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The Ultimate Obsidian for Beginner's Guide 2025 — Transcript

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0:00This video is a compilation of all of
0:02the Obsidian for beginners videos that I
0:04have created on my channel. It covers
0:06everything that you need to know about
0:07the core functionality of Obsidian.
0:10There are a lot of features to cover, so
0:12let's jump right into it. So, the first
0:14thing you're going to want to do is open
0:15up a web browser
0:17and you're going to go to obsidian.md.
0:22Whatever OS you're on, you're going to
0:24download the version for that one.
0:26I'm going to click this.
0:28Once that's downloaded, you can click
0:30open. I'm on a Mac, so I just drag it
0:32into the applications folder. I am now
0:34just going to go and open up Obsidian.
0:37Where we're going to see a screen that
0:40asks you to either open up an existing
0:42folder or create a new vault. Now, a
0:44vault is just a folder of files on your
0:48computer. That is one of the biggest
0:50benefits of using Obsidian. Your notes
0:54are all saved to your device. They're
0:58not stuck in some database in a cloud
1:00server somewhere where somebody else has
1:03ownership over your notes. If for some
1:06reason you don't have access to
1:07Obsidian, it crashes, Obsidian ever goes
1:10away, those notes are just plain text
1:13files on your computer and you can
1:15access them from any app that supports
1:17plain text, which by the way is a lot.
1:19So, for this Obsidian for beginners
1:21course that I'm putting together, we're
1:23going to be creating a brand new vault.
1:26I'm going to hit create
1:28and I'm going to call this Obsidian
1:32for beginners.
1:35We're going to browse and we're going to
1:37save this on our desktop. So, we're
1:40going to create that.
1:42And here we are. We're going to make
1:44this big.
1:46We now have a brand new vault that we
1:49can work with.
1:50I just wanted to show you let's just
1:53move this out of the way.
1:56As you can see, this is just a folder on
2:00the desktop and it has this like welcome
2:04note. And actually, if we open this up,
2:07we can see inside that very file,
2:10welcome.
2:11And I could even in a demonstration
2:13showing, I can open this up. I'll open
2:15it up with my code editor that I use for
2:18my software development. We've got this
2:20exact note inside of a different app.
2:24We're going to close out of that. We're
2:27going to go back and we're just going to
2:28focus on Obsidian now. So, I'm going to
2:30go ahead and I'm going to rename this
2:34file cuz I don't need this file.
2:36Uh, we're going to rename this and I
2:39want this uh this note that I'm going to
2:41be creating, I want this to be your
2:44first note as well. It is going to be a
2:47cheat sheet for the formatting syntax
2:50that Obsidian uses, which is called
2:52markdown. We're going to call this
2:55markdown cheat sheet.
2:58I'm going to go ahead and delete all of
3:00the existing text. Even though I am a
3:04software developer and I use markdown
3:07quite often in that uh in that role, I
3:11sometimes forget the syntax uh around
3:13markdown. So, I created a markdown cheat
3:17sheet in chat inside of my personal
3:19vault and it has been a big help.
3:21Whenever I needed a to remember how to
3:24do a certain thing, I could just open
3:25this cheat sheet up or I can just have
3:27it open all the time. We're going to
3:29start with how to make headings in your
3:32notes.
3:33So, headings are pretty simple. You just
3:35do a hash symbol
3:37followed by a space and then you've got
3:40your heading one,
3:42which is the biggest heading size that
3:45you can have.
3:46I'm going to hit enter and we're going
3:48to do two hash symbols
3:51followed by the text and that's for your
3:53heading two, which is a little bit
3:55smaller.
3:58And then
4:00as you can see, every time we add
4:03another hash, we get a level smaller.
4:11It's easy to know
4:13what the heading size is based on the
4:15number of hashes that you put in front
4:17of it. So, those are the different
4:18headings that we can do. The other text
4:21formatting that uh is often used is
4:24things like bolding your text or putting
4:28it into italics. To bold your text, you
4:31just do two asterisks
4:34and then you
4:35type your text and then you close it
4:37with asterisks. So, everything that's
4:39going to be in between those two
4:41asterisks is going to be bolded.
4:44To do an italic, you just do one
4:47asterisk
4:49and then the text in between those two
4:51uh single asterisks.
4:54So, now you've got bold and italic.
4:57Another thing that you might use often
4:59in notes is bullet lists. So, to do a
5:01bullet, you just do a dash and a space
5:04and now you have a bullet.
5:10And they work just like a regular bullet
5:13list. I can have a nested item
5:16underneath just by hitting tab.
5:20And then I can hit return twice and that
5:22gets me back out to this other level.
5:27So, that's bullet lists. Maybe you want
5:29a numbered list for something, you just
5:31do the number one, period, space.
5:35Number one.
5:37And then as you hit enter, it will give
5:40you the
5:41next numbers.
5:46Another big thing that you're probably
5:47be going to be using inside of Obsidian
5:50is backlinks. I'm going to go a little
5:52bit more over backlinks a little later
5:54in the video, but I just want to show
5:56how to do it here to have it included in
5:58your markdown cheat sheet. So, to create
6:01a link to another note, which is a
6:04called a backlink, you just do two of
6:06these square brackets
6:09and it'll come up with a menu and show
6:11you all of the notes that are in your
6:13vault. So, you can search for those
6:16notes. You don't have to remember the
6:17exact uh title for the note. We only
6:20have one uh note in our vault so far,
6:23this markdown cheat sheet. It seems kind
6:25of silly to link to itself, so we're
6:27going to just come up with a new note.
6:29Uh, we'll just call this
6:33my first note for now.
6:35Now, it's saying no match found. That
6:37note doesn't exist. We can still create
6:40a backlink to a note that doesn't exist
6:42yet and then we can create it later. So,
6:44if there's something that you're
6:46thinking about and you want to create a
6:48note about it in the future, but you
6:49still want to be working in the current
6:51note, you can create that backlink and
6:53come back to it later. Now, let's say
6:55you want to link to something outside of
6:58Obsidian,
6:59you can do that by doing a single
7:03bracket
7:05and you can have the text for your link
7:09and then you follow that up with some
7:12parentheses and you put in the URL to
7:15whatever it is that you're linking to.
7:18So, we'll just link to
7:21my website. And then as we click on
7:24that,
7:25that'll then open up that website inside
7:28of a browser. You can highlight text by
7:31just doing two equal signs
7:36and then closing whatever you want uh
7:39highlighted with those two equal signs.
7:41If you want to do a strike through, you
7:43can do these kind of like I actually
7:46don't know what they're called, uh these
7:48little squiggly hyphen things. Uh, you
7:50can find the key for it uh next to the
7:52one on your keyboard
7:54and you can use that to do strike
7:57through text.
8:00Another cool thing you can do is you can
8:02create checkboxes for if maybe you're
8:05managing a task list of some sort inside
8:07of Obsidian, you can create checklists.
8:10To do that, you just do the dash, space,
8:14and then you do the brackets with a
8:16space in between them
8:18and then a space afterwards and that
8:20will give you a checkbox.
8:24And when you're ready to check something
8:26off, you can just click on that
8:27checkbox.
8:29And what it does behind the scenes is it
8:31just puts a little X inside of those
8:34brackets where that space was.
8:37So, that's how you can do checkboxes.
8:40You remember how we created a a backlink
8:42to a note that didn't exist yet?
8:45So, what we can do is we can actually
8:48click on this backlink and that now
8:52creates that note for us that didn't
8:55exist before. As you can see, it's over
8:57on the left in the sidebar there.
8:59So, now we have this note. We're going
9:01to just say, "Hi.
9:04I'm the first note ever in this vault."
9:09Which isn't true, the markdown cheat
9:10sheet was, but
9:12that's okay. We'll make it feel good.
9:14So, now we have a note and we have
9:16another note that's linking to it.
