Obsidian For Beginners 📝 Non-Linear Note Taking, Plugins & Templates

[@Alex-B2357]

Outstanding - I’m just a middle aged w-2 worker with a family, this was a fantastic presentation. Your security and wholeness as a person really shines through in the way you convey knowledge without imposing any expectation on your student. This was easy to follow and very informative. I feel like the other presentations on KZbin were like sales pitches and almost like resume builders for the presenter, showcasing themselves. What you did here was actual teaching. I wish you had a whole library of videos like this.

[@Wanderloots]

Wow, thanks Alex! That means a lot 😊 That's such good feedback, I'm glad you picked up on so much! I'm working on making a whole library of videos 🫡 Is there anything in particular you would like videos on? I'm always open to suggestions!

[@Henrietta_Vermillion]

THE best obsidian overview I've seen. You actually helped me understand *why* obsidian is great, rather than just telling me it is with vague gesturing in the direction of its capabilities. Thank you!!!!!!!!

[@Wanderloots]

Wow! Thanks Henrietta, that means a lot 😊 Was there anything in particular that helped you understand why it's so great? Perhaps a certain feature or explanation of a feature that helped?

[@johnmicheal5722]

Hi Callum. I've been using Obsidian for a year now and it seems there's always something new to discover every tutorial I watch. Yours was complete and very insightful. For eg. I've learnt you can embed a note within another one. I had no clue that was possible. Cheers to that! I'll be taking a lot more notes with everything I've learnt today. Cheers to you.

[@Wanderloots]

Hi John, thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it 😊 Great to know about the embed feature, it's one I use all the time to maintain an "atomic" note-taking style, since I can layer the notes together rather than copy and paste the content from one note to the next ✨You might find the video on tags vs topics enlightening as well, where I explain a lot more on how to take advantage of the emergent nature of Obsidian: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYvbipSrZ5Z3aJI

[@johnmicheal5722]

@Wanderloots I will absolutely watch it. Thanks for recommending it.

[@Wanderloots]

@@johnmicheal5722 Awesome! Feel free to let me know what you think 😊always looking for where people are confused/excited in Obsidian so I can make more videos dedicated to helping them out 🫡

[@jameshuisangkim]

I got so much out of this video despite using Obsidian for two years. I approached it without much thought or system. It was starting to feel like any other note taking app because I didn't intentionally link notes. Decided to start fresh and created a new vault and I'm looking to leverage your best practices. Thanks a ton, Callum for these thorough guides!

[@Wanderloots]

I'm so glad to hear it! 😊 Intentionality is underrated in the distracted society we live in, so building a safe, distraction free & intentional ecosystem in Obsidian is the best way I've found to boost my productivity & creativity without burning out. Exciting that you started a fresh vault! You might find the video I just published to be helpful then: What is Zettelkasten & Why It Works kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmGvfKaMbc1psLs I walk through knowledge theory with a lot of comparisons to the physical ecosystem of zettelkasten and adopt it to the digital realm of Obsidian. Would love to hear what you think, since I'm working on part 2 now 😊

[@jameshuisangkim]

@@Wanderloots No way! Man, I have so many of your wonderful videos to go through! It's starting to feel like Christmas haha.

[@Wanderloots]

@@jameshuisangkim Haha happy early Christmas! 😊 Honestly really appreciate your feedback & support, made my day! I always think these videos are going to be interesting & valuable, but I never really know until I put them out there. Glad you're resonating so strongly! A lot more video ideas where these came from ✨

[@RavindraSinha]

Wow, you deserve a million subscribers for your content

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you! That means a lot 😊 so does you watching and supporting 🫡 feel free to share with anyone else you think would find it helpful ✨ that’s the best way to grow here

[@markszabo3794]

Finally! All the right parts needed to understand and get started in Obsidian. Well done.

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you! Glad you liked it 😊 what were the right parts that you found so helpful?

[@markszabo3794]

Having all the basic bits one needs to get started and up and running. Brief views into more hardcore functionality without going down those bunny trails. Starting from scratch and adding functionality as you go (instead of dropping into a working system). Useful tidbits that I’d otherwise never see (e.g. local graph). Most useful options for core plugins. 👍🇨🇦

[@Wanderloots]

Amazing! Thank you so much for the feedback, that's very helpful to hear. I was trying to show people a glimpse of the possibilities, so I'm very glad it came across :) I just published a video that goes deeper into tags, topics, and organization methods that you might find interesting too 🫡 kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYvbipSrZ5Z3aJIsi=jeDwaaAxCjyjxxEs

[@hildegardmarie7486]

Thank you for this video. I have never worked with digital notes and structures before, but I plan to continue working in the field of philosophy after my studies and realize that my current structure is outdated and confusing. That's why I think it's fantastic that this video was so helpful and guided me through the process. Thank you very much. This is exactly what I needed to make real progress right now.

