What are /r/ObsidianMD's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

From the about page:

> Like the cliché goes, we started Obsidian because Erica couldn't find anything that can satisfy her need to build a personal knowledge base. She has tried all kinds of software from TiddlyWiki to TheBrain; nothing felt right though. > Quarantine finally gave us the chance to start making it. After thinking about it some more, we decided on the three most fundamental directions of Obsidian: - Local-first and plain text; - Link as first-class citizen; - Make it super extensible.

I use Obsidian on my laptop and real time sync it with Box (https://www.box.com/). The vault location is a box folder itself.

How do I connect my box account (or the folder on Box) with Obsidian mobile, so that I can have real time sync between cloud (box), laptop, and mobile?

I use a separate 'quicknote' file in obsidian. For quick adding I use Wox with Obsidian URI with a shortcut key. In this way I can open a previously created 'quicknote' and jot down ideas instantly, without the need to keep obsidian Open in the background all the time.

I do not mean this personally to OP, but I am amazed how many people don't get this. It is the main advertised "selling" point of obsidian. The first thing in big letters taking up the landing page of Obsidian.md says: "Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files."

This is looking good! Finally a complete browser interface.

Readwise has a lot of potential if they improve the browser interface. I think this could have been the missing link for me to consider Readwise AND Obsidian.

Annotation is missing using the Readwise extension- you need Hypothes.is but they don't import the attached images to both annotations and highlights.

Readwise needs to show up both the highlights and the images. Let's hope something comes up in the future.

Its not difficult to create a batch file to run pandoc against every markdown file within a folder (including recursion if necessary). I've done something similar to convert technical docs to HTML. Correct that this won't create an index or menu for you.

I'll add that u/jidloyola provided a nice solution. Jekyll is a static website generator that consumes markdown files. IMO this is definitely worth a look.

It might still be worth raising the original issue so the developer can handle cases like that.

Git is all about version control! But it can be very intimidating for the beginner. The free Pro Git book is a useful place to start - https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2.

Whilst there are probably far better ways to revert a change using the command line, you might just find it easiest to find the change in Github desktop and paste the old version back. When you are making a lot of changes in Obsidian and committing them, the commit history is not as clear as with normal software development ie you will just have lists of dates rather than clear commit messages.

Edit: when you've made a few commits, I highly recommend you have a look at your repo in Github (make sure it's private!) and see what it looks like. Also make some changes to a test file and then try to revert them. Best to work this out before you need it!

There is a plugin called “File Tree Alternative” that allows you to pin notes to stay at the top of the folder. The plugin creates an Evernote-like file explorer.

https://www.loom.com/share/7acf9d8bb776431c819357d9381c5f67

It's really amazing to hear that and it's a thing I will write in my Journal in gratitudes list! :D

But I don't find myself that resourceful, compared to Obsidian community, to which I encourage you to join, no matter if you choose Obsidian, as there's a lot of knowledge related to PKM itself!

The insider build is available if you would like to support the devs and the development of Obsidian. There are different tiers starting at $25.00 https://obsidian.md/pricing

Hope this helps!

I use an app called Autosync for Google Drive. Tons of flexibility, no subscription fee. I'd assume there's something similar for Dropbox.

If you already have this setup, then it's super easy to automate this with Termux Task and Tasker.

I dunno how well Obsidian's own paid syncing service works with cloud folders since I haven't paid for that, but I guess the next best thing is to sync the cloud vault with the local copy on the mobile device

I've managed to use FolderSync to sync my vault on OneDrive with a local folder on my Android, and apparently this should work with other storage options like Dropbox and GDrive

I wouldn't say that Notion is "bloody slow" with updates, there are around two updates a month. It's also more of a mature product than Obsidian is, but they still manage to add some pretty big features.

Their priorities are different too and they came out with a pretty great mobile app and Korean translation to increase customer base. They're working on more localizations which I'm sure takes a lot of resources.

I do worry about how slow Notion loads though. $4/month is kind of a steal compared to their competitors, but it's priced right enough to get a very large userbase. I hope they remain successful as they've made a very useful product.

I use Notion for more of my productivity and work, while Obsidian is my personal knowledge management and journal.

For GRAV, visit getgrav.org and then select a skeleton (https://getgrav.org/downloads/skeletons) to get started quickly. I use the "Open Publishing Space" template by Hibbitts Design, but have also used the "Learn2 with Git Sync" and "Knowledge Base" skeletons.

I've had a lot of luck with WinCompose, which lets you set a hotkey to activate it, and then uses a (fully customisable) list of combinations such as \e,'e,^e,-A, andc,` for è, é, ê, Ā, ç, respectively.

Check it out. There is a trial version! I like the organization, auto-taging. Actually I like all features and small gem features.

Just scroll here and check all the features https://en.eagle.cool

PS: I'm not affiliate with this company.

