Comprehensive Overview | Obsidian Block References & Transclusion | Sorry Roam!

[@BryanJenks]

Want to get your hands on my Obsidian templates, Custom CSS, and Mermaid Diagram code? 👉🏻️bryanjenkstech.ck.page/d4ec0713d5 My Comprehensive workflow: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6jLl6KhbpZ0mqc 0:00:00 Intro 0:00:11 Preface 0:01:03 Why this is a big deal 0:01:35 foambubble.github.io/foam/ 0:02:12 Caveat - This is an early release 0:02:25 How to get early access like me to Obsidian Releases 0:02:34 FOAM's influence on the Obsidian Block References 0:03:12 This is not part of any official Markdown specification 0:03:39 Im really excited by this xD 0:04:04 Establishing pre-existing behavior i 0:06:03 Transclusion of header references 0:06:50 THE ACTUAL DEMO OF A BLOCK REFERENCE 0:08:56 Them UID's though 0:09:56 New Global searches 0:10:36 Global Heading Search 0:11:14 Global Block Search 0:12:16 ACTUAL DEMO OF GLOBAL BLOCK SEARCH AND LINK 0:13:30 Moving your block reference UID 0:14:41 Defining custom UID's 0:16:10 This is BETA so bear that in mind, but UID's do not auto update upon change 0:18:31 Block referencing more than just text 0:18:54 Block Reference a table 0:20:31 Block reference images 0:21:59 Block reference s 0:24:25 How to future proof the UID's since they're not part of a Markdown Specification 0:25:47 Ripgrep your UID's from the CLI 0:26:52 Why i recommend to keep the hash UID's and not make custom ones 0:27:53 Why i think you need to get comfortable with the CLI 0:28:38 Sed regex replace the UID's to update across the entire vault 0:30:47 The last shiny toys enter the checkbox toggle keybinding 0:32:31 Closing 0:33:09 Outro 0:33:34 Bloopers

[@markrobertson5395]

You are absolutely correct that the “block ref” feature is one of the few differentiating factors to fall in comparison to Obsidian and Roam. But what you can DO with them, in both applications is quite different. I too use Obsidian for a variety of reasons and workflows, but what I can do with block refs in Roam has a much higher data density than possible in Obsidian. In combination with the block hierarchy and hard-coded block relationships in Roam, the refs value are multiplied 10x+. I hope Obsidian continues to develop in the way that it has. I have used it since 3.** and it has gone miles. Love the devs there. I am very excited about this feature too, as I will finally be moving my textbook from Notion to Obsidian Publish because of this feature. It was the last to tip me over the edge.

[@BryanJenks]

absolutely! (click bait title aside) 2 apps for 2 different missions. Im pleased that for those who dont need a nuke for a fly they have the ability to use blocks in Obsidian now. The rate of progress in the app is 💯

[@markrobertson5395]

@@BryanJenks I don’t blame you for the title at all..😂

[@smoocher]

You ended an hour of my struggles with block references. Thank you.

[@BryanJenks]

glad to help! thank you for the support!

[@volkerhansen2815]

Excellent: both Obsidian‘s block referencing and your presentation- thanks a lot!

[@BryanJenks]

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@StevenMichels]

The Obsidian developers are top notch. It's hard to believe the program is still in beta. (Check out Dynalist, if you want to see their take on Roam-like bulleted outlining; it's fantastic.) I'm excited to see what they do next.

[@BryanJenks]

i've checked it out! They're work is top notch

[@PantheraTK]

Wait, so they are making 2 products that are competing with each other?

[@BryanJenks]

@@PantheraTK they made both products but they're for different purposes but have overlap but not competing with themselves lol some people like different things for different purposes

[@StevenMichels]

@@PantheraTK I don't know if that's how they think of it--one is an outliner/note-taker; the other is linking markdown files--so the experience is very different. But yes, they're doing both.

[@GeoffRuddock]

9:11 36^6 ≈ 2 billion possible references for block IDs

[@BryanJenks]

definitely plenty!

[@haouarino]

Thanks for sharing, very interesting option, I was waiting for it. It would be very interesting to add automatically the block reference when we drag and drop the text.

[@BryanJenks]

That would be cool!

[@barnabasszakal7258]

Thanks Bryan, my favorit info source about Obsidian stuff!

[@BryanJenks]

Haha awesome!

[@BryanJenks]

Also new updates to the block reference syntax as of 2020-10-20 the reference syntax [[file name#blockUID]] has been changed to [[file name#^blockUID]] to make scripting and usage easier. this kills the old syntax that will need to be updated. see official release notes for more info about quality of life changes: forum.obsidian.md/t/obsidian-release-v0-9-6-insider-build/7312

[@Jessyco]

Just started getting into this whole scene of second brain and digital seed garden. Thanks for your help navigating through this discovery phase :)

[@BryanJenks]

Welcome! it's a blast :)

[@klauslubinus1433]

I REALLY NEED to check Obsidian thanks Bryan

[@BryanJenks]

You really do Klaus 🤣

[@PuchoWebSolutions]

Hello from New York City! How is the "Projected Forgetting Curve" image auto enlarged on a mouse hover event at time code 21:50 of this video? Is that a built in feature of Obsidian or is the functionality provided by a plugin? Thank you for informative video. Have a good day.