9:18You've probably noticed that we have
9:19this graph view over to the side. This
9:22is one of the ways that we can see the
9:24connections that we have between our
9:27notes. As you can see, markdown cheat
9:29sheet is connected to this note, my
9:32first note. There are a couple of other
9:35ways that we can see what is connected
9:38to a note. You can click on these little
9:41these three dots on a note and you can
9:44then say backlinks in document. That
9:47will bring up the footer at the bottom
9:49of the note and as you can see, the
9:52markdown cheat sheet has a link to this
9:55note. We have two different sections
9:58that are here. We have linked to
10:00mentions and unlinked mentions. Linked
10:02mentions are
10:04there's a direct link. There's an actual
10:06backlink from that file to this file.
10:10So, Markdown cheat sheet has this actual
10:13link in it. Unlinked mentions is when
10:17you may have the text of the title of
10:20this note in something, but you haven't
10:23explicitly created a backlink for that.
10:27So, let me demonstrate how that works.
10:29I'm going to go ahead and create a new
10:32note. Another way to create a new note,
10:34so so far I've just used the existing
10:37note that was there and or created one
10:39with a backlink. If you want to create a
10:41brand new note that doesn't exist, it
10:43doesn't have any backlinks, you can hit
10:45this new note button over in sidebar.
10:49We're going to click that and we're
10:50going to call this We're just going to
10:52call this another note for the moment.
10:54And then I'm going to type in my first
10:58note. As you can see, I haven't created
11:00it as a backlink. It's just text. Now,
11:03I'm going to go back to my first note.
11:05I'm going to click on unlinked mentions.
11:07We can now see that there is a note that
11:11is mentioning this note. An actual
11:14backlink hasn't been created yet. What's
11:16really nice is that you can hover over
11:18this and it gives you this little link
11:21button. When you click link, it is now
11:23created a link to this note from that
11:25other note. So, I go back to another
11:28note, we can see it's created an actual
11:30link. So, now these two notes are
11:32linked. We can see those connections
11:34being built in this graph. Graph is
11:37something that I'm going to go over also
11:39in a future module, so don't worry too
11:41much about it right now, but it is a
11:42nice kind of visual way of seeing the
11:44connections starting to build between
11:47your notes.
11:49Another way that you can see backlinks
11:51is by clicking on this panel over here
11:54on the right or this icon that opens up
11:56this panel.
11:57As you can see, we've got
11:59no linked notes to this another note.
12:03But, we can also see links that are
12:06going out from this note. You see we've
12:08got a link out to my first note from
12:12this note.
12:14But, as links accumulate, we can see
12:17them here. In fact, if I go over to my
12:19first note, we can see those same linked
12:22mentions over on this panel as we do in
12:24that backlinks in document that I set
12:27up. So, that's the basics of what you
12:29need to know when it comes to backlinks.
12:31Now, how would you go about using
12:34backlinks? What What is their purpose?
12:36What are they for really? So, let's
12:39do a hypothetical note here. Let's say
12:42that I am creating notes around
12:46productivity lessons
12:49from
12:50Harry Potter. So, I've got this note and
12:54I I'll type in a few things, you know,
12:56it's uh
12:58Dumbledore
13:00has a
13:02device called a Pensieve
13:06which allows him to store his excess
13:12thoughts.
13:14And then we could say something like
13:17Obsidian is like a Pensieve
13:21in that it helps
13:24me store
13:26my excess
13:29thoughts.
13:30And I'm going to say
13:33I'm going to make this an italics
13:35italicized
13:37word to emphasize it. So,
13:40we've got this note and maybe as we're
13:43writing out this note, we think, "Oh,
13:44there are other things that this reminds
13:47me of."
13:49I'm going to create a a note to
13:52something like productivity
13:55lessons
13:57from Star Trek.
14:00Maybe I want this these things to be
14:02related because they're productivity
14:04lessons that are coming from pop culture
14:06things. So, create a link to this new
14:09one.
14:10I'm going to go ahead and click on that,
14:12create this new document. I'm going to
14:15say the Enterprise
14:18computer
14:20stores tons of information
14:25for the crew to utilize. We're going to
14:28say the internet
14:31is a lot like
14:35the Enterprise
14:37computer in that
14:39it gives us access
14:43to tons of information.
14:49And then maybe I want to make sure that
14:51I link back to the productivity lessons
14:55from Harry Potter. So, now these two are
14:58linking to each other because they're
15:00related notes. So, you can use links to
15:03relate notes to each other. What's great
15:07is that maybe there's something Maybe
15:08I'm
15:09going back here, maybe I'm working on
15:11something here and I just I have a cool
15:14thought about something else.
15:16Oh, let's say there's a few spells in
15:19Harry Potter that are like, "Oh, maybe
15:22there's some real-world applications
15:23that I can think of with with the spells
15:26from Harry Potter." So, there's the
15:29the ridiculous one.
15:33Which is the one that you use to get rid
15:36of a boggart, which is something that
15:38takes the form of your greatest fear,
15:40and then you use that spell to turn it
15:43into something humorous. Well, maybe
15:46there's a thought of like, "How can you
15:47actually utilize that kind of idea in
15:50real life?" I can create a note from
15:52this one that I can then go back and
15:54kind of fill those things in later. I'm
15:56going to give this heading of spells in
16:01real life.
16:02I can make this bullet list as well. And
16:06there's also Expecto
16:09Patronum. The spell that Expecto
16:12Patronum does is it gets rid of a
16:14creature called a Dementor, which feeds
16:16on bad memories, difficult things in a
16:20person's life. And so, maybe you can
16:22utilize that in real life cuz the way
16:24that they counteract the Dementor is by
16:27thinking of like the happiest moment in
16:28your life. So, these are different ideas
16:31that I can then link off and create
16:33separate notes for, and it'll all be
16:35tied together, and then it will also
16:38link in with this productivity lessons
16:40from Star Trek through this chain. And
16:43maybe there ends up being connections
16:45there as well. And you start to grow
16:47this kind of graph of knowledge here,
16:50and you start to have
16:53thoughts collide and and different ideas
16:56uh mesh together. That's what's really
16:58awesome about Obsidian is that allows
17:01those kinds of things to grow, and
17:04that's exactly what the Pensieve is in
17:06Harry Potter. It was a place where he
17:08could Dumbledore could store his
17:10thoughts, and then he could see the
17:12connections between things. Obsidian is
17:14a free app that is primarily designed
17:16for notes, but thanks to its
17:18flexibility, it can be shaped into
17:20whatever tool you need. But, with great
17:22flexibility comes great complexity. It
17:25can be intimidating when you first open
17:26up that settings menu and see all the
17:28different options that you have. In this
17:30video, I'm going to explain what each of
17:31the settings do so you can be confident
17:34in setting up Obsidian just the way you
17:35want. To open up the settings in
17:37Obsidian, you go down to this little
17:39gear icon in the bottom left.
17:42The first settings you're going to see
17:43are just the general settings, version
17:45numbers, uh allow automatic updates,
17:48change the language, go to the help
17:50menu. Obsidian is free, but they also
17:52offer some paid services that you can
17:54create an account for down here at the
17:57bottom. The next tab we come to is the
17:59editor settings. This setting will make
18:00it so that anytime you open up a new
18:02tab, it will focus on that new tab. The
18:04default view for the new tabs is editing
18:07view. You can also make it so that it's
18:09just a reading view so you can't edit
18:10it. I like to have be able to edit right
18:12away. Default editing mode is live
18:14preview. So, what this does is when you
18:18are editing a file, it will show you
18:20what that Markdown syntax will look like
18:23when it's rendered. So, right now I
18:25click on this, it shows up this little
18:26hashtag. This hashtag is what you do for
18:30a heading. So, if you go back into the
18:32settings and we say we want it to be
18:35source mode, it will show that Markdown
18:37syntax all the time. Showing the editing
18:41mode in the status bar, it will show
18:43what the editing mode is, this little
18:45icon at the bottom. You can have a
18:47readable line length, so this will wrap
18:49the text. If I turn this off and then I
18:51write something really long,
18:57it'll go right to the edge of the
18:58screen.
