Obsidian

General

• Obsidian Help • Obsidian 📚

Why Obsidian for notes?

• macOS and iOS clients
• markdown files are portable and parsable
• can edit files from any folder on your file system (unlike apps like Bear that store notes in an inaccessible database)
• I found I actually end up writing and publishing much more with a simple flat list of text files than with a complicated Notion database setup that led to lots of resource collecting and linking but little creative thinking and writing
• live markdown preview in edit window reduces clutter caused by having to either view raw markdown (so it can be edited) or view a read only preview
• apps are clean and uncluttered and highly customizable
• notes can be stored in a git repo and easily published to any destination from there
• vim mode allows a fully keyboard-based workflow not possible with Notion (even when using Notion in the browser with Vimium)

Syncing via a git repo

macOS

• create new vault that points to existing local content repo folder
• install Obsidian Git community plugin
• update plugin settings to…
  • automatically pull changes when obsidian opens and every X minutes after that
  • automatically commit and push X minutes after any file has stopped being edited
• .gitignore:
  • ignore .obsidian folder contents except for the obsidian git plugin settings

.obsidian/*
!.obsidian/plugins/
.obsidian/plugins/*
!.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-git/ 

iOS

• in obsidian, create a new vault
• in working copy, clone repo and link it to the obsidian vault folder you just created
• in obsidian, disable the Obsidian Git plugin (don’t uninstall it if committing that plugin’s settings to the repo)
• sync via working copy and shortcuts pull/push automations when I open/close obsidian

Inbox

• You all NEED these Obsidian community plugins • Christian Lempa 📺
• The Top 4% of Obsidian Plugins • Linking Your Thinking 📺
• Using Vim:
  • for Vim users - Obsidian Hub - Obsidian Publish
  • esm7/obsidian-vimrc-support: A plugin for the Obsidian.md note-taking software
  • The Top Reason That I Like Obsidian - Unlock the Power of Vim - YouTube • great video showing how to enable vim, customize your keymaps using a vimrc file, and map obsidian commands to vim keymaps as well so all functionality uses the vim keys you’re used to • Any Juan Li 📺
• Alfred Gallery • Workflows • Shimmering Obsidian • an Alfred workflow that lets you use Alfred shortcuts (e.g. “o”, “oo) to search and append to your notes (docs here)
• After updating syncing settings on one device and hoping to see it on another (e.g. adding a hotkey), I need to run the “reload app” command to activate the change
• core plugin: Note composer - Obsidian Help - I use it to quickly move selected lines to the bottom of another note (where I always have an “Inbox” section); since I almost always want to move something to the bottom of a note, appending via this plugin is a faster workflow than always having to choose which line to move to using the Text Transporter community plugin
• alfred: oe = search all external links in my vault - great for finding previous solutions and specific docs pages quickly!
• shimmering: Alfred Gallery • Workflows • Shimmering Obsidian - so many shortcodes to try out! e.g. “o” to get alfred to select a note, then shift-enter to browse that note’s links (e.g. to check if I already saved a link)
• scambier/obsidian-omnisearch: A search engine that “just works” for Obsidian. Supports OCR and PDF indexing. - search vault/current file in a spotlight-like pop-up instead of in the sidebar
• omnisearch: How to use Omnisearch - Omnisearch - Obsidian Publish - use "..." for exact searches and -string to exclude results
• omnisearch: Public API & URL Scheme - Omnisearch - Obsidian Publish - can use Omnisearch API with the Dataview plugin
• dataview: Dataview