[@Wanderloots]

Amazing! I'm so glad to hear it 😊 Feel free to let me know if you have any questions as you continue setting up your system! That's cool you work in Philosophy, what is your main focus? Also, if you're working in academia, you should take a look at the Zotero plugin for Obsidian: it's a reference manager that helps you keep track of sources and citations so you can export papers from Obsidian with proper formatting. Finally, you might also like this video on the organization of my vault and how I keep track of sources: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2aslJqnodyMg6M

[@M3Disruptive]

❤ having been a lawyer shows in your presentation mode. You are analytical&t provide lots of information to the point! Looking forward to your next creations

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you! I’m so glad to hear that 😊 I’m doing my best to take complicated subjects and make them accessible to more people ✨ Is there anything in particular you’re interested in learning more about?

[@babc24]

Your presentation is really different. I am lucky to come through this. Thank you.

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you! 😊 In what way was this video different that you enjoyed?

[@colinsproductions4512]

This guy really understand the market, he teach me how to avoid information overload as he overload me with info! (Really good video tho, I had to take a few break but I ll start using obsidian!)

[@Wanderloots]

you're onto me 😂 I thought about breaking it up, but wanted to have a comprehensive overview for anyone getting started and hoped that the chapter markers would help 😊 Thank you! Appreciate you saying that 🫡 Glad to hear you're going to try it out, and I'm happy to answer any questions as you get going!

[@rustyrebar123]

This is great. This is one of the best overviews of Obsidian I have seen. Thanks a million.

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you! That's high praise 😊 What made this video more helpful than the others? Might help me make better videos in the future ✨

[@rustyrebar123]

​@@Wanderloots Thanks for asking me to expand on my thoughts. I really appreciated this video for a few reasons. Though it's long, it covers a lot of ground in a clear and engaging way. You provide just the right amount of detail to get Obsidian installed and set up in a useful starting point for anyone wanting to explore the software. I found the section starting at 5:07 particularly helpful, where you show how notes link and how to manipulate them. The part on ghost links was also very informative. Many other creators seem to get lost in buzzwords like Zettelkasten without explaining them clearly or make content that's so niche it’s not broadly helpful. Your video avoided those pitfalls and provided practical guidance I could put into action right away. I also found your Digital Garden videos informative. Even though I’m not currently looking to publish anything, the concepts were very interesting, and the presentation was excellent. The way you effortlessly walked through setting up GitHub, a hosting provider, SSL, and a custom domain made the whole idea accessible and actionable for anyone with a modicum of tech savvy.

[@Wanderloots]

Amazing! Thanks for the positive feedback 😊 Good to know re: the ghost links & note-linking portion, it's my favourite part of obsidian so I'm glad you resonated. I actually do use a modified Zettelkasten, but I figured that would be better in another video haha, too much jargon for the average person. Also thanks for watching the digital garden set up video! That's really good to hear how accessible it was. As someone who doesn't enjoy coding, I was trying my best to avoid any pitfalls that would turn off the average builder, so I'm glad you picked up on that. Let me know if you do end up publishing your digital garden! Would love to check it out 😊 imo, it's a really freeing exercise to have the system set up so you ~could~ publish if you wanted to; just removes a lot of blocks when you get to that stage and makes the whole learning in public mentality effortless ✨

[@beatsbywoods8388]

Thank you for turning on Dark Mode, My eyes were melting

[@Wanderloots]

Haha no problem! I keep my main vault in dark mode 100% of the time so I didn’t think to switch until I got to the appearance tutorial

[@drunemeton]

Awesome video!

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you! 😊 was there anything in particular you found helpful? I’m working on my plans for the next video in the series and appreciate any feedback 🫡

[@drunemeton]

@@Wanderloots I liked that you started at the beginning and did a masterful job explaining how the basics worked. Very helpful! I was directed to this tool by an online comment in the Pathfinder 2e (A TTRPG) community about taking notes and running games. If you know anything about TTRPGs they are a world unto themselves, with tons of details, locations, people, creatures, treasure, etc. to keep track of. I'd like to learn more about the Sync function, both the non-paid version (which you indicated has issues) and the paid version. I've spotted something I need to check out and that's the ability to import PDFs into Obsidian. A lot of games I'd run at our local gaming store come on PDF. So being able to import and parse different external files (PDFs, Word, even other websites) would be very helpful to know.

[@Wanderloots]

I'm so glad to hear it! Thank you for the detailed feedback, it really helps a lot 😊 I am aware of TTRPGs, but haven't participated myself. I'm actually looking into ways that help boost worldbuilding with obsidian too, so that's good to know! Re: sync, the issues i've had with iCloud have been minor; the odd time, a single file here or there will be a version behind, but almost always i'm able to fix it and revert to the new version. If you need perfect syncing, then I recommend Obsidian sync since it's not that much per month. Yes! There are plugins that enable the inclusion of PDFs. My favourite one is called "Zotero", which is a citation management system. You can add PDFs, highlight them, etc., and then import the highlights into obsidian. You can also just add the PDF as an embedded file so you can read it within obsidian itself. I"m sure there are more ways too!