19:00If I turn it on, it gives me a little
19:02bit extra space. The strict line break
19:04setting, really not sure what this is
19:06meant to do. I haven't noticed any
19:08difference in the reading view when I
19:11have this on or off. Properties are a
19:13way of adding metadata to your files, to
19:15your notes, and this allows you to be
19:17able to make them visible, hidden, or
19:19show the source view. Let me really
19:22quickly show you what properties look
19:23like. So, if I at the top of this, I do
19:26these three dashes, it brings up
19:28properties, and I can add different
19:31metadata to the notes. So, let's say
19:34we're adding a
19:36tag of productivity to this. The
19:38settings, I can
19:41make this hidden, so now you no longer
19:43see the properties at the top. I can
19:45also make these source, so you'll see
19:48the source code for those properties.
19:50This is what it looks like just in the
19:53markdown. Fold heading makes it so that
19:55you can collapse things underneath
19:57headings. So, going back to our markdown
19:59cheat sheet, you get these little arrows
20:01next to it the left-hand side. You can
20:04toggle these
20:05to collapse everything underneath those
20:07headings. Fold indent does the same
20:10thing as headings, but for things like
20:12bullets.
20:13So, this bullet has a nested item, so I
20:15can collapse that bullet list. Show line
20:18number will show the line number in the
20:21left-hand side, so you know what line
20:23number you're on. Indentation guides
20:25will give you a little line next to the
20:28indentation. So, for instance, you can
20:30see here, this is a nested item. The
20:32indentation guide is this little line
20:34here that shows there is an indent.
20:36Right to left will change the text going
20:39from right to left. Spell check will
20:41turn on the spell checker for you. This
20:43is really useful if you tend to misspell
20:45words. You can auto pair brackets and
20:49markdown syntax. So, for instance, if I
20:51want to type a quote, I just type the
20:54first quote and it'll automatically end
20:55it. So, now I have quotes here.
20:59The brackets as well.
21:01Here. So, they'll automatically pair so
21:04that you don't have to worry about
21:05ending the brackets. Smart indent list
21:07will automatically indent based on the
21:10previous line's indentation. So, if I
21:12wanted to add another item to this
21:14nested list, I could hit enter here and
21:17it will indent the same as the line
21:19above. Indent using tabs. So, tabs and
21:23spaces are technically different. And if
21:26you want to be able to have your tabs be
21:29the actual tabs instead of spaces, this
21:31is what this setting is for.
21:33So, when you have this on, a tab
21:37when I tab over, it will count it as if
21:40it's just like one character. So, I can
21:42jump between the beginning of that tab
21:45and the end of the tab. When you have
21:47that off, the tabs when you tab over
21:50will be individual spaces. So, I can
21:53move through those individual spaces.
21:55And you can change the number of spaces
21:58that the indent that the tab will give
22:00you. You can have it auto convert HTML.
22:02So, when you're copying something from a
22:03web page, it will automatically, when
22:05you paste it in, it'll automatically
22:07update it to markdown. If you are a
22:10programmer and you like to program using
22:13Vim on your command line, you can have
22:14Vim commands, Vim key bindings, turn
22:17those on here. Moving on to files and
22:19links, you can uh confirm whether or not
22:22you want to delete a file when you're
22:23deleting it. You can have it s- delete
22:26those files, move them to your system
22:28trash,
22:29or in Obsidian a specific Obsidian
22:31trash, or you can permanently delete
22:33them.
22:34When you are updating note titles, this
22:38setting will automatically update any
22:40links that you have to those notes. You
22:42can specify where you want your default
22:44location of your notes to be.
22:46Uh you can have this just be your vault
22:48folder, or you can specify a specific
22:51folder, or you can have it as the same
22:53folder of whatever file you're currently
22:55working in. Uh this talks about I
22:58creating paths between notes when you're
23:00creating links between things. Uh I
23:03usually like to stick with the shortest
23:04path possible, but you can also make it
23:05so that it's relative to the file. So,
23:08like if you have a file in one folder
23:10and you're linking to another folder,
23:11the path will be the full path up to the
23:15top level that they're at and then over
23:18and down, or you can have it be absolute
23:21path based on the vault. So, it'll start
23:23from the vault level and go down. So,
23:25the shortest path when possible will
23:27pick between those options which one is
23:29the shorter path. You can change how you
23:31want your backlinks to be formatted. Use
23:34wiki links, it'll be the double
23:35brackets. If you turn this off, you use
23:37the same markdown syntax you use for
23:40regular for external links.
23:43An external link
23:45looks like this where you have single
23:46brackets and then parentheses to where
23:49that link will take you. You can make it
23:50so that it will show any files in the
23:53file system, even if Obsidian can't
23:56bring that file up, you can still see it
23:59within Obsidian. You can specify where
24:01you want things like images, PDFs, you
24:04can specify where you want those to be
24:06saved. Here you can exclude certain
24:08files from showing up in like your
24:10search results or your graph view. For
24:12me, I have a bunch of different
24:14templates that I use and I don't want
24:16those to show up in my search because
24:18they're just templates. So, you can go
24:20in and you can add a whole folder. So,
24:22in my case, it'd be / uh
24:26templates, and then you can have
24:28anything within the templates folder
24:30will not show up in your search results.
24:32You can choose a different folder for
24:35your configs to go into. Appearance
24:37allows you to be able to change the look
24:38and feel of your vault. And this is nice
24:41cuz all of these settings, by the way,
24:43are specific to the vault that you're
24:46working in. So, if you have multiple
24:47vaults, you can have different looks,
24:49different settings, depending on what
24:51you're using that vault for. So, here's
24:53where you can change from light to dark
24:56mode. And you can change what the accent
24:58color looks like. So, if I wanted to
25:01have this be blue instead of this orange
25:04color that I've chosen,
25:06I can go in and kind of maybe like this
25:09lighter blue color.
25:11And now that accent color appears here.
25:15I'm going to go back to
25:17this orange that I had, like orange. You
25:19can do different themes for your vault.
25:22Right now, I have a theme based on my
25:24favorite task management app called
25:26Things. So, if I click here in manage,
25:29you can search for different themes that
25:31community members have created and made
25:35available here. You can show dark themes
25:36only if that's what you have selected.
25:38When you have light theme selected, you
25:41can make it so it'll only show light
25:43themes if that's what you're looking
25:44for.
25:45If you want a new theme, you can just
25:47click on it, install and use. I'm going
25:49to stick to the one I've got right now.
25:52You can check for updates on your
25:53themes. So, if the creator has added
25:56anything new, you can update the theme
25:58and get those new features. You can
26:00change your font for the interface and
26:02also the text. When you do a code block,
26:05you can change what the font is for
26:06that. You can change what your font size
26:08is. There's a setting that allows you to
26:10be able to like quickly change the font
26:12with like the zoom wheel on your mouse.
26:14These are things like being able to show
26:15the title in the file. So, if I turn
26:17this off, you'll see the file name is no
26:21longer showing up as if it were like a
26:22heading in the file. Turn back that on,
26:25you'll now see it's here and I can edit
26:26it. You can turn it off in the title
26:28bar. So, if you didn't want that like
26:29smaller version of it there that shows
26:31you the path of where this is located,
26:33you can turn that off. You can show or
26:35hide the ribbon that is on the side. So,
26:37the left-hand side, we've got that
26:39ribbon. As you can see, it just
26:40disappeared when I turned that off. You
26:43can configure what icons show in that
26:46ribbon. So, each of these will take you
26:48to a different place in your vault.
26:51Different plugins will show up here. You
26:53can manage what shows up in that ribbon
26:55with this manage button here. So, this
26:57will control the zoom level. I have it
26:59zoomed in pretty far so that you can see
27:01it. As you can see, you can zoom way
27:03out, make things really tiny. The window
27:05frame style, I played around with this.
27:07I have no idea what it does. It doesn't
27:09seem to change anything when I do it.
27:11So, you can change the icon of the app.
27:14If you don't like the normal standard
27:16default icon, you can change it here.