For pdf annotations on Windows I use Foxit reader, on Android acrobat reader. For highlighting web-content (pdfs, articles) I'm still looking for a good solution but will maybe stick to Memexor hypothesis. On iOS there's Command Browser (one time purchase) I already use and love for webcontent- and they have Android on their roadmap too.. if that's the case I know where I belong ;)

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, I have too many email accounts and I need to use an app (currently Spark) to check them all in one place. After some research, I found hey.com that offers that but only for their email service. Nothing else :(.

You could construct a link that calls up another program, which then makes an API call.

https://insomnia.rest/create-run-button

I haven't used this particular feature, but I use Insomnia's REST API client and prefer it over Postman. I think there's a way to construct links/buttons that can be embedded in any site that will open Insomnia and run a request with parameters you embed in the link.

And you might be able to figure out a way to include Obsidian template variables in the URL to dynamically generate requests that pass the note's filename or path.

Now you've got me wanting to try it! Let me know if you get it working. I may give it a try later, as well.

HackMD can be synced with GitHub, and you can do so in Obsidian easily with plug-in ObsidianGit. In a setting like this, just go to HackMD, open a note, sync what you want to publish, and it's done.

I was looking at this too. On my laptop, I use Insync for Google Drive synchronisation. That works alright.

For Android, I may try the Metactrl app and have the Google Drive folder with MD files sync to a local device folder. For a MD files editor on the Android device, I want to try Markor and point it to the local directory that is being synced by the Metactrl app. So the changes sync back and forth to Google Drive. This would 'complete the circle'.

I do realise that it takes three apps (Insync, Metacrtrl and Markor) to have my notes on my Android phone in this way, so I really need to test this before relying on it.

I am not very experienced in git, but it supposed to mean same as <code>git status</code> uses for short format:

U = unchanged M = modified D = deleted

Not sure about buttons. Try to hover over them. I assume plus sign for committing, rewind sign (?) for rewinding changes.

It worked out beautifully! I basically just used the documentation on https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules , created a new repo for the shared files, and added that as a submodule to my main obsidian repo. Now any people working in the team which works in the subfolder can easily share notes. Be sure to enable the Obsidian git>Advanced>Update submodules option to automatically push changes in the shared submodule when creating a backup.

You should install Git for Windows and set up the repo manually. GitHub Desktop I think sets up its own certificate for logging you in. If you set it up from the command prompt, you can set your username and email with these commands:

git config [--global] user.name "Full Name" git config [--global] user.email ""

Then when you go to push or pull, it should pull up a browser for you to log in (your config file under .git/config in your repo should show the remote url as something like https://github.com/username/reponame.git).

Alternatively, you can set up SSH verification. Run this from the command prompt:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -C “your-email-address”

This should create a new public/private key pair in C:\Users\your_username\.ssh. Go in there, open the one that ends in .pub in a notepad or your favorite text editor of choice. Copy the entire thing. Go to GitHub.com, settings, SSH and GPG keys, and then click on New SSH Key. Paste what you copied in the key field and then give it a name in the title field (use the name of the machine you're on or something that will allow you to identify what machine that key is for).

Now you can change your .git/config file in a text editor. The remote URL should follow this format

URL = :username/reponame.git

Under [core], add this:

sshCommand = ssh -i ~/.ssh/key_name

That should be your private key, which has no file extension. This way you know all your pushes to GitHub are using that key and you don't have to worry about your login expiring. Once you can run git commands from the command prompt, Obsidian shouldn't have a problem.

Ok, you don’t have git installed. Xcode is around 13 gigs. Xcode command line tools are less than 3 gigs. You only need git so either of those installs may be overkill.

Your choices to install git are as follows: https://git-scm.com/download/mac

I use homebrew because it’s a great package manager for the Mac but if that’s not something that interests you, you can install the link for the git binary installer from that page I just linked.

See if you can get git installed from the instructions on that page.

Open up git bash (or just bash if you are on linux or mac) use cd (man cd to read the manual for cd, q to exit) to get to your obsidian vault, then do git pull. It will probably tell you that there was a conflict, you can then edit the files it tells you are a problem, by finding for ">>>" and deleting the things you don't want. After you are done cleaning your files up, go back to git bash and type git add . and then git commit -m "fixed git things" and then git push and you should be back to normal. https://git-scm.com/doc is a great resource for git

Hummm... Personally I wouldn't use obsidian for that kind of task/project ! Just my opinion:

you can use a can opener to open a bottle of water, it will probably work, but it isn't the most effective way to open your bottle of water! Does it make it a bad tool? No absolutely not ! It's just not good for that kind of task !

Here is probaly a very good altermative !

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.habitrpg.android.habitica

It's even on Appstore if you want :) give it a try, it's a fantastic app !

Here is a workaround I use on my Android phone ...

In reading mode "hand selecting" the text will bring up Android's Share option ("select all" doesn't work)

&nbsp;

I then share it to ...

T2S: Text to Voice/Read Aloud

which highlights every word as it's spoken.

