Questions

A journal can ask questions when it creates a note, and use the answers in the note's properties, its template content and its name: record a mood, a sprint goal or a due date as a property, write the answer into the note, or name the note after it.

Questions live in the Questions section of a journal's settings page. A notelet type has its own questions, separate from its journal's.

Adding a question

Add question opens:

• Question — the text the dialog shows.
• Answer type — Text, Long text, Number, Date, Yes/No, Choice or Note link.
• Date format — for a date question, the format its answer is written in. YYYY-MM-DD by default. It is the question's own format, never the journal's.
• Variable name — what you type to use the answer: a question named mood is {{mood}}.
• For a choice question, its choices: each with a Label, shown in the dialog, and a Value, which is what gets saved and written. Add choice adds another.
• Property name — the property the answer is saved under. Leave it empty to not save the answer: it is written into the note once and then gone. A new question fills it in as journal- and the variable name until you type your own; a long text question starts with it empty.
• Required — the note cannot be created without an answer. Not offered for yes/no questions, which always have one.

A variable name or property name cannot be one another question or numbering digit of the journal already uses.

Where an answer goes

In	Write	Gets
The note's properties	set Property name	the answer — a choice's Value, a number, a date, true/false, a note link as a one-item list
The note's content	{{mood}} in a template	the answer as text
The note's name or folder	{{mood}} in Note name template or Folder	the answer as text

How each type reads as text:

• Choice — the chosen choice's Value, not its label.
• Yes/No — "Yes" or "No", in Obsidian's language. The property stores true or false.
• Date — in the question's Date format, and it takes every date modification {{date}} does: {{due:DD MMM}}, {{due+1w}}. See Variables.
• Number — as typed, and it takes the offsets and ordinals a numbering digit does: {{pages+1}}, {{pages:o}}.
• Text — as typed.
• Long text — as typed, over as many lines as the answer has. See Multi-line answers in templates.
• Note link — the link, brackets included: [[Roadmap 2027]]. Write !{{project}} to embed the note instead, since the answer already carries its brackets.

A question left blank writes nothing into the body.

Answers in the note name or folder

• An answer used in the note name or folder must be saved to a property. The settings page says so if you try.
• A yes/no, long text or note link answer can't be part of a note name or folder. Use a choice question instead of yes/no.
• A typed answer there can't hold * " \ / < > : | ? # ^ [ ] or a line break. Windows can't save those in a file name and links break on them, so they are refused on every device, since the vault may sync to one that can't. A / doesn't make a subfolder either.
• Auto-create can't answer. A journal with Auto-create today's note on can't have a question in its note name, since nobody is there to answer it. Turn one of them off.
• Free text in a name stops auto-attach. A note you make yourself can only be matched back to the journal when the name's answers come from a fixed set — a choice, a number or a date. See Auto-attach.

Example: Name each day after its mood.

Multi-line answers in templates

A long text answer can span several lines. Written into a template with {{...}}, it keeps the shape of the template line it starts on:

• Inside a quote or callout, every line of the answer stays inside it.
• Under an indented line, every line of the answer keeps that indentation.
• Inside a list item, a line break in the answer continues the item, indented under it; a blank line starts the next item instead, with the marker repeated — a numbered list keeps counting, and a task item repeats its checkbox.

Blank lines at the start and end of the answer are dropped.

A callout > {{mood}}, answered with a, b, a blank line, then c:

> {{mood}}

> a
> b
>
> c

A task - [ ] {{task}}, answered with Call Anna, about the lease, a blank line, then Book the dentist:

- [ ] {{task}}

- [ ] Call Anna
      about the lease
- [ ] Book the dentist

Note link answers

A note link answer is saved as a list holding one link, project: ["[[Roadmap 2027]]"], so Obsidian shows it in backlinks and the graph and updates it when you rename the note.

Answer it by typing: suggestions list every file in your vault, notes first. A name that matches no file is kept as a link to a note you have not written yet. A name can't contain #, ^, |, [ or ].

The calendar button beside the field links a journal's note instead: choose the period, and the journal too if your vault has more than one. A note that does not exist yet is linked by its full path, such as [[Daily/2026-09-17]], so opening the link creates it in the journal's folder. Such a link is written once and not revisited, so it stops matching if you change the journal's Note name template or Folder before the note is created. A journal whose note name uses an answer can only link notes that already exist.

Update every device first

An earlier Journals cannot read the settings this version saves: it shows a settings error and does not start at all until it is updated. Update Journals on each device that syncs this vault before adding one.

The answer dialog

Creating a note on a journal with questions opens New note in journal before anything is written. It shows the Period, the Note path it is about to create — updating as you answer when the name depends on an answer — and each question.

• Create writes the note with your answers. Cancel creates nothing.
• A required question can't be left blank, and neither can one whose answer goes into the note name. An answer that goes into the note name or folder is also refused if it holds a character a file name can't.
• A choice question that is not required offers (none).
• A long text question has a box that spans the dialog. Enter starts a new line; Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on macOS) creates the note.
• A note link question suggests files as you type; the calendar button beside it links a journal's note for a period you pick.
• The dialog replaces the confirmation dialog: with Confirm creating new notes on, you see this dialog and no second one.

Example: A sprint goal.

When questions are asked, and when they are not

Asked:

• when you open a date that has no note — from a calendar, a navigation block, a command or an obsidian://journals link;
• when you click a link to a note that does not exist yet, if the plugin wrote that link and the journal's name template uses an answer. The dialog asks, then the note is renamed from your answers and the link is updated. Cancelling removes the empty note.

Never asked:

• Opening a note that already exists — the answers it stored stay as they are.
• Auto-create. A journal with a required question, or with a question in its name or folder, is skipped.
• Connect note to a journal and Bulk add. The note keeps its own name; see Notes.
• Notes arriving through sync already carry their answers.

You can change a saved answer later by editing the property. The plugin never removes an answer from a note when it reopens it.

Examples

Name each day after its mood

A daily journal named prompted with:

Setting	Value
Note name template	{{date}} {{mood}}
Templates	Templates/prompted.md

and one question:

Field	Value
Question	How was today?
Answer type	Choice — Label Great / Value great, Label Okay / Value okay
Variable name	mood
Property name	mood
Required	on

Templates/prompted.md:

# {{date}}

Mood: {{mood}}

Opening 19 July 2030 shows New note in prompted, with Period 2030-07-19. Choosing Okay changes Note path to 2030-07-19 okay.md. Create writes that note with mood: okay among its properties and Mood: okay in its body.

A link [[2030-07-20 (unanswered)]] that the plugin wrote in another note asks the same question when clicked; answering Okay renames the new note to 2030-07-20 okay.md and updates the link.

To colour those days on the calendar, add a decoration with Check frontmatter property mood equals okay — the Value, not the label.

A sprint goal

A custom interval journal named sprint: Every 2 weeks from 1 July 2030, Note name template{{journal_name}} {{index}}, Confirm creating new notes on, and one question:

Field	Value
Question	What is the goal?
Answer type	Text
Variable name	goal
Property name	goal

Opening 1 July 2030 shows New note in sprint instead of the confirmation. Answering "Clear the backlog" creates sprint 1.md with goal: Clear the backlog and journal-index: 1 among its properties.