27:18You can have a translucent window. This
27:20will make it so that anything behind
27:21Obsidian will show through in certain
27:24parts of the interface. This setting
27:26allows you to turn on and off hardware
27:27acceleration. If you turn it off, it
27:30could affect your performance. So,
27:32I recommend just keeping it on. CSS
27:35snippets, you can actually, if you are
27:37tech-savvy and you want to make some
27:39tweaks to the CSS of your Obsidian
27:41vault, you can do that. You can add
27:43snippets. I'm not going to go into the
27:46details of that in this video, but that
27:48is an option if you know CSS and you
27:51want to make some tweaks. Hotkeys allow
27:52you to be able to set keyboard shortcuts
27:54to different things. So, I always like
27:57having a shortcut for my templates. So,
27:59I set this keyboard shortcut for
28:02inserting template. You can create
28:04keyboard shortcuts for just about
28:05everything.
28:06And you do that by just clicking that
28:08plus button, and then the hotkey. So,
28:11command T.
28:13It'll tell you if something conflicts. I
28:15already have something with command T,
28:16so I can't use that. Core plugins. So,
28:19Obsidian is based on plugins, this idea
28:22of being able to extend your vault the
28:24way that you want to extend it. We've
28:26got core plugins and community plugins.
28:28Community plugins are ones plugins that
28:30people have built to extend the
28:32functionality of Obsidian, things that
28:34are not built into Obsidian already.
28:37I'll be covering community plugins in
28:38the future as I talk about the community
28:41plugins that I use. But the core
28:43plugins, you can turn them on and off
28:45here. Uh each of these, well, not each
28:48of these, but a lot of these will have
28:50their own settings menu. Once again, I'm
28:52not going to go into settings of
28:54specific plugins right now. I will go
28:57into those when I talk about those
28:58plugins in future videos. But you can
29:00turn things on and off in here.
29:03Uh things like if you don't want to use
29:05backlinks, you can turn those off. If
29:06you don't want to use bookmarks, turn
29:08them off. If you don't want to use
29:09canvas, you get the idea. As the notes
29:12inside your Obsidian vault continue to
29:14grow, it can start to become difficult
29:17to find those notes again. Obsidian
29:19offers several ways for you to organize
29:21your notes. So, those important things
29:24that you want to remember can surface at
29:26the right time. The first organization
29:28method is one that I think most of us
29:30are pretty familiar with, and that's
29:31folders. To create a new folder, you
29:34just go over to the sidebar here in this
29:35little button on the top, new folder.
29:38Click new folder, and then give your
29:39folder a name.
29:43While being most familiar to me, folders
29:46are probably one of the harder
29:47organization methods for me to use. They
29:50create a lot of cognitive friction.
29:53For instance, if I have another folder
29:55called pop culture, I've got these notes
29:58here. These are productivity and pop
30:01culture related. So, what folder do I
30:04put them in? When I have a folder
30:06structure like this, I end up spending
30:07way too much time trying to figure out
30:09where the note should go, and they end
30:11up not creating any notes as a result
30:14because there's just it's there's too
30:15much cognitive friction. I experimented
30:17with just having all of my notes at the
30:19vault folder level. As my notes grew,
30:22however, I started to feel that stress
30:24of not being able to find anything, and
30:26everything's all just in one spot.
30:29So, I did create a simple folder
30:31structure to help organize things a
30:33little bit, but makes it easy for me to
30:36know where to put things. So, now I
30:39create a folder for the year. Let's get
30:42rid of this productivity one.
30:44I create a folder for the year, and then
30:46in my settings, I specify that I want my
30:48new files to go into that year folder.
30:52I also inside of this folder create
30:56another folder. Do that by
30:57right-clicking and hitting new folder. I
31:00create a folder for the year for the
31:02extras. So, things like images and PDFs,
31:05those attachments that I put onto my
31:08notes, they all go into the year_extras.
31:11And then in my settings, I go in once
31:14again to files and links,
31:15and I specify that I want my attachments
31:18to go into that folder. When a new year
31:21begins, so when 2025 comes around, I'll
31:24create a 2025 folder and redo these
31:26settings. I have to do it manually,
31:28however, I only have to do it once a
31:30year. Then I can go, and I can take all
31:32of these, select all of these, and I can
31:35put them inside of the 2024 folder, and
31:39I can collapse that down. A couple other
31:41folders that I like to have,
31:43I have specific templates, and I'll be
31:47going over how templates work in a
31:49future video, but I like to have a
31:51folder for templates, and then I can put
31:54any reusable templates that I create I
31:58can put inside that templates folder.
32:00There are also utility files that I
32:03sometimes create that are not specific
32:06to a year. They are things that I use
32:08all the time. So, I create a folder for
32:10those, and I do
32:13_utilities.
32:15The reason I add an underscore is cuz
32:16then it puts those folders at the top of
32:19my vault, and I can find them more
32:20easily. Inside of utilities, I would put
32:23things like this markdown cheat sheet,
32:25something that I'm using all the time,
32:27and I don't want to be buried inside of
32:29a year folder. So, I'll go ahead and
32:31drag that into my utilities. The next
32:34organization method is another one
32:36that's pretty familiar at this point,
32:37and that's tags.
32:39To create a tag for something, I can
32:41just go into it. I type a hash, and it
32:44comes up with a list of all the tags
32:45that I've already created. I've already
32:47created a productivity and utility tag
32:49inside this vault.
32:50I'm going to create a new one called pop
32:53culture.
32:54That's the nice thing about tags is that
32:56you can add as many of them to a file as
32:58you want. So, for instance, this fits
33:01under those categories of productivity
33:04and pop culture. So, I can add both of
33:06those tags, and they'll show up in both
33:08of those categories. To see all the tags
33:11you have inside your vault, you just
33:12click on this sidebar here, and you go
33:15to this tags icon, and now I can see all
33:19the tags that I've created inside of my
33:20vault and how many notes have that tag.
33:23So, let's go over to this productivity
33:25lessons. Let's add a pop culture, and
33:28let's add the productivity as well. So,
33:30now I've got two notes that have pop
33:32culture, two notes with productivity,
33:34one with utility. I can click on this,
33:36and it will give me a list of all of
33:38those notes that have that tag. The next
33:40organization method is backlinks. Now, I
33:42covered backlinks in the first video of
33:45this series. So, if you want to learn
33:46more about backlinks, go ahead and check
33:48that video out. The next organization
33:50method after backlinks is properties.
33:52Now, I've created some properties at a
33:53couple of these notes. Let's go back to
33:55this Star Trek one. Properties are these
33:58things up at the top. So, this is like
34:00metadata that you can add to your notes.
34:03This is actually where I like to put my
34:05tags. I create a tag property, and then
34:07I put all the tags for the file inside
34:10of that. So, let me show you how you
34:11create properties.
34:13So, I'm going to hit enter a couple of
34:15times, and then you just add three
34:17dashes to the top of the file. Dash,
34:20dash, dash.
34:21This will create properties. Just like
34:23tags, it'll come up with a list of all
34:25the properties that you've used inside
34:27your vault. So, I can just quickly hit
34:29tags, and then because it knows that
34:31this is tags, it gives me a list of all
34:33the tags that I have used in my vault.
34:36So, I can add pop culture and
34:37productivity up here in the metadata.
34:40Then I can delete them from down here.
34:42There are different types of properties
34:44that you can create. I can hit this add
34:46property, and let's say I want to keep
34:48track of when this note was created,
34:50what day. So, I hit created, and then I
34:53can click on this little icon to the
34:54left, and I can say property type, and I
34:57can have it be lit text, list, number,
34:59checkbox, date. I'm going to do date,
35:02and then I'm going to click on this
35:03calendar icon, and I can click today.
35:05So, now I'm keeping track of when this
35:07note was created. If you decide you no
35:09longer want a property, you can click on
35:12that icon again, and you can hit remove,
35:14or you can cut, copy, paste it to
35:16somewhere else. Something I forgot to
35:18talk about with tags, you can actually
35:20nest tags underneath each other. So, for
35:23instance, if I wanted to have multiple
35:25categories of productivity, I could say
35:28productivity/digital.
35:31Here, now we can see on the sidebar that
35:33there is a digital tag nested underneath
35:36productivity. So, if you wanted to have
35:38nested tags, you can do that by just
35:40putting a slash in the tag. The next
35:42organization method is bookmarks. You
35:44can access that by going over to the
35:46left and clicking on this bookmark icon.