I think an app like Boxcryptor - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.boxcryptor2.android OR Cryptomator can be used to encrypt prior to manually transferring to your cloud storage provider of choice.

I haven't used this for obsidian yet, but I use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite with a lot of success for remote syncing. I hear next loud might fit the bill as well. But I'm just starting to play with it

True. I guess I thought vault links in org where handled in a somewhat comparable format

Access to insider builds of Obsidian is part of a Catalyst license.
They are preview versions of Obsidian, bleeding-edge and less stable.

<https://help.obsidian.md/Licenses+%26+Payment/Catalyst+license>
<https://obsidian.md/pricing>

For addition help you can try either the forum or Discord.

https://obsidian.md/community

There’s also a (partially incomplete) tutorial on the git plugin.

https://youtu.be/h3oK1yX3CZ8

It is missing a few key aspects like GitHub SSH key setup and assumes you already know how Git works.

If you still want to try setting up using git, you can DM me. Otherwise, you might be better off with could storage like Onedrive, iCloud, Dropbox, or Google Drive.

Now that is an answer, the problem is, when you talk about the "plugin ecosystem", especially in an Obsidian subreddit, most people will think of plugins to Obsidian (or Notion) not Browser plugins that help with Obsidian (or notion). For example Obsidian has hundreds of plugins to the application, see here https://obsidian.md/plugins
So all you needed to say, to prevent the confusion is: Browser plugins.

Hopefully that clarifies why your initial post and the first answer did not help me at all and felt rather opaque to me. And helps you getting an answer.

I’m glad you at mostly figured it out. You may want to ask about it on the Obsidian Discord, which is very active (more so than Reddit) and has a lot of German users. You can get an Obsidian Discord invitation here.

I love Obsidian.md for individual contribution type of work ; however I cannot use it for team work

If you make it as collaborative and as easy to use as a Google Doc then you got a winner that will go a very long way.

Try restarting your phone. If that doesn’t help, I recommend asking in the #mobile channel on the Obsidian Discord, where the devs and community are the most active. You can grab an invite here: https://obsidian.md/community

>How to Read a Book

Hello Achilles - could you provide the Author or the ISBN to the book you reference above?

I found this and would like to make sure it's the right book, since this was released in 72 not 40.

I don't think of Readwise as a "highlight manager", but I'm not sure what a highlight manager is anyway. I use Readwise to collect highlights, and make notes, from books, mainly on Kindle, Apple Books, and highlights I collect from paper books using the Readwise iOS app. I also use Readwise's integrations with Instapaper, Pocket, Hypothes.is, and Libby. Mostly, though, its books that I am highlighting and noting witn Readwise. Adding bookmarks to Readwise notes is part of reading books. I don't think Readwise would be a good bookmark manager.

I played around with Raindrop.io but not much.

There is an animation of how it looks in Logseq's official webpage (you need to scroll a bit). In newer version you can automatically copy just by selecting text and Logseq will save it in note related to PDF.

I always recommend https://www.rememberthemilk.com. You can use it simply, but it can grow with you - very powerful and flexible. Free to use as long as you like with some nice quality of life benefits if you subscribe.

That said, I can't put my work stuff on the internet so I JUST switched over to using the Obsidian Tasks plugin. It's been 5 days ... so far, so good. I was able to do my weekly closeout Friday with it.

TMI but ... I built my own private ego networking tool decades ago called HAL and still use it. For my note taking app review hobby I don't want to put those people in my networking tool so I created a Person "base" in Airtable and then more recently have been creating a file for each person in a People folder within Obsidian.

I have a person.md template with this in the frontmatter separated by ---

tags: [person] first-name: null last-name: null person-slug: null title: null organization-slug: null product-slug: null web: null email: null mobile: null phone: null twitter-id: null reddit-id: null facebook-id: null medium-id: null linkedin-id: null discord-id: null youtube: null github-id: null city: null country: null

and the body I have this:

# Person ## Bio > ## References 1. links that mention them ## Connections - people they know or that quote them ## Work 1. content they created ## Interests - something they are interested in

Where

1. Work numbered items are usually a back-link to their product (a separate Markdown file)
2. References are hyperlinks to articles they wrote or a wiki-link to separate markdown file if I took notes on their work. I also put their LinkedIn profile here
3. Connections are wiki-links to other person files or hyperlinks to them on the Web if I don't want to elaborate them
4. Bio is usually from one of the numbered references so I put [1], [2] etc. for the source of the info ... this part I want to make true links but not there yet

Oops. Sorry for misreading it!

There are screenshots on the front page of the Tasks plugin docs showing how it presents results. It's very much about creating lists of tasks - it looks like TickTick does a lot more.

Here's a link to TickTick to save others having to search for it too.

Not as far as I know. The code I use is:
> [!todo]-

><iframe src="https://todoist.com/app/today" style="width:600px;height:1500px"></iframe>

As log as you're logged into your Todoist account in your default browser, this will bring up the Today page.

