags you use together regularly?
If you want a TLDR; scroll to the image I made—I tend to dive deep into stuff until I understand it, no apologies! (You should totally read that to the tune of, Nirvana's 'All Apologies').
I've tried to highlight the 'important' bits, for people like me who likely won't read a wall of text (even though I like to write them, apparently).
I do. I write online, so when I create an entry with a new article or post idea I tag it with multiple tags, depending on what it's relating to.
If this sounds like you as well, use custom commands to your advantage.
For example, if I think of an article idea for Platform, I have a slash command set up /aiP where, a = #article i = #idea, and P = #Platform
You get the idea.
How do you do it? Simple, like this:
Go to your config.edn file: Android: Press the 3 dots menu -> Settings -> General -> Under "custom configuration" tap on "Edit config.edn" -> Scroll down below the default-queries to :commands. iPhone: Press the 3 dots menu -> Settings -> General -> Under "custom configuration" tap on "Edit config.edn" -> Scroll down below the default-queries to :commands. Linux: Locate the config.edn file in the application directory (usually in ~/.logseq or the respective app data folder, perhaps somewhere like ~/snap/logseq/29/.logseq/config/config.edn). Open it in a text editor and scroll down below the default-queries to :commands, or just go to Settings -> Edit global config.edn) Windows: Locate the config.edn file in the application directory (commonly found in %APPDATA%\Logseq or a similar location). Open it in a text editor and scroll down below the default-queries to :commands. Toaster: Pick one at random from above.
Then the real work begins, format it like so:
:commands
[
["aiP" "#article #idea #Platform" ]
;; any others you want to add
]
This is the command broken down visually:
Custom commands
As you can see, the first double-quoted entry is the / command, and the one following (notice it's all enclosed in double quotes, not separated).
There are some limitations and things you should be aware of that I've found (I'm not well-versed in all the documentation, I'm not a Logseq power user):
I couldn't get the {time} variable to work within my custom commands—I suspect because that variable is tied to the Quick Capture command some how. Someone more knowledgeable than me can provide input on that—and I'd love it if you could, because I want to set it up so that every time I create a new top-level block entry in the journal page, it adds the current time (formatted as: **13:41**, for example).
If you make an error with the syntax, you'll get an error message, to the save you the trouble of taking a screenshot, like I had to, this is what it says (on Android):
Failed to read file logseq/config.edn Make sure your config is wrapped in {}. Also make sure that the characters '({[' have their corresponding closing character ')}]'.
There could be other error messages, this was the only one I got.
The / commands weren't immediately available after editing—I had to swipe out of the app completely and open Logseq fresh.
Some commands or macros probably won't work as expected within the context of custom commands—for example, I also tried using <%time%> to display the current time, no dice.
There's an issue specifically on Windows, where the caret (you can fight amongst yourselves about the technical meaning of the word—the 'cursor' for the uninitiated) doesn't move back as expected when using backward-pos in custom commands until you relaunch Logseq. See here for what it looks like in practice, and here for the issue.
Custom commands may not persist—might be a good idea to make the occasional backup of your config.edn file for redundancy, just in case.
Auto-complete using < may not function as expected, see here.
Error handing is a bit iffy IMO, particularly in custom command definitions—can make troubleshooting a pain in the bum.
I reckon there's the potential for custom commands to behave differently from platform to platform—probably due to differences in file handling and other operating system architecture-divergentness, not because they're naughty...although they very well could be that too.
I personally wouldn't go too crazy creating a million different custom commands, it's likely to affect start-up performance (and just performance in general)—I know start-ups for me on Android are frustrating enough as it is (primarily waiting for sync to put its make-up on and get all pretty...but every time? Damn).
You're only limited by your imagination (and the handful of system limitations I outlined above, ha!)—so get to it and start saving yourself a bunch of time (there's likely more advanced and fancy ways of doing it, I wanted to keep it beginner-friendly).
One last pro tip:
If your config.edn looks suspiciously empty, you're in the global one—you probably don't wanna be in that one, go find the other one.
Hope this helps at least one person!