35:50See, I don't have any bookmarks yet.
35:51Let's change that. I want to create a
35:53bookmark for this markdown cheat sheet,
35:55something that I reference a lot. So,
35:57I'm going to click on it,
35:59and then I'm going to go over to my
36:00bookmarks menu again,
36:02and I'm going to click the bookmark the
36:05active tab button. This gives you just a
36:07couple options. If I wanted to name it
36:10something other than the file name, I
36:11could put that title in here. I'm just
36:13going to keep it markdown cheat sheet.
36:15And then you can create bookmark groups,
36:17and I'll show that in just a second. So,
36:19we're going to hit save.
36:21And now I have a bookmark to this file.
36:24So, let's go to a different file. Let's
36:26go back to our another note, and I want
36:28to get back to my markdown cheat sheet.
36:30I click on my bookmarks. I click it. I'm
36:33now there. If I have multiple bookmarks
36:36that are kind of of the same category,
36:38so let's say I wanted to create a group
36:41of utilities that I use on a regular
36:43basis. So, let's go back and create
36:45another bookmark.
36:47So, let's just take this another note,
36:50and I'm going to create a bookmark for
36:52it.
36:54Now that I have two bookmarks, I can hit
36:56this folder icon. This will create a new
36:58group, and I'm going to call it
37:00utilities. And then I can just drag
37:02these in,
37:04just like you would notes. And now I
37:07have a group of bookmarks called
37:09utilities. So, we've got all these
37:11different organization methods, and you
37:13can group your notes in different ways.
37:15But what if you still can't find what
37:17you're looking for? That's where another
37:19familiar tool to us comes in, the
37:21search. You get to the search by
37:23clicking on the magnifying glass at the
37:24top.
37:26And you see, we already conducted a
37:27search by clicking on the productivity
37:30tag earlier. You can search for anything
37:33that you want inside of your vault. So,
37:35let's say I want to find references to
37:37Star Trek.
37:39So, I search for that, and that gives me
37:41these different results. There are
37:42different properties to the search
37:44panel. You can collapse the results.
37:46These are open by default, but if you
37:48want those to be collapsed, you can. You
37:50can actually hit show more context, and
37:52you can have it also explain the search
37:55terms. So, this is showing anything that
37:58matches the word star, and anything that
38:00word matches the word trek. Let's If I
38:03put quotes around this,
38:06then it will find the exact text Star
38:09Trek instead of just the word star or
38:11trek. Let's say I do this search often.
38:14I'm often looking for the words Star
38:17Trek. What's nice is that I can go down
38:19here and click on these little three
38:22dots under the two results. I can create
38:25a bookmark to this search, and now this
38:29will be saved as a bookmark. I hit save.
38:32I can go over to bookmark, and that
38:34search is now saved. So, if you're
38:36finding you're searching for something a
38:38lot, save it as a bookmark, and then you
38:40can find all those files at a later
38:42time. So, no matter how you organize
38:44your vault, there's always the search
38:46tool to be able to help you find what
38:48you're looking for. If all these
38:49different organization methods are a bit
38:51overwhelming to you, and you're
38:52wondering how to get started organizing
38:54your notes, just keep these things in
38:56mind. Do you like strict structure and
38:59hierarchy? Then use folders. Do you like
39:01being able to categorize your notes in a
39:03bunch of different ways? Use tags. Do
39:06you like seeing the connections between
39:08ideas? Use backlinks. Do you want to
39:11have a sort of table of contents or an
39:14index that you can reference? Well, then
39:17use bookmarks. And just remember at the
39:18end of the day, if you can't find what
39:20you're looking for, just use the search.
39:22My suggestion is allow the organization
39:25of your vault to grow over time. Conduct
39:28small experiments with each of these
39:30methods, and see what works. Eventually,
39:32as you experiment and test these things
39:34out, the structure of your vault will
39:37emerge organically. The graph view
39:39inside of Obsidian is a visualization
39:42tool that shows you all the connections
39:44that you've made between your notes. It
39:45was something that actually attracted me
39:47to Obsidian. I loved the idea of being
39:49able to see the network of information
39:52that I had curated. However, is this
39:54tool actually useful? Or is it all just
39:57a big gimmick? To get to the graph view
39:59inside of your Obsidian vault, you just
40:01go over to the ribbon on the left-hand
40:03side and you click this little graph
40:05icon. Now I can see all the notes that
40:08have been created inside my vault and
40:10the connections between them. I don't
40:12have a lot of notes in this Obsidian for
40:13beginners vault, so there's not a lot to
40:15see here, but you can see these lines
40:19that are going between the different
40:20notes, so you can see these connections.
40:22And maybe with this vault being so
40:24small, you can see the triangulation of
40:28of notes, of ideas. And maybe you can
40:30see how things may not be related
40:32directly, but but through the triangle
40:34you can kind of see how markdown cheat
40:37sheet might relate to another note in
40:39some way. However, as the notes inside
40:42of your vault grow, this diagram becomes
40:45bigger and more difficult to discern.
40:48Just to give you an idea what it could
40:49look like when you have a lot of notes,
40:51I'm going to open up my personal vault.
40:53And we can see the graph view that I've
40:55got going in my personal vault. As you
40:57can see, I've got a lot of stuff going
40:59on here. And as we zoom in, you start to
41:01see all the titles of everything start
41:04to come into focus. It's difficult to
41:08figure out what it is that I'm even at.
41:11Now, the nice thing is there are ways
41:13that you can filter these things down.
41:16So, in order to do that, you can go and
41:17click on this gear icon in the in the
41:19right-hand side. And we've got all these
41:21different options for filtering.
41:24So, right now I've got tags turned on,
41:25so
41:27you can see these different tags. There
41:30are these uh yellow nodes. See how
41:33things are being connected with those
41:35tags. So, that might be a useful thing.
41:38I can turn those off. And that basically
41:40takes away one level of connections that
41:43I've got. I can also turn off
41:44attachments, so if I don't want to see
41:47the images that are attached to files, I
41:49can turn those off. I can also make it
41:51so that it'll show existing files only.
41:53I have that on right now. If I turn that
41:55off, what that will do is if there's any
41:57backlinks that I've created to notes
41:59that don't exist yet, those will show
42:01up. So, I'm actually going to keep that
42:02on cuz that actually helps to filter
42:04things down. Also, you can turn orphans
42:07off. So, if there are things that have
42:09no connection to other notes, you can
42:10turn those off and that once again
42:12narrows things down. I can also filter
42:15things uh using different queries. The
42:17same queries that you can use in the
42:18search, I can use them here. So, let's
42:21say I want to search for things that
42:22have productivity in them. So, that
42:24helps me to narrow it down if I if
42:26there's a certain topic that I want to
42:28kind of narrow in on. That does make it
42:31easier to be able to start to look at
42:33these and see, "Oh, okay. I'm starting
42:35to see the connections between things."
42:37As you can see, I've got a group set up
42:40here. Uh anything with the tag
42:42sketchnote will be in this yellow color.
42:46So, let's say uh let's turn tags back
42:48on. So, anything with the sketchnote tag
42:52is going to have is going to be colored
42:54this yellow color. And I can change the
42:56color of these groups. So, let's say I
42:59wanted it to be blue instead.
43:04So, now everything that is tagged with
43:07sketchnote, as you can see, they're all
43:09blue. And I can create different groups
43:11for things. So, let's say I did want to
43:13group anything that said had the word
43:16productivity, and I want to make these
43:19orangey color. So, now as I can see,
43:22"Oh, okay. So, these are orange." So, I
43:24can see those contain the word
43:27productivity.
43:28So, there are ways to narrow things
43:30down, to group things, make it easier to
43:33see. Let's go and look at some of the
43:36other display options. I can turn arrows
43:38on, so this will show the direction of
43:42the of the connections. So, for
43:44instance, this Friday note, it points to
43:48this analog digital tool workflow. It
43:51points to it, but it doesn't point back.