And to style the callout:

div.callout[data-callout=todo] {

--callout-icon: check-square;

--callout-color: 0, 171, 197;

}

If you google around a bit, you can find out more about callouts and how to style them.

I've been playing but can't get it to save as anything other than a txt file https://ifttt.com/recipes/43468 might have the right internal formatting then m maybe a windows batch file to rename it to MD?

Personally I'm experimenting today using markdownload extension to webclip, but it can't save to obsidian directory directly. Only to downloads which I then move to obsidian

I follow a similar process as those posted in the comments. If anyone is looking for a starting template,this is the one I started with. It's a good base to develop from.

First, if you’ve just been updating with the update button in the app, close Obsidian, back up your vault(s ) and all of your notes, then download the latest installer from the Obsidian website and install the download. It should update your installation of Obsidian while leaving your settings, plugins, etc in place.

If that doesn’t correct it, everyone will need to know what theme you’re using, and whether the issue affects source mode, live preview, and/or reading mode (try all three). You’ll probably get faster and possibly better answers by asking in the Discord than here. Don’t be afraid to ask. The Obsidian community is very helpful and friendly. And BTW, your first Reddit post is fine! 😉

You can install it via Obsidian community plugins.
Or if you open this link with browser and then in Obsidian.
https://obsidian.md/plugins?id=obsidian-markmind

This was a game changer for me. Download the Todoist Plugin, input your API token, and then you can sync via code block. Took a little getting used to since I don’t have much code experience but the directions were pretty straight forward paired with the Todoist filters resource. I have one note filter my outstanding tasks, and I’ve included my daily notes template to sync todays task, so each daily note has everything in one spot. I hope this helps

Good question. Some users may not need a user interface like this (link) but I do. It even has floating windows we can move around like we do in a program like Photoshop or Visual Studio.

In that screenshot we see 6 panes, like we might see in an app like Blender along with lots of clickable buttons and icons. Not seen are possible floating windows that we can drag around the screen and resize.

Logseq, Roam and Athens are great apps that are similar to Obsidian. But they can't function like a UI similar to the one shown in the screenshot. And as noted, many people may not need that capability.

Sometimes during development, such as in an IDE like Visual Studio or a video editor like Adobe premiere, it can help to be able to see lots of things at once. That's why some people may do that across multiple monitors. Other times, a simple single-pane UI suffices.

On mobile, I can easily manipulate 4 panes at once using workspaces and buttons on the mobile toolbar. Logseq and Athens can do things Obsidian can't - particularly with their outlining capabilities, sidebar and the ability to drag multiple bullets (blocks) into the sidebar and arrange them a needed.

A PKM writer showed a way to work with Logseq and Obsidian at the same time. I tested that briefly and it worked. But I had some problems. I'll revisit it later. He uses it because he gains the benefits of Logseq and the benefits of Obsidian. It works by sharing the same folders and MD files between Logseq and Obsidian. I think a problem occurred when I pasted a screenshot into Obsidian and Logseq didn't seem to recognize it.

I get it. Then they should make the message about commercial use more prominent on the download page (https://obsidian.md/download) or when you install the app or launch it for the first time. I know multiple SWs, which are free but have a prompt where you agree with the non-commercial use. The current implementation may only cause trouble in the commercial context because I doubt everyone who uses obsidian at work owns the license.

This is more like: You can take cola for free but don't dare to use the caffeine in it to be productive at work.

How many people check pricing or license details when they get to the downloads page (https://obsidian.md/download) with all the download links available? You don't even see any evaluation period or heads-up message after installation. Don't get me wrong, I know devs need to make money somehow (and that's where sync/publish kicks in), but the messaging is still pretty shady/edgy in this case and may cause troubles in the commercial context (as obsidian contains tracking).

I don't think you're missing anything. You just think differently than others.

I don't use a daily note either. I feel it forces me to write something even if I have nothing to write. I was leaving too many blank notes that I then had to delete. Also many times I have multiple notes to write on the same day. So I use the "periodic note" concept rather than the "daily note" concept with the zettlekasten prefixer. Like you I dump the new files into a temp WIP folder. I named that folder "Workbench". I think many people use the daily note with the GTD methodology. I think they work well together. I just don't use that workflow in my life. I hate task lists. I use one when needed but won't slave myself to one on a regular basis.

Note taking is personal. Take the notes how they work for you. I think the core zettelkasten principals are valid. It doesn't necessarily contain a "daily note". Just that the note be atomic and written as if others will read it so even years later it will be legible. The rest is linking and tagging. The MOCs and graph make the method usable. The rest is personalization to the user's preferences and needs. That's my take on it anyway.

I found this webpage to be very helpful to get over the confusion of all the posts on the subject: https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/

Also this book might be useful: &quot;How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking&quot; by Sönke Ahrens

You might also like Zettel Notes. It's a bit nicer looking than Markor and you can create a new data repository and point it to your Obsidian vault.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.eu.thedoc.zettelnotes

You might also like Zettel Notes. It's a bit nicer looking than Markor and you can create a new data repository and point it to your Obsidian vault.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.eu.thedoc.zettelnotes

I use rami.sedhom's <strong>categorized</strong> plugins airtable, which he regularly updates.

