Showcasing Excalidraw in Obsidian

If you find the plugin and/or my videos helpful, please say thanks by buying me a coffee: ko-fi.com/zsolt
If you'd like to request a feature or report a bug, please raise it on GitHub: github.com/zsviczian/obsidian...
If you want to connect, you can reach me (@zsviczian) in the Obsidian Members Group (OMG) on Discord or on Twitter.
Links:
---------
My blog: zsolt.blog/
Obsidian: obsidian.md
Excalidraw-Obsidian 1.6.16 release notes: github.com/zsviczian/obsidian...

[@thoughtsbygrich5967]

My mind is atomically blown, disintegrated, demolished, and reconstructed into a new and improved state of being. Thank you for this plug-in, it's an absolute godsend.

[@0tt0fl0tt]

That's what Hungarians can do to you.

[@jayeshb7041]

I'm not sure why. Ok I get the excitement but it doesn't do OCR on handwritten notes like one note.

[@pikatwinky28]

These are the kind of people worth supporting, not the typical youtubers/streamers who don't add anything to your life. These kind of amazing projects deserve all that support. Thanks for all your efforts and for sharing your knowledge with us

[@VisualPKM]

Thanks for the encouragement! I am really glad you find my contribution valuable.

[@expeditioner9322]

Kudos to all involved in its development. I can't even imagine what it takes to make a plugin like this.

[@emmafountain2059]

This is absolutely insane. This single-handedly adds an entirely new dimension of visual information to obsidian, and its sooo well integrated and polished that if you told me it was an official, default part of obsidian, I would 100% believe you. I can't believe I just found this after 6 months of using obsidian. Thank you for this.

[@VisualPKM]

awesome! What would have helped you to find it sooner?

[@lucascavalcantidossantos]

You've made a huge contribution to human race. At the moment I'm a college student, which means I'm broke. But I'm still using this tool within 2 years, when I expect to be employed, I'll make sure to buy you a good coffee!!

[@francoprofeti142]

Obsidian changed my life and this plugin changed my life again. I can now not only write ideas in obsidian but also draw them using an infinite amount of whiteboards.

[@cuanticomc]

I was pushing myself away from many plugins in order to keep Obsidian as vanilla as possible but after seeing this video I'm amazed about how powerful and friendly Excalidraw is. Kudos for your creativity and hard work.

[@cookiemonster208]

Jaws on the floor! What an awesome plugin! I can fully switch from OneNote to Obsidian now!

[@VisualPKM]

Only OCR is missing for handwritten text, but once that is available I think Obsidian + Excalidraw will overtake OneNote

[@PedroMiguel-zv3fj]

@@VisualPKM What is OCR?

[@VisualPKM]

@@PedroMiguel-zv3fj Optical character recognition.

[@InglesConConfianza]

I LOVE Excalidraw and I LOVE Obsidian, and I'm just discovering all of your work on combining them together. This is fantastic.

[@ErmandDurro]

Wow amazing work. Thanks a lot for this plugin and it's so cool to see what you have added to Excalidraw within Obsidian 💪🏻

[@cagataykiyici2921]

Just cracking Obsidian and designing my workflow. This is awesome Zsolt, thank you very much :)

[@nunatic0278]

This is incredible! Thank you so much for all your efforts!!!

[@chillyspoon]

Game changer - supporting links and transclusion elevates this plugin to the top tier. Excellent - thanks!

[@WalidDingsdale]

Thanks for sharing this tutorial. The value you bring to the community is beyond words

[@yiming.m]

This plugin is amazing! Works like a charm! Thank you for developing it❤

[@DuDeMBR]

You are amazing! I have a lot of trouble because I get easily taken out of a thought process and can't find my way back. Small hurdles in software, as well as having to juggle between them to capture stuff in different ways are a deal breaker. I really like the way you turned a relatively limited amount of options into something so flexible, appealing and everything is still adjustable, always! Perhaps I finally found what I was looking for. Thanks

[@iatheman]

What an insane plugin for Obsidian! This is mind blowing.

[@Pharaoh-99]

you are an absolute legend ! you made obsidian an ultimate notes app !

[@cris7ea]

I just discovered this now and just want to say thank you, you're awesome!

[@em11l]

I am just astonished what people have been able to make in obsidian and this is no exception. I found this extension watching a video from Randy and it just blew my mind. Splendid work!

[@VisualPKM]

Thanks! What many people coming to Obsidian do not realize at first, is that Obsidian is like an "Operating System" for personal knowledge management. Obsidian comes with a very strong programing interface and a vibrant developer community.

[@marcustan7236]

What an amazing plugin. Your work is greatly appreciated

[@sergiofontana3244]

Excellent, I have been using onenote because of the digital pen and I passed few days ago to Obsidian but I was bored I couldn't use the digital pen anymore. you have resolved the issue!

[@BharatYadav-xf9ov]

This plugin is so good, I think it should come preinstalled with future versions of obsidian, it just saves so much of time for a student like me. Thanks for making it.

[@rohanmartin1698]

Just... thank you for this. This is absolutely fantastic!