43:53And I can see that with these little
43:55arrows. I can make the nodes bigger if I
43:57wanted to. You can change the line
43:59thickness. So, if you want those lines
44:02to be really really visible, you can
44:04turn it all the way up. If you want to
44:05see uh the the evolution of your vault,
44:09you can click this animate button. And
44:11now it'll actually animate the creation
44:14of all the notes that you have in your
44:16vault. Here I can change kind of how the
44:18forces work as I'm dragging things
44:20around, so I can kind of drag these and
44:23you can see
44:24that as I get smaller, the the center
44:28force of gravity, I guess, gets less.
44:31And so now things are more spread out.
44:33So, you can kind of play with those and
44:36it will give you a different spread of
44:38nodes by changing those values. If I
44:41want to reset everything that I've done,
44:42I just click this restore default
44:44settings button up here at the top. And
44:46now everything is back to the way it was
44:49when I initially opened the graph. So,
44:51is this a useful tool? I haven't really
44:53answered that question. The thing is is
44:55for me, it's not really that useful.
44:58I mostly have used it to find orphan
45:02notes. If there are things that don't
45:04have connections to other notes, I want
45:06to see those because I feel like if
45:10there's nothing that that note connects
45:12to, I start to question, is it really
45:14worth keeping that note? I don't want to
45:17have notes that are just kind of
45:19floating by themselves, that don't
45:21really have any use. I think a good
45:23gauge of how useful a note is is if it's
45:26connecting to other ideas. Now, just
45:28because I haven't found a lot of use out
45:30of the graph, doesn't mean that you
45:32won't. So, I encourage you to experiment
45:34with this. Play around with the settings
45:36and the filters. See if there are ways
45:38that you can see connections between
45:40ideas that you didn't see before. And if
45:42you do come up with cool ways to be able
45:44to use the graph, please add them in the
45:46comments below. I'd love to be able to
45:48figure out a way to use this tool better
45:50myself. Obsidian Canvas brings the
45:53flexibility of mind mapping tools to
45:55your Obsidian vault, but it is so much
45:58more than just a simple mind mapping
46:00tool. In this video, we'll be taking a
46:02look at the amazing out-of-the-box
46:04features that Canvas provides. And then
46:07we'll look at some fun ways to use this
46:10tool for mind mapping and beyond. A
46:13canvas is a special type of note inside
46:15your Obsidian vault, so we can't create
46:17it the way that we do normal notes. We
46:19have to go over to this ribbon on the
46:21side and we have this little button that
46:24has a bunch of boxes on it, and that's
46:26the create new canvas button. So, go
46:28ahead and click that. And we get a brand
46:30new canvas inside of our vault. This is
46:34a infinite uh a canvas. It allows us to
46:37be able to
46:38put as many ideas, thoughts, and notes
46:41in any configuration that we want.
46:43There are a few different types of cards
46:46that we can add to a canvas. The first
46:48is just a normal card. You just drag
46:50that up from the bottom and that gives
46:52you a card to start with. So, we're
46:55going to have a central idea inside of
46:58our canvas.
47:00These cards are local to this canvas.
47:04They are not notes within your vault.
47:07They live on this canvas only. And you
47:10can resize them and drag them around as
47:14much as you want.
47:15And what's great about these is that
47:17they, even though they are not separate
47:19notes of their own, you can use all the
47:23different markdown that you can in
47:26normal notes. So, if I wanted to make
47:28this central idea larger, make it a
47:30header, I can add this hashtag and a
47:33space, and now I have an H1 header. So,
47:36as I was mentioning, these cards are
47:38local to this canvas. What if you wanted
47:41to include some notes from your vault?
47:45So, I'm just going to zoom out a little
47:47bit here. You can hold down the command
47:51button and scroll on Mac to zoom out. I
47:55think it's control on Windows. And then
47:57if I wanted to
47:58drag this middle icon up, and then it
48:01gives me the option to add in any note
48:04from my vault. So, let's do my first
48:07note.
48:08So, this is now a link to my actual note
48:11that exists. If I go up to the title and
48:13double-click on it, it actually goes to
48:16that note.
48:18I'm going to go back to the canvas. So,
48:20this third type is a media card, so I'm
48:22going to drag that up.
48:24And right now I've only got one image
48:26inside of this vault, so we're going to
48:27add that. So, I click on it, and then I
48:29have that image in my canvas to be able
48:32to use.
48:34So, these are the three different types
48:35of cards that you're going to be using
48:37inside of a canvas. Hey guys, Future
48:40Brendan here. I completely forgot to
48:42tell you about a fourth kind of card
48:44that you can use inside of canvas. You
48:46can embed web pages directly inside your
48:48canvas. Perhaps there's an article that
48:50you want to reference inside of your
48:51mind map. Just copy the URL,
48:54right-click anywhere in the canvas,
48:56and hit insert web page.
48:58You can also just select a URL and drag
49:01and drop.
49:03All right, let's get back to the video.
49:05Now, what can you do with these cards?
49:07Right now, they're just kind of floating
49:08around on this canvas. You can grab this
49:12little dot on the side of a card, and
49:15you can drag it over to another one, and
49:17that now makes a connection between
49:20these two cards. And I can move this
49:22card around and that connection will be
49:24maintained. So, let's go ahead and
49:26grab that.
49:28Now, I want this central idea to be in
49:31the center, so let's go ahead and move
49:33these things around. I can click on this
49:35connection, delete it, click on this
49:37one, delete it. I want this central idea
49:40uh to be in the center.
49:42So, we're going to
49:43move that into the center, and then I'm
49:45going to drag these connections over.
49:47And now, this is the central idea, and
49:50it branches out into these other two
49:52cards. You can do a different couple
49:54different things with these connections.
49:55So, let's go ahead and click on one
49:56again.
49:57Uh you can obviously I can delete the
49:59connections and I can change the color
50:02of what they look like. So, let's say I
50:03want this connection to be orange. I can
50:05do that.
50:07You can either use their presets, or you
50:09can choose any color from this color
50:11spectrum. You can zoom in to that
50:13selection. So, you can actually do this
50:16with not only connections, but with
50:17cards. So, if I click on this and I
50:19click on that zoom, I can zoom in and
50:21focus on that particular item. So, let's
50:24zoom back out here. Let's go back to
50:26this connection here. If you click on
50:28this arrow, you can change what the
50:30direction of this line is. So, if I
50:32don't want an arrow, I click on the
50:34non-directional, and that just creates a
50:36line between them. Uh if I go back in
50:39here, I could say unidirectional, so
50:41it's just going one direction, and that
50:43will be the direction
50:44from the one that you dragged it from.
50:47And then I have I can have a
50:48bidirectional connection that will have
50:49an arrow on both end. I can then also
50:53can click this button and add a label to
50:55this connection. We'll just say first
50:58connection as a label for now.
51:00And then, that label will stay with that
51:02connector. So, let's say I have a bunch
51:04of cards. Let's go ahead and throw a
51:06bunch of cards on here. So, here's one.
51:09Here's a card. And then, we'll grab
51:11another one. We'll say, here's another
51:14card. And
51:17third card. Yeah.
51:19Very deep thoughts I'm thinking here
51:21right now.
51:22So, I've got these notes here, and let's
51:24say that they relate to each other, and
51:26I kind of want them to stay together.
51:30You can group different cards together
51:34just by clicking outside of a card,
51:36clicking and dragging them. And then,
51:38you've got a few options here. You can
51:40change the colors of them. You can
51:41delete them, zoom in on them. But then,
51:43you can also create a group. So, I'm
51:46going to click on this, and now these
51:48are grouped together.
51:50Uh card group. And so, I can click this
51:54title and I can drag around, and then
51:55all of these cards come with it.
51:58And I can create connections between
52:00cards and groups, or I can use this
52:04connection to go in and connect to any
52:06of these individually inside. What's
52:08also cool about groups is you can resize
52:11them. You can basically remove things
52:14from a group by resizing this, and these
52:16are now outside of that group. And then,
52:18I can resize it again and include that.
52:20Maybe I wanted this one up here to be
52:22part of the group as well, so I can
52:25take this group and drag it in.