I'm building my own spreadsheet as well as bookmarks from it by...

category, i_enabled, i_toggle, try_next, try?, uninstalled

&nbsp;

PS: Airtable needs registration(free)

Here is the original Notion template. I tried to recreate the same experience in Obsidian as much as possible.

I had the same issue, it wasn't connected to community plugins since disabling all of them didn't help. Seems like it has been fixed in newer versions of obsidian. However, due to some strange reason obsidian didn't want to update to the latest version from settings, so I had to manually go and update it. Went from 0.13.33 to 0.14.6

In your vault go to Settings > Community plugins > Browse and search for "Execute Code". Select the plugin, install it and activate it.

or

follow this link and click "Open in Obsidian"

You could @ ...

Settings | Mobile | More toolbar options

... add

Command palette: Open command palette

... to enable that functionalithy.

If, you'd like to make the toolbar options more accessible you could add the Obsidian Advanced Toolbar Plugin

&nbsp;

I've also enabled Slash commands under Core plugins that helps me with this.

&nbsp;

If you are using Obsidian for Android you could also install the Hacker's Keyboard to get "keyboard" functionality (ctrl+ ... etc)

In Settings I enable Use permanent notification

Normally a keyboard only activates in an input area, but now one can just click the permanent "Show Hacker's Keyboard" notification - and use all the useful shortcuts including Hotkeys.

In its settings I also enable "Gesture and Key actions" to use left/right swipe OR volume up/down to change keyboard size quickly.

I don't think Obsidian alone will be able to satisfy the todo-list and scheduling stuff. It just wasn't built to support that kind of thing; Obsidian is more of a note-taking / knowledge-base program. I think Obsidian will be just fine for solving all your other requirements, though.

I don't know if you're comfortable with the command-line, but if you are then I highly recommend a program called TaskWarrior for all your task tracking and todo-list needs. It's the best todo-list management application I've ever used and nothing else even gets close to how good it is (for me personally, at least). If this doesn't strike your fancy then I'm sure you could look for other services online to solve your scheduling needs (Trello maybe?); it just won't be Obsidian that solves it!

Wish I could help you, but I don’t currently run Windows. Since you haven’t gotten an answer here in 4+ days, I suggest you ask on the Obsidian Discord, where the devs and community are the most active. You can grab an invite here: https://obsidian.md/community

I’m not experiencing that issue on my 2017 MacBook Pro with 16 GB RAM. It’s possible that a plugin or combination of plugins or even the theme you’re using is slowing things down. You might try turning them all off and see if the issue persists.

If that doesn’t help, I recommend asking on the Discord, where the devs and a lot of very technical members of the community are active. You’ll find a link to the invitation at:

https://obsidian.md/community

https://obsidian.md/

I see, I think you are trying to integrate something more complicated than I have set up. I just have my vault nested in my user folder and backed up by time machine, so I’m not sure I can be of more help.

When they released v0.14.5 I saw a recommendation that you download directly from obsidian.md instead of just running an update, because there were some core framework updates as well.

Never mind. I wasn't very familiar with plugins, so after searching a bit I found this two:

- find-replace regex

- Language checker tool

I'm not very convinced with the regex finder, but now that I discovered the community plugins I think I'll try more of them and see if I find what I need

It's sometimes useful if you want to recall something you wrote while on the go. I hardly edit but it can happen.

If you are using dropbox or some other cloud service you can sync with things like dropSync. dropSync might be dropbox specific but I'm sure there are other services. I was already paying for dropbox before so I didn't have to get obsidian sync. Maybe the free dropbox storage would be enough, although I can't remember if they have a free plan anymore.

I know google cloud does have free storage and maybe this sync app will work for you:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.drivesync

&#x200B;

I would say obsidian mobile is one of the biggest draw backs of obsidian for some people. I know a guy who completely decided against obsidian because it was quite a bit of work to get his personal cloud storage to sync with his phone.

If you are on Windows and you are considering a text expander, might I suggest BeefText? It is free, open source and really simple. It has some variables for date and time, cursor placement (for example I have a combo called :b which expands to "<b></b>" with the cursor between the brackets, so I can type what I want in bold) and can even perform some keystrokes.

I don't think Windows can even do that. That's why Windows has shortcuts where a real file can exist in one folder and a shortcut to that file can in other folders.

Here's an excerpt from Notion article which says

>"What if the exact same information could live and breathe in multiple places?"

That capability is what you're looking for. The answer is the same among apps that provide that capability. Apps that can do it include Roam, Obsidian, Remnote, Logseq, Notion, Athens and even Workflowy. Workflowy calls it "mirroring."

Obsidian and many other apps call it transclusion. Notion seems to call it "Synced Blocks."