[@drunemeton]

@@Wanderloots For the TTRPG space don't sweat it on your end. Josh Plunkett has a channel @joshplunkett and he *extensively* covers that space. He has over 100, 30-ish minutes of videos dedicated to just using Obsidian for TTRPGs! I've started using Obsidian and my questions right off the bat are: Since the UI shows folders on your local computer is it better to rename, move, etc., files and folder within Obsidian or on the desktop? And regarding syncing: Can I store my vault(s) on my iCloud Drive and just point whatever Obsidian app (macOS vs. i(Pad)OS to those vaults? Seems 'syncing' wouldn't be an issue since there's just one file location that those apps access. Is that what you did, but still have file version issues?

[@Wanderloots]

The best part of working with markdown files: you can do either! By moving/renaming folders in Obsidian, you're also renaming/moving them on your desktop as well. The Obsidian file structure is exactly what you'd see on your normal file explorer. For syncing, you can store your vault on iCloud and point your iOS devices to that folder, it should work! However, the mobile (iOS) Obsidian requires a root folder, so you have to make sure that the vault is the main folder in both desktop and mobile (i.e., don't have folders outside of your vault folder, since mobile won't read it). The issues I had with file versioning only happened when I had Obsidian open on my computer at home while I was making edits on my phone while I was out. I think my desktop obsidian was confused at the sync history. But I haven't noticed a problem with this in a few months. Oh cool, thanks for letting me know re: TTRPG, I'll check out his channel!

[@Dirk-think-denk]

Thank you very much for your work and the interesting insight into Obsidian. I use Obsidian as a database for my knowledge, for my ideas and as a kind of diary. Your video has helped me to make even better use of this excellent tool. Greetings from Germany from Dirk

[@Wanderloots]

Hi Dirk! Thanks so much for sharing, I'm glad you found the video helpful 😊 That sounds very much how I use it! Was there anything in particular that my video helped you learn/understand about Obsidian?

[@Emc-it4lg]

Awesome! You are great!

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you! appreciate you watching and commenting 😊 was there anything you particularly liked about the video?

[@chrisd980]

Amazing...Anyway i have no idea how to start and which notes i could write down. I tried Obsidian as a note taking system multiple times.

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you! Glad you found it helpful. I'm actually working on a video that will go more in-depth on how I take notes in different situations, so stay tuned! My advice is to take a step back and ask yourself "what goal am I trying to achieve with these notes?". If you have a project in mind, whether it's journalling, researching, writing, organizing your life, task-management, etc., it becomes very clarifying to take notes that align with your project. Aside from that, I would say just get started! Write whatever comes to mind, read a book or watch a video on KZbin and take notes as you go. The value of notetaking in Obsidian will begin to emerge over time, which is also what I talk about in the tags vs topics video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYvbipSrZ5Z3aJI

[@jasonm9825]

Awesome video Man. Been trying to set my vault up for ages and this helps quite a bit. Templatr doesn't seem to work for me, it's like it's outdated or something. You've used it here so I'll have to take another look haha

[@Wanderloots]

Thank you 😊 appreciate you saying that! Was there anything in particular you found helpful? Templater could be out of date! If you go to community plugins, there’s a “check for updates” button, so you can try that!

[@VyacheKan]

How do I bubble up highlights from ReadWise while I’m prepping for a meeting? (I won’t know exactly which day the meeting or the list of days I’m interested in.

[@Wanderloots]

Hmm are you saying that you're trying to find specific quotes that will relate to your next meeting? If so, you can mark your readwise highlights with a tag like #readwise and then filter your vault by tag:readwise AND xyz topic. You can also introduce topic notes that you add to your readwise highlights, so you can look at the graph view to expand on the emergent connections between your highlights and topics that would be related to your next meeting. I talk more about these types of organization & insight generation in my latest video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYvbipSrZ5Z3aJIsi=jeDwaaAxCjyjxxEs

[@jeffbarnhart6441]

what's a link for the pipe light in the background?

[@Wanderloots]

Ah it’s actually a homemade lamp 😊 will let the person who made it know 👀

[@DurdenMD]

I need a second brain to understand how to use it: templates, linked notes, settings, etc

[@Wanderloots]

Haha I feel you. It's a lot at first, but it definitely gets easier 😊 That's actually a good idea though: start your second brain in Obsidian by taking notes about how to use Obsidian. Then, you always have a practical resource to return to when you forget something. I'm working on another video that will go more into depth on the practical use cases 🫡 But for now, you might also find this video on tags vs topics helpful for seeing how more of the system comes together: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYvbipSrZ5Z3aJI

[@Xparky777]

How can i change the Font in Obsidian ?

[@danyukhin]

Settings → Appearance → Font, I think

[@Wanderloots]

Yep! thank you, that is how you can change it. You can control the interface & text (writing/reading) font separately too

[@Xparky777]

@@danyukhin thanks mate , I just changed my font 😊

[@callsignpizza]

First

[@Wanderloots]

😂 hope that means you're actually checking it out 👀

[@GaryFerrao]

3:00 i need to be that annoying troll and say that technically, md stands for the domain name for Moldova; Obsidian is trying to use it as "markdown" a popular file format for writing notes.

[@Wanderloots]

That’s true for domains! But not for file types. A .md file type is markdown 😊