[@BryanJenks]

the zooming is CSS i added to my theme

[@Jonny87Slick]

Can't wait for this to come out fully. Would be better though if those unique IDs were for the link connection itself rather than the block, and would act as a back link to the file and block that was linking to it.

[@BryanJenks]

The block references do act as specific back links at least if you're on the destination note. if note A has a block ref to note B then if im in note B in the back links pane there will be a reference with the block ID in it that you can click and jump back to the placement in note A that has the block reference :)

[@ChristophZwerschke]

Love your videos here, your dedication is amazing and inspiring. Btw, you can do *rg "[#^]blockref"* to find both links and anchors. However, in 0.9.6 the syntax for links changed, and *rg "\^blockref"* can now be used to find both types of usages.

[@BryanJenks]

Thank you! im glad you enjoy them! yes! Licat said one of the reasons for the quick 0.9.6 release was the consistency of the block ref syntax for scripting so now i can just use what you mentioned :) works much better now!

[@fufufempoelbeq9849]

Hey Bryan thank you for this amazing explanation! Do you have any suggestion for using Zettelkasten/Evergreen notes for outlining and writing a thesis? Would you Split the chapter in folders first then add and link notes in there or just add a so-called “structure note”?

[@BryanJenks]

caveat: i've never written a thesis and im working on a bachelors at the moment to hope for a masters after. what i might do for a thesis is use Obsidian to get a bullet point outline of the thesis with the # headers for the chapters/sections of the thesis, and the bullets for the ideas points. all in one document for the outlining purposes, as the file grows and you flesh out the thesis using the note-refactor plugin to pull out the heading and content into a new note when size increases (organizing these notes would be made easier by prepending incrementing number like 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.3, etc to the beginning of the heading for the eventual refactoring). keeping all of these thesis outline notes in a folder is likely the approach i would have just for a clear separation of concerns while im working on them OR you could have a transcluded note in your home note for instance i have [[Top of Mind]] for things im actively working on, and in that note have links to each of your thesis outline notes so no folders are needed: [[1.0 First main idea]] [[1.1 sub idea of first]] [[1.1.3 granular details continued]] etc.. i hope that helps/is clear. that is what id do for outlining and using a zettelkasten to inpire thesis content, but for the actual writing of the thesis and organization of it i'd likely use RMarkdown with the {thesisdown} package or just pure LaTeX with Zotero for my citations .bib file :) i have a whole playlist for Rmarkdown and several LaTeX videos too

[@fufufempoelbeq9849]

​@@BryanJenks Hey, i have applied your approach for trial! The idea is really good, it allows flexible navigation between notes and within the *thesis structure*. I am gradually moving from Evernote & QOwnnotes to Obsidian. For the actual writing i use 3 tmux sessions split over 3 terminals at the same time with Evince reader as it updates the generated document automatically: session1: freewriting (window1; vim) thesis (window2; vim) implemenation (window3; vim this is for coding when i switch from writing) session2: vanila session with 1 window to save time running "pdflatex thesis.tex" as i dont want to switch between windows in the same session when writing session3: my default session for other operations! As soon as i have some (evergreen notes) in my Obsidian (thanks to you for the inspiration!), i start spreading them over the .tex files in vim and apply in-place modification. Now i am trying out Zotero for some pdf management with attachement links (not in-app copy of pdf's) Now I am stuck with how to spread my TODO-lists :O over Obsidian or in the latex document :OOO but shouldnt be an issue i am always so much sophisiticated when it comes to structuring, i think i should just do the work and TODO-lists come up with time. Cool! Thanks for sharing your ideas! Cheeeers!!!

[@BryanJenks]

@@fufufempoelbeq9849 another felloq qorkfloq hacker i see... great work!

[@OyvindSolstad]

Can't wait to have the new version! Great walkthrough!

[@BryanJenks]

it's awesome! and thank you! :)

[@pdurusau]

The length of the random hash wasn't clear. If it isn't already true, can you suggest to the developers that they use 64-bit values for the hash? There's really no reason to pretend we are back in SGML days where the concrete reference syntax was 8 characters for IDs (that's from memory). Second, can we use existing IDs on blocks of text? Like the identifiers already present in HTML documents, converted to md? Some of the more complex work at the W3C could certainly benefit from transclusion and linking as is present in Obsidian. BTW, very impressive! I need to upgrade to be an insider!