Workflowy was pretty excited when they got this capability ..

Everything You Need, Everywhere You Need It

You should find this capability very useful when you discover a bit more about Obsidian. Tiny bits of information, and not just files, will be able to live in many locations - something that can't happen in a program like Evernote or OneNote.

AbsGeekNZ shows a good way to transclude.

This list of plugins (with summaries) may spark some ideas about possible killer use cases. Think of it as shopping for free apps. (link)

The current plugin count is 507 and that will likely increase soon.

This plugin list at the Obsidian Hub page doesn't show summaries. But it does categorize plugins.

Categorization might be helpful if, for instance you're interested in plugins that can help you improve things like writing, file management, task management, image management, etc.

You might bookmark that Obsidian Hub page because it's full of information that can help. And it has a link to the Obsidian Roundup.

Every Saturday, that curated Roundup site shows brand new things such as workflows, tips, discussions and new plugins with summary info. Check that every week and you'll stay up to date on what's going on. You'll also see beta plugins that you can try before they make it into production. I'm using some of those now. I often don't know those beta plugins exist until I saw them at the Roundup.

Simply play with your souped up Notepad (Obsidian), try out a plugin of interest every now and then and see what happens. Good luck with the exploration.

Just make sure you review the license for Obsidian / Notion and the EULA.

https://obsidian.md/eula

> You need to pay for Obsidian if and only if you use it for revenue-generating, work-related activities in a company that has two or more people. Get a commercial license for each user if that's the case. Non-profit organizations do not need commercial licenses.

There seems to be a misunderstanding: there is no "Obsidian corporation". Obsidian is developed by two software engineers with proir experience (main devs of Dynalist). The end goal isn't to go the Silicon Valley startup route and sell to the highest bidder after a few years.

Here is their EULAHere is their EULA . It states that the core product will always remain free. There exist an Insider tier that gets Beta releases early, as well as commercial licencing,and add-on service. Those are sync with Obsidian Sync (the option to sync with external cloud services remains) and Obsidian Publish (the option to export files and convert them into websites with 3th party tools remains).

Obsidian is great for work, especially since you can store the notes on a company-approved server. Downside is that sharing is difficult.

Also, please remember to pay the $4/month when using it for work: https://obsidian.md/pricing

1) It's pretty much one of cheapest graphic tablets on the market (Wacom ONe)

2) Yes, it's pretty much just that. The graph on the bottom is an image I have drawn with the tablet, then I imported that image in Obsidian.

3) Hmm there's too much going on with the "handwriting vs typing" war; I'm not sure I can reliably answer this question. The general idea behind Zettelkasten (applied to my specific case) is to handwrite everything on my notebook and then, slowly, process those notes and format them into an Obsidian note.

If you are asking about what to use when you're in class: handwriting forever. Typing is faster but with "engineering stuff" you always have to draw strange symbols, formulas and objects, which are tricky to do with a keyboard.

Overleaf's resource for learning LaTeX is also helpful with this. This page on Mathematical Expressions shows the gist of it, with further reading at the bottom that points to examples.

You will mostly find favorable reviews at their Product Hunt page, but I still found several of them to be critical in their analysis.
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/obsidian-flight-school/reviews

Before investing a lot of work, have you ever tried Calibre as a digital library? In addition to all the other features it does most of the work in retrieving meta-data on it's and allows for addititional fields. (And with some inofficial plugins you can use it to store your books in an non-proprietary format).

Hey, I maybe this helps!

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I found out that if you import your Anki decks into Mochi (https://mochi.cards/) and then you export them from Mochi as Markdown, Mochi export each card as just one Markdown file :).

This way is super easy and convenient to migrate your anki cards to obsidian :).

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Hope it helps :D

I found out that you can import your Anki decks into Mochi and when you export those same decks from Mochi as Markdown each note becomes one markdown file (ergo, what you need to import them easily to obsidian :) )

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https://mochi.cards/

I use both OneNote and Obsidian.

I actually use multiple tools: Diigo, Evernote, OneDrive, Pocket, Raindrop.io, etc., but all for different purposes. For OneNote, I use it to store screen captures and to create handwritten notes. With Obsidian, I use it to create "personal notes" like a scratchpad.

I still use OneNote for different reasons perhaps like you might need to do to work with tables the way you like

Imagine trying to work if the Internet didn't exist. The Internet's (links) help make things a lot easier. I use Raindrop.io AND I can click that link you posted if I want to see Raindrop.io.

We can create links in OneNote but it's ability to help navigate like we do on the internet is limited. IF I click a link to another OneNote page, I'll wind up on that new page. But that page won't show me a link that takes me back to the previous page. Some web pages can provide that type of history trail. Obsidian can do it too via showing you backlinks.

At Wikipedia (not OneNote), you can hover over a link to see more info. In Obsidian you can hover over a link and see everything that's in it - not just a snippet of information.