52:29And now, this is part of the group as
52:30well. Another cool thing that you can do
52:32with groups, when I click on this, you
52:34can align things inside of them. So,
52:37let's say I want everything aligned in
52:38the center of those groups. Now, the
52:41other thing I wanted to talk about with
52:42groups, well, first you can change the
52:45label, you can zoom in, all those
52:46things. But you can also set a
52:48background image for a group. So, if I
52:51hit set background, we're going to use
52:52that same background. Now, this
52:54background is on this group. I'll show
52:57you a cool way that we can use this
52:59background image feature uh a little
53:01later in the video. So, I keep talking
53:03about how amazing this tool is. And so
53:04far, all I've shown you is, you know,
53:06the basics of a mind mapping tool that
53:09pretty much any any mind mapping tool
53:11can do this. So, what is it that makes
53:14Obsidian so special? Well, one thing
53:16that I've already mentioned is the fact
53:18that I can connect notes from my vault,
53:21notes that I've already made. So, maybe
53:23I have uh atomic notes, which is a
53:26concept of having a single idea inside
53:29of a note. Uh maybe I have a bunch of
53:31those, and I want to be able to use them
53:32in here. Now, it it's different than
53:35back linking, which makes a direct link
53:37between those notes, and I can click on
53:39those links. These connections are local
53:41to this canvas.
53:43And I can arrange those notes in a
53:44different way than maybe the back links
53:46are giving me. And I think that's the
53:48thing that really makes this tool better
53:51than any other is because it utilizes
53:53your existing vault of notes and
53:56knowledge. And you can use them in a
53:58bunch of different ways. Different
54:01connections that can be made in a canvas
54:04file than through the back links. In a
54:06lot of mind mapping tools, you have to
54:09connect different nodes. What's great
54:11about Obsidian Canvas is that you don't
54:13have to do that. I can have this free
54:15floating card out here, and I don't have
54:18to make connection. Maybe there's
54:19something that doesn't quite connect in
54:21with things. Maybe I just want to have
54:23this free floating card here. I can do
54:25that. I have that freedom and
54:27flexibility. So, let's switch over to my
54:29personal vault, and I will show you how
54:32I am using Canvas beyond just mind
54:36mapping. What you're looking at here is
54:38a dashboard that I have created for my
54:41YouTube channel to be able to track the
54:43ideas that I have and how I'm moving
54:46them through my production pipeline. So,
54:48I have this pipeline group up at the
54:50top, and this is showing me the status
54:52of the different videos that I have. So,
54:54let's zoom in here and take a look at
54:55what these are. I've got a an ideas
54:59column. These are a bunch of notes that
55:01I have created with ideas for my YouTube
55:04channel. Now, if you click on this, and
55:06we click on it again, I can go in here,
55:08and what I'm using is I'm actually using
55:10a community plugin called DataView that
55:13goes and grabs all of the notes that
55:17meet certain criteria. I will not be
55:18going over the DataView plugin in this,
55:22but the DataView plugin combined with
55:24Canvas is really powerful for creating
55:26kind of these dashboards setups. Now,
55:29I've got different stages that my that
55:32my ideas for YouTube go through. I've
55:34got things that are coming up, ones that
55:36I'm working on this month, and then I
55:38have a list of all the ones that have
55:39been published. And so, I can see them
55:42move through the pipeline. Got another
55:44few things that I've got here. I've got
55:46some ideas for some community posts that
55:48I've got. This is an actual note. So, if
55:50I wanted to drill down into this one, I
55:52could click it and see just that note. I
55:55also have my template for my YouTube
55:57videos here. So, if I am in this
56:00dashboard and I have an idea of
56:01something that I want to add or take
56:04away from my YouTube template, I can
56:07just do it right here because it's
56:09linked. Any changes that I make to this
56:12note will happen in the actual template
56:15file itself. So, if I say,
56:19I want this
56:21to be part of my template. So, I'm going
56:24to zoom
56:25Sorry. I'm a bit zoomed out.
56:28I want this to be part of my template.
56:30So, I just added that here in this
56:32canvas. If I go up and I double-click on
56:36this and open it up, this template now
56:38has that in it. Now, I don't want that
56:41in there. So, I'm going to delete it,
56:42and then I'm going to go back to my
56:44canvas. As you can see, it's deleted.
56:46Another note that I've connected here,
56:48I'm keeping track of how many videos I
56:51have done. Another thing that I'm using
56:53Canvas for is I am keeping track of all
56:56of the notes, thoughts, ideas,
56:59documentation around the gamified task
57:01manager app that I'm building. Here is
57:04kind of more of a free-for-all
57:06as far as notes go. I just have all
57:09these different cards here. Um I've got
57:12some images,
57:14uh things that I'm working with. I've
57:16got a bunch of links to different
57:17resources that I've got here. These
57:20research ones, a lot of these are notes
57:23that I can link, and these are just
57:25cards
57:27that have back links in them, just like
57:29any other note would.
57:30And they live inside of this canvas. And
57:32you can see here, I have created a group
57:36for this game design doc that I actually
57:38sketched out by hand. I created a group,
57:40and I put that sketch as a background on
57:44this group. And then, I was creating
57:46cards that helped me to kind of continue
57:50to work with this image that, you know,
57:52is done. It's exported. It can't be
57:55changed. But then, I have cards on top
57:57of it that allow me to add in additional
58:00information. So, I've got this note
58:02about character customization. And so, I
58:05link it to this note here
58:08on pixel art character style ideas.
58:11Here's another canvas that I have. It's
58:12kind of a mood board kind of idea. And
58:15I've got all these different pixel art
58:17characters that I'm thinking about how
58:20to design my character. So, here's a
58:22bunch of examples of of different
58:24characters. And then, I've got some
58:25different notes that are, you know,
58:27expand on these notes that I've written
58:29out. I didn't have an idea of the story
58:32yet when I first wrote this
58:35this handwritten note. So, I've added
58:37that in as a card here. And because it's
58:39a group, I can grab this and move it
58:41around, and all the cards stay in place.
58:44Templates in Obsidian are powerful. And
58:47in this video, I'll not only be showing
58:49you how to use the template system, but
58:51also sharing some tips and tricks on how
58:54to make your use of templates as easy
58:56and efficient as possible. The first
58:59thing you need to do to use templates is
59:01you need a folder for those templates to
59:03live in. So, we're going to create a
59:05templates folder. I'm going to come over
59:08here and create a new folder.
59:11And we're going to call this underscore
59:13templates.
59:14Now, the reason why I put an underscore
59:16in the front of it is so that it will go
59:18up to the top of our list, so that we
59:21can always find our templates folder.
59:23The next thing you'll need to do is tell
59:25Obsidian where to look for your
59:26templates, which will be in this
59:28template folder that we just created.
59:30So, we're going to go down and open up
59:31the settings.
59:33And in the core plugins, we have the
59:36templates.
59:37Now, we're going to make sure that
59:39templates is turned on. So, if it's not
59:41on, you'll need to go over to core
59:43plugins and go down to templates
59:47and make sure that that is turned on.
59:49And then you can go to the settings for
59:51the templates folder under core plugins.
59:53Then we can go over here and we can say
59:56and it'll it gives us the options of
59:57what folders to choose from. So, we're
59:59going to use underscore templates. We
1:00:01are now ready to create our first
1:00:03template. So, I'm going to go over here
1:00:04and I'm going to right click on the
1:00:05templates folder and I'm going to say
1:00:07new note. And we're going to call this
1:00:10new note.
1:00:12So, anything that we put inside of this
1:00:14template folder when we insert this
1:00:17template into another note, it will
1:00:18include anything that we have in this
1:00:20note.
1:00:21So, for now, we're just going to start
1:00:23off by adding in a header and it's going
1:00:25to say new note.
1:00:28That's as simple as a template can be.
1:00:30It can just be a header that you want to
1:00:32add in. I'll show you how to create more
1:00:34interesting templates in a minute. So,
1:00:36let's say I want to use my template
1:00:38inside of another note.
1:00:40So, let's go ahead and go here
1:00:43and let's create a new note.
1:00:46Templates are awesome.
