Downloading Web Content

A question I see frequently on Reddit and other Obsidian community hubs regards importing web pages and managing the images they contain. There are many different ways of importing web pages into Obsidian, ranging from iOS shortcuts, theOmnivore read it later service, and plugins such as Extract URL Content. For the purpose of this workflow, I suggest using the ReadItLater plugin which imports markdown versions of webpages using different templates depending on the content: YouTube, Mastodon posts etc. This plugin scrapes the URL from your clipboard and creates a new note in your default location.

Downloading Images

The second step in this workflow is importing the images and this is accomplished with the plugin Local Images Plus. It’s features include:

  • Downloading media files from copied/pasted content of web pages
  • Localizing media files from copied/pasted content of word / Open Office documents
  • Downloading files embedded in markdown tags from web to vault
  • Saving base64 embedded images to vault
  • Converting PNG images to JPEG images with various quality
  • Attachments de-duplication by using MD5 hashing algorithm
  • Removing orphaned attachments from vault

Managing Images

The final step in the workflow is accomplished with the Attachment Management plugin. This plugin will consolidate your attachments in a file structure you choose. I use a separate folder for all attachments and this plugin creates subfolders using the local file path and note title. It renames the image using configurable variables. I use a date and time stamp followed by the note name. You can exclude folders from being organized if you don’t want to manage the included notes. I use this to exclude the folder where I compose blog posts so that it doesn’t interfere with the images I’ve uploaded to my CMS.

Final Tips

I use the excellent Commander plugin to add buttons to my ribbon bar for the image management part of the workflow. Since this workflow can manage your existing notes as well as new notes, you’ll want to clean up all your empty resource folders if you choose to consolidate your images into a central folder. As always, before you run any command that affects your entire vault, make sure you have a good backup in case something goes haywire. (Backup Tips)

See all my Obsidian Tips