Callout Quick

Turning any text into a callout, one hotkey away.

No more typing > [!note] by hand, no more remembering the > prefix on every line, no more fixing blank lines around the block. Select the text, press your hotkey, pick a type from the palette (or just type a type name), hit Enter.

Written in plain CommonJS. No Node.js, no build step — copy three files into your vault and it runs.

English | 简体中文

Installation

Manual installation

1. Locate your vault folder. If you are unsure, right-click any note in Obsidian → Show in system explorer, then walk up to the outermost folder — that is your vault root.
2. Create the folder .obsidian/plugins/callout-quick/ inside it. On Windows you need to enable View → Show → Hidden items before .obsidian becomes visible.
3. Copy manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css from this repository into that folder.
4. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins, turn off Restricted mode if it is on, then find Callout Quick in the installed plugin list and toggle it on.
5. If the plugin does not appear, click the refresh button at the top right of the plugin list.

The resulting layout should be:

<your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/callout-quick/
├── manifest.json
├── main.js
└── styles.css

Installing from the community plugin directory

Once Callout Quick is listed in the directory, install it from Settings → Community plugins → Browse and search for "Callout Quick". Until then, use the manual steps above.

Setting up a hotkey (required)

The plugin ships without a default hotkey, so it never conflicts with yours:

Settings → Hotkeys → search for Callout Quick → find "Convert selection to callout (pick a type)" → click the + on the right → press the key combination you want.

Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + C is a reasonable choice and does not collide with Obsidian's defaults.

Usage

1. Wrap the selected text in a callout

Select some text with the mouse and press your hotkey. A searchable palette appears:

● [!important]  Important
● [!note]       Note
● [!tip]        Tip
...

Type a few letters to filter (either imp or the display label works), then press Enter. The type you used last is moved to the top and marked as such.

Before:

This is the part worth remembering

After:

> [!important]
> This is the part worth remembering

Multi-line selections work too — every line gets a > prefix, and blank lines inside the selection become a bare >:

> [!note]
> First line
> Second line
>
> Fourth line

Blank lines are inserted before and after the callout automatically. This matters because Markdown's lazy continuation would otherwise pull adjacent paragraphs into the blockquote.

2. Nothing selected

Press the hotkey with no selection and the plugin inserts an empty callout template, placing the cursor on the content line so you can start typing:

> [!note]
> 

3. Cursor inside an existing callout

You do not need to select the whole block — just put the cursor anywhere inside it and press the hotkey. The plugin detects the full callout block and lets you:

• Change the type — only the [!xxx] marker is replaced, so you never end up with a nested blockquote.
• Remove the formatting — an extra ✕ Remove callout formatting entry appears at the end of the palette; choosing it restores a plain paragraph.

4. Custom types

Type a name that does not exist yet in the palette, and a "custom type" entry appears — press Enter to use it. For example, typing idea produces:

> [!idea]
> content

No pre-configuration needed. To make it a permanent entry in the palette, add a line to the settings.

Commands

Settings

Settings → Community plugins → Callout Quick (gear icon).

Interface language — the first setting on the page. Choose Follow Obsidian, 中文, or English. It controls the settings page, the command names, the type palette, and every message. The change takes effect immediately, with no reload.

Callout type list — one entry per line, defines what the palette offers:

important
note | Note
tip | Tip
mystery | Mystery

• Type name only → the built-in display label is used (important → Important)
• type | Label → your own display label is used
• Lines starting with # are treated as comments and ignored
• Type names may contain letters, digits, -, and _ only

Default fold state — generates [!type] (not folded), [!type]- (collapsed by default), or [!type]+ (expanded by default).

Write title into header — when enabled, the display label is written into the header:

> [!important] Important
> content

When disabled, Obsidian's own default title is used (cleaner, and recommended).

FAQ

The hotkey does nothing. Make sure focus is inside the note editor (click the body text) and that you are in Live Preview or Source mode. Editing is not possible in Reading view.

The type I want is not in the palette. Just type the type name in the palette and press Enter, or add it to the type list in the settings.

Does it recognize callouts I already wrote by hand, like [!important]? Yes. Select one or put the cursor inside it and press the hotkey — you will be offered to change or remove the type.

Files

To convert this into a TypeScript + esbuild project, move the main.js logic into main.ts and replace require('obsidian') with import. Nothing else needs to change.

License

MIT