[@BryanJenks]

very great points! you articulate it very well, a forum feature request would be the route to make this suggestion :) forum.obsidian.md/c/feature-requests/8

[@prajganesh]

How do you do the drag on each note? Like Andy's notes. Is it based on your theme?

[@BryanJenks]

It’s some custom CSS I added to the theme :)

[@stefanhansen5882]

Thank you so much for this! This is a game changer.

[@BryanJenks]

Glad it was helpful!

[@toppanam611]

Bryan, Thank you so much for your great effort putting these video together. I am looking for some feature in Obsidian which is like the 'mirror' in Workflowy. I am not so sure if the Obsidian Block References can work the same way?

[@BryanJenks]

if you're looking for multiple items to be edited while only actually editing 1 of them I don't believe this type of feature exists right now. something close if you just want a display of the information in multiple places and to edit in 1 place and show results everywhere else, you could do a transcluded block reference ![[notetitle#^block_hash]]

[@toppanam611]

@@BryanJenks Thanks for the explanation. Though the transcluded block reference is not quite exactly what I'm looking for, I could put that in good use in other aspect. Once again, learnt a lot from your video. Cheers

[@hopestreet3452]

Lol "Sorry Roam!" :P Just used this for the first time, thanks to your video - #WinningAtLife :)

[@BryanJenks]

HAHAHA nice 🙃️

[@luisbernethpena6844]

Hello Bryan. Thanks for your great videos. I have a question. Have you ever worked with Atlas Ti or Nvivo? Do you know someone who combines these tools in their workflow? In my research (I'm a university professor in Germany) I use Atlas.ti practically for everything you show us with Obsidian. I use Notion to capture information. I am trying to implement obsidian and it really is very attractive. I have found that obsidian is very useful for processing my ethnographic observations. I write the notes freely and then I start creating links, tags, lists.

[@BryanJenks]

Interesting I have not heard of those tools, are they also networked note taking editors with bidirectional links?

[@jakec9510]

Dec 2021, can confirm custom block references still do not update across the vault. Would take Bryan’s well founded advice here and just let them auto generate and leave them alone.

[@BryanJenks]

:)

[@surendergrover4146]

How do I apply Andy mode. It's not appearing in community themes

[@BryanJenks]

it wont be in the themes, it WAS a custom CSS hack, but now its a community plugin for the insiders release

[@GeniusUnleashed]

What purpose did it serve to put an "@" in front of Andy's name? I can't find any info anywhere outside of feature requests.

[@BryanJenks]

its just a symbol to make searching for those notes easier in the quick switcher

[@GeniusUnleashed]

@@BryanJenks Gotcha. Thanks!

[@kb28563]

Hey there, quick question - can I do anything with the block other than see it? E.g. if, in the transcoded iteration, I wanted to highlight a couple of words, but leave the original block as is, would that be possible? Great video, btw, really appreciate the in-depth explanations!

[@BryanJenks]

Glad you enjoyed the video! As far as highlighting blocks without affecting the originals, the answer is no, it’s just a view at another file you’d have to change the referenced file

[@kb28563]

@@BryanJenks thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated! Pity though about it being just a view - I liked using it for lectures (think: “remember last week when when I said Freud said...?” And then shifting the emphasis by by bolding parts of the quote from last week’s lecture) in Roam. It’s certainly not a dealbreaker, just a convenience issue. On a different issue, Are you aware of anyone who has done a “how to prep your Roam graph for export to Obsidian” video? My vault is all messy after import...

[@BryanJenks]

I don’t know of anyone I’ve come across only because I wasn’t in your shoes lol sorry!

[@Mauro_P]

Hi. How do you put these icons in texts and files names ? Copy and paste from coolsymbol.com ? Tks

[@BryanJenks]

I use the Alfred app on Mac with a workflow for emoji insertion but Mac has an emoji tool and support by default so that’s how I’ve been doing it but copy paste should work just fine :)

[@Mauro_P]

@@BryanJenks Tks. I'm a Windows user :-( , but tks anyway. Mac is too expensive for us, brazilian users

[@BryanJenks]

I get it, I’m pretty sure someone somewhere has made a tool for emoji usage on windows

[@xm_tech]

I just purchased a VIP badge thanks to your videos.

[@BryanJenks]

Im sure the Dev's appreciate it :)

[@Junetao916]

Bryan is the coolest alien on planet earth !

[@BryanJenks]

👽 👾

[@ProductivePM]

Awesome introduction to Obsidian’s block referencing. Well done, very good use of examples to follow along. Thanks Bryan!

[@BryanJenks]

Glad you enjoyed it! I enjoy the positivity 😄

[@robynbieber6312]

Wow!

[@BryanJenks]

:)

[@MaxwellBuba]

👍

[@BryanJenks]

:)

[@toppanam611]

🐄

[@BryanJenks]

🐄

[@cognomen0042]

🐄

[@BryanJenks]

🐄