[@kamilszafraniak6676]

Wow. THIS is one of the things that changes how you work and think... Thank you!

[@Mr125Anonymous]

This is insane, when did this come out? I'm so glad I found it.

[@42sol]

Thank you for this great plugin and the nice presentation. I love it!

[@pauloffborba]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You did an impressive work. Just mind blowing!

[@ekings2119]

Just brilliant. Thank you for making this.

[@homeofcreation]

This is huge. Thanks for the hard work!

[@Raketensofa1]

I haven't even tried this yet, but oh my god thank you for it haha this is amazing!

[@haouarino]

Thank you very much for this great plugin.

[@hamza_belmellouki]

Sir, you're doing a legendary work! Thank you very much!

[@t6hp]

This is almost like a full-fledged different app. Amazing. Thank you so much, I'm sure this can be utilized greatly on Ipads.

[@rebeccatolentino688]

THANK YOU!! THIS WAS THE BEST AND EASIEST TUTORIAL

[@justinreichert]

You are amazing man! Huge appreciation!

[@samzebrado991]

Thank you! Just saw this plugin recommended from a bilibili comment. It's really a great plugin

[@littlequail7466]

Excalidraw is a great tool taking notes while learning!!! I appreciate this a lot ! Thank you thank you!

[@VisualPKM]

Not at this time. I've discussed about this with Obsidian developers, as I would need some enhancements in Obsidian to make this possible.I don't know when those enhancements are to be expected. I have some ideas for a workaround, but those are messy.

[@user-di9ms3nj6f]

thank you for this amazing plugin!

[@trigocuantico]

Thanks this is amazing and so useful

[@trustparadox]

you're a legend mate

[@Anton-zb9dc]

It could be really useful to inbed videos and to be able to collapse groups of objects into a bubble(circle or an svg icon) like it's done in facebook messenger. This could make a book review much more elegant and compact using only one page of content

[@VisualPKM]

I agree. Hopefully with time more of these features will be added.

[@JeanneBook]

I am just beginning to understand how powerful obsidian is, and the best thing is most things are for free. The community is very active and there are a lot of contents and tutorials online.

[@christopheralexander3384]

Long time Obsidian user. Wow. Wow. Wow. I'm only three minutes into the video and I am (for the first time ever) sponsoring a developer.

[@6490-1xx]

Thank you! IMO, Excalidraw the best plugin of Obsidian. This video is very informative and helpful. 👍👍👍

[@mcdebugger]

Wow! This is a great extension!

[@bluehair0476]

This is so great! Thanke you!

[@ilkhommakhkambaev4698]

Thanks a lot sir, it is really made my life easy

[@v.r.7726]

This is just unbeliveable!!

[@nindyailham9979]

This is great, thank you!

[@mathocity8337]

Thanks you so much. I really can't believe this is free.

[@hamzadata]

Wow! Obsidian now is my dream ecosystem. I can literally use it as an OS to boot in.

[@UralMahiyanov]

Thank you very much.

[@Sean.Vosler]

omg this is incredible

[@chasewatson3671]

you are very talented and knowledgable sir. if you ever decide to take on app development let me know I am so ready to get some smart people behind my idea

[@mingyang7924]

so cool, I want a try.

[@Hectiquin2003]

amazing, can't believe you did all that

[@ajourneytogrowth]

this is incredible!!

[@soboll7320]

man you are awesome. thank you❤

[@chtulurr]

This is amazing!

[@macdonnie2u2]

Holy crap man - You rock!

[@SonitPL]

That's awesome!

[@porcorosso23]

more than i could ever ask for.....

[@VisualPKM]

Thanks. Yes, Excalidraw in Obsidian is pretty powerful.

[@longlongone]

Hi - thank you for your constant improvement of this already my most used plugin in Obsidian. I thought I had watched all your videos on Excalidraw (some of them multiple times), but I never know I can embed an object within the same file to another location until I see your introduction above. How to make a location in Excalidraw point to another ? Many thanks

[@VisualPKM]

That is actually a new feature that I released just yesterday, which explains why you did not notice it before :). If you watch my video on 1.6.17, I explain there.

[@longlongone]

@@VisualPKM Many thanks for your quick response. Just saw your twitter too. It is fantastic. Cheers

[@alexisrs127]

@@VisualPKM is it possible to do the same to preview a note or embedded with the images as when you are presenting the books? I think is called presentation mode

[@VisualPKM]

@@alexisrs127 Is this what you are looking for? The Slideshow Script kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpm1eXmejNCgec0

[@alexisrs127]

@@VisualPKM Yes, and I think that unlocked icon is like view mode and presentation different mode? is it possible to preview as at 1:04 or 1:43 when i click or hover on those modes?

[@neelsb7889]

Wow, this is amazing! Thank you so much!!! I have a 2-in-1 laptop with touchscreen and stylus pen... so can I create hand-drawn illustrations / "icons" in my Excalidraw mindmaps, using my stylus?

