Capture from Selection
This is the bridge between reading and doing. You’re in a meeting note, daily note, research clipping, or any other markdown file in your vault. You highlight a sentence that should become a task. Press Cmd+Shift+T. Done — a new task in your Inbox with the highlighted text as the description and a wikilink back to where you found it.
How to use it
Section titled “How to use it”- Select text in any markdown note in your vault
- Press Cmd+Shift+T
- Pensum creates the task and shows a notice
That’s it. No modal, no fields to fill, no decisions to make. The selection becomes the description, the current file becomes the source link.
What gets written
Section titled “What gets written”The task line in your inbox looks like:
- [ ] Follow up with Jamie about the renewal terms > Source: [[2026-05-12 Quarterly Review#^abc123]]The wikilink points to the source note. If your selection landed on a block reference or heading, the link includes the anchor so clicking it jumps you back to the exact spot. The blockquote keeps the source visible in views without cluttering the task description itself.
Common use cases
Section titled “Common use cases”| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| In a meeting note, you highlight “Sam will get back to us on pricing” | Task: “Sam will get back to us on pricing” → links back to the meeting note. (For a richer flow that includes owner + due date, use the meeting’s Extract Action Items button instead — see task extraction.) |
| Reading a research clipping or web article saved to your vault | Highlight the sentence with the actionable insight, get a task linked to the article. |
| In a daily note, you wrote “should ask Alex about this later” | Highlight it, get a real task that won’t get buried. |
| In a project file’s notes section | Highlight, get a task that links back to the project for context. |
Where it goes
Section titled “Where it goes”The task always lands in your first configured inbox file (default: Tasks/Inbox.md). Same as Quick Add. From there it shows up in the Inbox view for triage.
If you want the task to belong to a specific project instead of the inbox, easier options:
- Capture it here (lands in inbox), then drag it to the project in the By Project view or move it manually
- Use Smart Triage in the Inbox to let AI suggest a project assignment
- Open Quick Add (Cmd+Shift+A) instead and type
@projectnamein the description
Toggling the source link
Section titled “Toggling the source link”If you don’t want the wikilink-back included on every capture, turn off Include source link on capture under Settings → General → Capture defaults. The selected text still becomes the task description; just the blockquote source line is omitted.
Hotkey
Section titled “Hotkey”No hotkey is pre-bound (Obsidian asks plugins not to claim shortcuts at install). The Pensum team uses Cmd+Shift+T (macOS) / Ctrl+Shift+T (Windows / Linux) — bind it under Settings → Hotkeys → search “Pensum: Capture task from selection”. See the Hotkey reference.
Limitations
Section titled “Limitations”- Selection has to be in a markdown file. Doesn’t work in canvas, kanban boards, or non-markdown surfaces.
- No editor support on the modal flow. This is a one-shot capture. If you need to edit the description before saving (e.g. trim the surrounding sentence), use Quick Add with the selected text pasted in.
- No automatic dating or priority. The captured task is bare — description only. Add metadata afterwards via the task edit modal, inline emoji, or right-click reschedule shortcuts.