Obsidian can also function like a database that can grab information from multiple places and display it on pages and dashboards. Other capabilities exist but you'd have to spend some time exploring them.

If you don't need any of the link handling capabilities that a Wikipedia page provides, maybe you might not need a program like Obsidian, Roam, Logseq, (the list is large). People got by for years using OneNote and it's a good program and a good repository for information we can store in hierarchical form.

Syncthing https://syncthing.net/ is one good option. Both devices need to be online and it will sync things over. has windows/mac/lin/android/ios all sync options. But if you are on full mac ecosystem icloud might be the best zero cost solution.

thats fair, if you're privacy minded then I'd suggest avoiding discord too probably. Obsidian should work for you, and check out syncthing for syncing your vault between your computer and phone and stuff

I tend to use Miro for this kind of thing. It's kind of like an all-purpose whiteboard, and mind-mapping is one of their features. Once you're done you can export it to a pdf and load it up to your obsidian.

Free version should get you to what you need. I've done the paid version before but it was really just to have higher res exports.

UpNote is a really solid option for a OneNote alternative. They're super niche and nobody seems to talk about it, but I think it is top tier out of all the apps I've spent the past week researching..

Only thing Obsidian supports over UpNote right now is local storage access (hitting the files in the explorer) as UpNote seem to work with a proprietary system like Joplin, but they do offer a bounty of export options akin to Joplin and they claim the files are stored locally. We'll see if they can develop a way to get in there securely 💭

I have to do that with external programs because I sometimes need to see that too. Scrivener, for instance can do that.

However, it seems like maybe one Obsidian page could be generated that contained block embed links like these ..

• ![file 1]
• separator
• ![file 2]

Then in preview mode we'd see all the files on one page.

I'm not sure how we'd edit a block embed. Some apps such as Workflowy lets you edit it's equivalent of embeds. Workflowy calls it mirroring.

Sometimes I use a modified version of the Open-Source program named Astrogrep. It can

1. Show me portions of all files in one or more Obsidian vaults
2. Let me use search queries to see only files I want to see
3. Scroll through the page rapidly to look for things I'm looking for
4. Do basic editing on any file on the page.

Each file on a page is separated from other files and we see the file name above each file.

By default, Astrogrep can only show 50 lines from each file. But I modified it so as needed, it can show all lines in a file.

We have to be carefull when editing a page outside of Obsidian. It's usually OK to insert, delete and add content. And we can add things like [[links]]. But Obsidian and some plugins rely on us using a mouse or keyboard within Obsidian to do thing such as type

![this is an embed].

So we can't type that using an external program.

Here's info on Workflowy Mirroring. I haven't tried to use block embeds to accomplish what you need but maybe it can do that. And, of course, Scrivener does that easily but it's not a knowledge base program.

Actually as a single person side gig you don’t have to pay for commercial. The commercial license only applies to companies with two or more employees. So you are good.

Here is the direct quote. “ Commercial Use Licenses are required whenever Obsidian is being used for work for a business with two or more personnel. Sole proprietorships or other one-person organizations do not require a Commercial Use License. Work for educational purposes does not require a Commercial Use License.

Commercial Use Licenses must be purchased on an annual and per user basis. Commercial users must purchase at least as many licenses as the number of people who will be using Obsidian.” https://obsidian.md/eula

If you've not done so, it may be helpful to check out some of the sites from the "Published sites gallery" on the obsidian publish page: https://obsidian.md/publish

It's really interesting to browse through and see how people structure notes and folders. Also, it gives a sense of what value could be derived from an extended time using Obsidian.

From my understanding these are public facing Obsidian vaults that folks have put online with Obsidian's publish service.

This is almost exactly the system I came up with, too. But I don't include the cover images as I don't want to have to go look for them every time I add a book. I'm super lazy. :-)

I also include a lot more data in the front matter because I like to be able to sort by various different elements. So my front matter looks like this:

--- title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children author: Ransom Riggs genre: fantasy series: Miss Peregrine's Home seriesNumber: 1 status: reading dateDiscovered: 2022-01-22 datePurchased: 2022-01-22 location: Kindle dateStarted: 2022-01-29 dateCompleted: starRating: reviewURL: kindleNotes: amazonURL: https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Peregrines-Peculiar-Children-Boxed-ebook/dp/B00SPV9B7Y/ref=sr_1_8 ---

As you can see, I don't fill in every field.

I particularly like my "series" name and number elements, as Kindle can make it very difficult to tell which book comes next/which I've read or haven't. I have found myself reading book 18 before book 17 and that was very confusing. I only figured that out because of my reading list in Obsidian.

But then in the main body of the post, I add things like my thoughts about it, a link to my Kindle notes (using the Kindle plugin - I forget the name... search Kindle in plugins), and if I write a review of the book, I write it there first.

I love using dataview to parse the books. I have a "currently reading" page, a "books to buy" page, and I include monthly round ups of the books I completed that month.

