Better Bullets for Obsidian

Better Bullets is an Obsidian plugin that enhances the visual hierarchy and readability of your bullet points. It uses dynamic analysis to determine the depth of your lists and applies unique symbols, font sizes, and contextual formatting based on the content of your notes.

Features

1. Hierarchical Bullet Symbols

Bullet symbols and sizing change automatically based on nesting depth.

The plugin automatically changes bullet symbols based on their relationship to other items in the list:

• Grandparent (Level 2+): Uses the => symbol.
• Parent (Level 1): Uses the -> symbol.
• Leaf (Level 0): Uses the standard - symbol.

Unordered lists using -, *, or + and ordered lists using markers like 1. or 1) are supported. Ordered lists keep their source marker by default, while formatting rules can still override the displayed marker.

The default Colon Parents Number Children rule matches parent bullets ending in : and renders their immediate child bullets as a numbered list starting at 1.. The numbering applies only one nesting level deeper, so grandchildren keep their normal markers unless their own parent matches a numbering rule.

2. Dynamic Text Formatting

Formatting rules in action: term/definition, importance, quotes, and year auto-marking.

Text is formatted based on its position in a list and specific syntax within the line:

• Automatic Sizing: "Parent" and "Grandparent" lines are scaled up based on your settings to create a clear visual outline.
• Non-Leaf Bolding: High-level list items can be automatically bolded to act as section headers.
• Notes: Lines starting with Note: use a * bullet, with "Note:" bolded and highlighted and the remainder italicized.
• Definitions: Using the Term | Definition syntax bolds and highlights the term and italicizes the definition.
• Important Lines: Lines ending with ! are bolded and colored. The trailing ! is hidden using the --bb-control property (see below).
• Examples: Lines starting with ex. italicize the text that follows.
• Parentheses: Text inside (parentheses) is italicized anywhere in the line.
• Years: 4-digit numbers (e.g., 1745) are automatically underlined anywhere in the line.
• Quotes: Text inside "straight" or "curly" quotes is italicized anywhere in the line.

Control characters: The --bb-control: 1 CSS property is a special signal used internally by Better Bullets. When applied to a matched pattern segment, that segment is hidden from the rendered output while remaining present in the Markdown source. This lets syntax markers (like the trailing ! on important lines) act as triggers without appearing in the final note.

Numbered children: The --bb-number-children: 1 CSS property is another rule signal. When a matched parent bullet sets this property, its immediate child bullets render as a numbered list.

Bullet state flags: Rendered bullet markers include classes and CSS custom properties for list state: .bb-bullet--ordered, .bb-bullet--unordered, .bb-bullet--parent, .bb-bullet--leaf, --bb-ordered-list: 1, and --bb-parent-bullet: 1. These can be targeted from custom snippets or combined with rule CSS to distinguish parent bullets and ordered list markers.

3. Settings

Hierarchy Configuration

Hierarchy Configuration: Defines styles for each level.

Define the bullet symbol and CSS for each indentation level. Add or remove levels as needed using the Add level + and Remove last - buttons.

Bullet Structure

Use the Bullet structure settings block to edit the three target widths used for bullet spacing:

• Bullet indentation — the target width between the bullet area's left side and the bullet.
• Bullet structure — the target content width of the bullet-only container, excluding indentation and text gap.
• Bullet text gap — the target width between the bullet-only container and the bullet text.

Formatting Rules

Rule Configuration: Uses regex to make custom formatting rules.

Create custom rules that match bullet text using regex patterns and apply CSS styles. Each rule supports:

• Custom bullet symbol — overrides the hierarchy symbol for matched bullets.
• Custom bullet CSS — overrides the hierarchy CSS for matched bullet symbols.
• CSS rule signals — use --bb-control: 1 to hide matched source markers or --bb-number-children: 1 to number immediate child bullets of matching parent bullets.
• Match mode — either Match full line (pattern must match the entire text) or Match all (CSS is applied if the pattern matches anywhere in the text).
• Patterns and styles — one or more regex/CSS pairs; the first matching pattern's styles are applied.

Rules can be added, deleted, and reordered. Clicking Reset to defaults will prompt a confirmation dialog before overwriting all rules with the plugin defaults.

Hotkeys

Move to previous/next line with same indentation: moves to previous/next bullet that has the same indentation while being in parent's fold. Typically bound to ⌘+⌥+↑ and ⌘+⌥+↓

Installation

1. Download latest release, unzip, and drag to the .obsidian/plugins folder.
2. Enable the plugin in settings.
3. Start typing bullet points using -, *, +, 1., or 1).

License

This project is open source under the terms of the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.