1:00:49Now, if I want to insert the template
1:00:51into this, I have a couple of options. I
1:00:54can go over to this insert template
1:00:57button
1:00:58and it gives me a list of all the
1:00:59templates that are inside of our
1:01:01templates folder. Right now, we just
1:01:02have new note. So, I'll click that and
1:01:04now that header that we set up inside
1:01:06that template is in this note. So, let's
1:01:08go ahead and delete that and I'll show
1:01:09you another way you can open up the
1:01:11command palette by either going over
1:01:13here and opening up command palette
1:01:15button or you can hit command P and this
1:01:18will bring up all the commands that are
1:01:19available inside of Obsidian. I'm going
1:01:21to say insert template.
1:01:25Hit enter.
1:01:26And then hit enter again to insert the
1:01:28new note. The easiest way though is to
1:01:31set a hot key for inserting the
1:01:33template. So, we're going to go back to
1:01:34our settings. We're going to go over to
1:01:36hot keys and then I'm going to search
1:01:38for insert template. Now, I already have
1:01:42an insert template hot key assigned. If
1:01:44you don't, you go ahead and assign one.
1:01:46I use command option T. So, let's go
1:01:49ahead and get out of settings and then
1:01:51I'm going to delete this again and then
1:01:53I'm going to hit command option T. And
1:01:56that brings up the template menu and I
1:01:58can insert that new note template.
1:02:01Believe it or not, that's all there is
1:02:02to creating templates. So, now I'm going
1:02:04to share with you a few of the ways that
1:02:06I'm building templates and using them to
1:02:09make my workflow much easier. One of the
1:02:11types of notes that I use Obsidian for a
1:02:13lot is book notes. I have a book notes
1:02:15template that I use every time I start a
1:02:17new book. I'll show you how that's put
1:02:19together. I'm going to right click here
1:02:21and hit new note. And we're going to
1:02:23call this book notes.
1:02:25And then I'm going to do the three
1:02:26dashes so I can get some properties. The
1:02:29first property that I include is tags
1:02:32and then I use a nested tag to identify
1:02:35what kind of note this is. So, source
1:02:39/book
1:02:41/to read.
1:02:43The next property I include is the
1:02:46author. And we'll just leave that empty
1:02:47because this is a template, so I'll fill
1:02:50in the author when I create a new book.
1:02:52And then I also like to keep track of
1:02:54when the book was published so I just
1:02:55get an idea of context as far as time of
1:02:58when the book was written. Some other
1:03:00possible properties that you could use
1:03:02for this is maybe you could have a date
1:03:05started. So, if you want to keep track
1:03:06of when you started reading the book.
1:03:09And then along with that, you can make a
1:03:10date finished. And then we're going to
1:03:13make these date by clicking on the lines
1:03:17and getting a date in here. And that's
1:03:19what I have for my book notes. So, as
1:03:21you can see, I use it for things that
1:03:24have properties that I want to be able
1:03:25to fill out about that book. So, let's
1:03:28create a new note and the book that I
1:03:30just finished reading is called slow
1:03:32productivity. So, I'm going to go ahead
1:03:34and use my hot key and I'm going to hit
1:03:37book notes. Then I'm going to go ahead
1:03:39and fill this out. So, it is Cal Newport
1:03:42was the author and this was published
1:03:44this year, 2024. I don't remember when I
1:03:47started it, but we'll say I started it
1:03:50on the 1st and I finished it today. And
1:03:54then I can write notes about the book.
1:03:56This this book was awesome. So, if you
1:03:59find you're using the same properties
1:04:01over and over again, create a template
1:04:03with those properties and then you can
1:04:04just insert them whenever you need them.
1:04:06Another template I use is for my YouTube
1:04:08videos. So, let's recreate that template
1:04:11here as well. I'll right click on
1:04:12templates, new note. We're going to say
1:04:14YouTube video. And I've got some
1:04:17properties that I use here. So, we're
1:04:18going to do a dash dash dash and I use
1:04:21tags and I say YouTube/
1:04:25idea. The other property I have is
1:04:27publish date and I'll make that a date
1:04:30property as well.
1:04:31My publish date is for when I'm hoping
1:04:34to publish it. I'll enter that in and
1:04:36then once it's actually published, I'll
1:04:38go back in and change that date if it
1:04:40didn't get published on my expected
1:04:42date. The other thing that I have in my
1:04:43YouTube template is a callout with some
1:04:46tips, things that I want to remember as
1:04:49I write my YouTube scripts. I put these
1:04:51tips inside of what's called a callout
1:04:54and I collapse that callout so I don't
1:04:56have to see it all the time. But if I
1:04:58open up this callout, click here, you'll
1:05:01see I have some tips and things that I
1:05:03want to remember as I'm creating my
1:05:05YouTube videos. So, let's take a look at
1:05:08how to create this callout. I'm going to
1:05:09click on this little code button here
1:05:12and this shows the source code for this
1:05:15callout. You start off by doing a right
1:05:19facing arrow and then you do a bracket
1:05:21and exclamation mark and then the type
1:05:23of callout. You close the bracket and
1:05:25then this minus symbol is what makes it
1:05:28so that it will be collapsed by default.
1:05:30And then I add a title for the callout.
1:05:33That's the part that shows when it's
1:05:35collapsed. And then I just created a
1:05:37bullet list inside of the callout. Now,
1:05:39this little carrot has to be in front of
1:05:42anything that you want to include in the
1:05:44callout all the way down to the bottom.
1:05:46And then when you click out of it, you
1:05:47can then see the callout. So, in order
1:05:49to use this template, create a new note,
1:05:51Obsidian templates. I hit my hot key. I
1:05:55go down to YouTube video, hit enter and
1:05:57now I have it tagged with YouTube/ idea.
1:06:00That way I know it's in the first stage.
1:06:02Then I want to publish this by Friday.
1:06:04So, I'm going to click on Friday. And
1:06:06then I can write my notes. Obsidian
1:06:09templates are awesome.
1:06:12So, let's say you like the look of these
1:06:14callouts, but you can't remember the
1:06:16syntax for how to create them. Well, if
1:06:19you find you're using callouts often and
1:06:21you don't remember them, create a
1:06:23template for it. So, let's go ahead and
1:06:25right click
1:06:27note
1:06:28and we're going to say tip callout. And
1:06:31then I'm going to do that right facing
1:06:35carrot and bracket exclamation tip. And
1:06:38if I leave this blank, if I don't give
1:06:41it a title, it will give this tip part
1:06:44as the title. So, hit enter a couple
1:06:46times and now just says tip. So, now
1:06:49when I want to create a tip inside of
1:06:52let's say let's go over to this book
1:06:53notes again. Oh, actually that's our
1:06:55template. Let's go over to our slow
1:06:58productivity and I want to insert a
1:07:00callout. Hit the hot key.
1:07:03Tip callout. Now, it's right there. I
1:07:05can go up
1:07:07and I can say maybe there's a quote or
1:07:10something that I want to include here.
1:07:12Now, it's called quote. I hit enter and
1:07:14I say here's my quote. And now we have
1:07:17that tip callout. Now, there's bunch of
1:07:19different kinds of callouts that you can
1:07:21create. If you want to see what those
1:07:22are, I'm going to include them in the
1:07:24markdown cheat sheet inside this
1:07:26Obsidian for beginners vault. I'll also
1:07:28go ahead and include the templates for
1:07:29each of these callouts in the Obsidian
1:07:31for beginners vault so that you can just
1:07:33insert them whenever you need them.
1:07:35These are the main ways that I'm using
1:07:36templates and as you can see, they're
1:07:37very powerful and they make things a lot
1:07:39easier, especially when you are reusing
1:07:42the same types of things over and over
1:07:44again. Congratulations for making it to
1:07:46the end. I know that was a lot of stuff
1:07:48to cover, but I hope that it has given
1:07:50you a solid foundation for you to be
1:07:53able to go and build amazing
1:07:55productivity tools inside of Obsidian.
1:07:57And if that wasn't enough Obsidian for
1:07:59you, I've got a playlist of other
1:08:01Obsidian videos you can check out right
1:08:02here.

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