I feel like I should add the ISBN to my front matter, but again, that would require me to do more work than I want (and yes, I know it's on the Amazon page, see above re: my laziness).

Pictures would make the list look cooler, so I am sure I will add them eventually. Thanks for the suggestion!

I don't know if you can do it in the Obsidan app, but on Android, you can use Tasker to change the keyboard automatically when you enter/exit an app. You can have a seperate keyboard app just for Obsidian with auto capitalization permanently turned off.

You'll need to grant Tasker the Write Secure Settings permission to be able to change the keyboard.

The 'new things that I discover' are things that I come across on the Internet or anywhere else that I find interesting, useful, or noteworthy enough to be included in my Daily Note.

Here's an example: Yesterday, I found a website that can upscale images to 4k via AI. Since that might be useful someday, I make a note of it on my daily note. And then today, I found a book called &quot;The Practice of Not Thinking: A Guide to Mindful Living&quot;. I'll add it to my daily note as it's interesting to me.

I hope this answers your question!

I use this other app named OneSync https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.onesyncv2&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=US to sync the Vault folder to the phone storage. The App work by setting a pair of folders (the Vault folder on the cloud and a local folder on the phone storage), and then I just open the Obsidian app and point to the local folder.

That's probably a bug, worth reporting on the obsidian.md forum.

However you're also doing code blocks incorrectly, if I'm understanding your gif. It's backtick-backtick-backtick-newline to open, newline-backtick-backtick-backtick to close: https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet#code-and-syntax-highlighting

this can be done with the core plugin templates.

1. turn on templates (settings > options > core plugins > templates)
2. open templates settings (settings > plugin options > templates)
3. set desired date and time format (reference this)

to use

1. be in note
2. open command panel
3. search for templates
4. click on either "insert current date" or "insert current time"

---

personally i use it with a template... if you are using a template, {{date}} or custom format {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}}. when a note is made from a template using these, the date will be filled in on creation.

thanks so much for publishing these! I'll definitely keep periodically checking for your username. I have an idea for another one if you feel like taking a stab at it: there's an automate script (https://llamalab.com/automate/community/flows/39984) that opens the daily note in obsidian. I've gotten the script to run at 1AM everyday so my daily note is automade and ready for me to type in it when I wake up. I wasn't able to get it to work in macrodroid but would love it if you thought you could!

You might want to try out Logseq, https://logseq.com/ markdown based and very similar to Obsidian in many ways but works more like workflowy in how it organizes as you type and has some pretty nice todo and task status functions built in. I just started using it a month ago and it's quickly becoming my go to for daily notes/tasks/projects. The more I get comfortable with it the more I want other programs to work that way, it has a few kinks still but seems to have very active development. I believe you can actually use it side by side with Obsidian (i.e they can both see all the notes/links from the other in their file views since it's all markdown) haven't fully tried that yet myself though.

Thanks for discovering that. This means that a regular click can send links to the same pane and CTRL+CLICK can send clicks to a new pane.

Into the left or right pane we can put a read-only (Reading) version of a file and also put an editable (Editing) view of the file. Then we can

1. Update that file as needed
2. Save space by making those files tabs that reside in the left or right pane

Maybe there's a way we can toggle the Reading state of a file in the left pane. The CodeMirror Options plugin seems to be able to do that. It simulates Live Preview.

It seems like read-only things in the left pane, such as File Directory and Recent Files, follow different logic. Links we click in those things are directed to the active pane. Maybe when we add a .md file to a side pane, Obsidian follows the same logic so that link clicks with that .md file are also directed to the active pane.

The Remember Cursor Position plugin helps because as we click through different files, Obsidian places the cursor within a file at its last location.

Here's a public demo of Roam. https://roamresearch.com/#/app/help/page/JG\_fewIU6

If you Shift-Click a link on that page, the link opens in Roam's right sidebar to show that link's contents. If you click another link, it opens in the same sidebar beneath the contents of the previous link's contents. Keep doing this and the right side bar can hold lots of stacked topics we can scroll through. Each topic is collapsible. That feature can come in handy.

In Obisidian, at least for now, we can direct a link's contents (a page) to one targeted pane if we like. And as ArkaneFires noted, we have an additional way to navigate and display links.

>Because the goal of any respectable note taking app is to be able to compete with paper and whiteboard.

This is your opinion. A vast amount of people just want to have text notes and they are fine with that. In some cases having normal sequential text files is preferable, especially with working with external tools. You are trying to specialize a tool for your specific views on what you want to do with it.

>It's clearly the goal of Onenote and that's why it's the reference app for this.

The inspirations for Obsidian are note taking apps like (Roam Research)[https://roamresearch.com/] and (Notion)[https://www.notion.so/]. These are successful apps that are not trying to just imitate OneNote. They are tailored for different goals, and not to just imitate OneNote

Yeah it was tricky to get it stable and practical to use. But now I use it 5+ times a day.

For the dialog I used a MacroDroid/Tasker plugin called 'UI Task'.