title
The title stands as the heading above the page, in the browser tab, in the navigation, in every list
and in every search result. If it is missing, Quartz takes the file name. This site sets it on
every page, because a file name like headings is not a title.
This site’s navigation sorts first by the number in front of the file name and only then by the title; the explorer, switched off in this template, sorts by title alone. The chapters and sections of this handbook therefore carry their number in both places — in the file name for the order, in the title for the reader. See The navigation.
description
One sentence that describes the page. It appears in search results, in folder and tag lists, in the preview when hovering a link and when sharing the address on social networks. Without it, Quartz takes the first words of the text.
date and lastmod
date is the creation date, lastmod that of the last change. Under the title this template shows
the modification date; the list “Recently changed” in the left column sorts by it as well. The
format follows the language of the page: an English page shows an English date.
Where the date comes from when none is given
Quartz asks in turn: the frontmatter, then git, then the file system. The order is set on the
plugin Created modified date, in QuartzControl under Plugins. This template leaves git out —
frontmatter → filesystem — and that has a measured reason.
A symlink takes Quartz's git dates away
git — the program that records the history of files — would be the better source: a commit date survives a copy, a restore and a fresh checkout; a file’s modification time does not. It is missing here all the same. The content lives in an Obsidian vault that
content/points to through a symlink; the plugin follows the link and does find the vault’s git, but then computes the file path against the project directory — and so asks for a path that leads back out of the vault. Every query fails. For 250 of 254 pages the build log therefore said “isn’t yet tracked by git, dates will be inaccurate”; only the four that carry alastmodstayed quiet, because they never ask git at all. The bug is reported; as soon as it is fixed,gitbelongs back in the list.
What the file system delivers is the file’s modification time — and that changes with every copy. Whoever wants a date that stays writes it into the frontmatter. This page does.
What title and date look like stands in Title and date.