[@VisualPKM]

Yes, absolutely

[@neelsb7889]

​@@VisualPKM Awesome!!! Thanks. I'm definitely using Obsidian, Excalidraw and some of the other plugins you demonstrated (e.g. Fantasy maps) from now on. If / when some of my projects are eventually successful and I end up getting a good income from them, I will definitely want to donate to support your further developments of Excalidraw and your possible other projects to help improve everyone's productivity, learning, etc. :D In the meantime, please accept my sincere gratitude and moral support, and I hope you can continue working on such projects with whatever financial support you already have. I will definitely recommend Obsidian + Excalidraw to my friends, colleagues, etc.

[@hellsowner8513]

thank you thank you thank you thank youuuu for thisssssssssss

[@9613ENKI]

amazing work!

[@VisualPKM]

Glad you think so!

[@caleocay6897]

I admire your work. I wwouldlike to draw that greate map

[@lukec8371]

Thank You!!!

[@gamesfromvovyy2448]

Works well!! DANKEEE

[@UltimateBokanator]

GIVE THIS MAN MONEY

[@RU1Fdup]

Do the embedded markdown files render images in excalidraw? Am I doing something wrong or only tables, codeblocks etc render? Anyways, thank you SOO much for your work, plugin devs like you are one of the reasons why I enjoy obsidian so much.🤗

[@VisualPKM]

Right now only images that are placed within a drawing. Here's how you can test it: 0) Assume you have an image. Let's call it: picture.png 1) Create an empty Excalidraw document (doc1) and embed picture.png in it 2) Create an empty Markdown document (doc2) and transclude doc1 in it ![[doc1]] 3) Create another empty Excalidraw document (doc3) and embed the markdown document (doc2) in it. and voila, the image in markdown will be visible in Excalidraws embedded markdown. This does not (yet) work with other source of images.

[@RU1Fdup]

@@VisualPKM That'll work, why didn't I think of that😅 Thank you for your time and have a great week!

[@trampwall]

This is crazy awesome power... I'm just trying to comprehend how to even use it! This might be a dumb question, but is there a way to make it as a website? where you set an original drawing as a front page, but you can click through it?

[@VisualPKM]

That is the whole idea. You can navigate from drawing to drawing via links, embeds, etc. Explore my channel and you'll see this sort of use case in many of the videos.

[@VictorAguilarDiaz]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🎨 *Introducción a Excalidraw en Obsidian* - Excalidraw integrado en Obsidian como ciudadano de primera clase. - Enlaces y transclusiones de páginas de Obsidian en Excalidraw. - Uso de enlaces a objetos dentro de dibujos y demostración de transclusiones. 01:48 🖼️ *Integración de Imágenes y Objetos en Excalidraw en Obsidian* - Posibilidad de incrustar imágenes desde el vault. - Demostración de la inclusión de ecuaciones y documentos completos en Excalidraw. - Acceso y modificación de front matter tags para personalizar documentos. 03:15 🔍 *Visualización y Búsqueda en Obsidian con Excalidraw* - Excalidraw visible en la vista de gráficos de Obsidian. - Búsqueda de texto específico en Excalidraw a través de la función de búsqueda de Obsidian. - Funcionalidad completa de backlinks para los dibujos de Excalidraw. 04:50 📱 *Excalidraw en Dispositivos Móviles* - Implementación de rechazo de palma y modo de bandeja para una mejor experiencia móvil. - Características diseñadas para mejorar la usabilidad en dispositivos móviles. - Exploración de la integración de scripts desde la biblioteca de scripts en Obsidian. 05:31 🛠️ *Motor de Scripts y Personalizaciones en Obsidian con Excalidraw* - Instalación de scripts desde la biblioteca de scripts en Obsidian. - Uso de la API de Excalidraw para la automatización de tareas en conjunto con scripts. - Ejemplo de generación de contenido, como citas, a través de Excalidraw y scripts. 06:53 🎨 *Personalizaciones Adicionales en Excalidraw en Obsidian* - Adición de fuentes personalizadas y creación de plantillas para nuevos documentos. - Creación y personalización de una paleta de colores adicional. - Modo Markdown para editar texto y enlaces en documentos de Excalidraw. 08:51 🚀 *Hoja de Ruta y Desarrollo Continuo de Excalidraw en Obsidian* - Invitación a apoyar el desarrollo continuo de Excalidraw en Obsidian. - Destacando características futuras, como soporte para Font Awesome y OCR. - Menciona la disponibilidad pública de la hoja de ruta en GitHub para seguimiento del desarrollo. Made with HARPA AI

[@jayeshb7041]

What addons do we need to do the search for "5 custom colors" It doesn't work for me to do the handwriting OCR + search. Or was that "5 custom colors" not handwritten but a text box ?

[@liyang4639]

amazing!!!

[@ukaszorpik3913]

You are ..... AMAZING 🤟

[@gonzaloprada1612]

Thanks

[@betofc89]

AMAZING!

[@oscar-blum]

Hi there, I'm amazed by your work! However, I was wondering why the default setting of 'auto-pair-brackets' is deactivated in excali-draw. I'm missing it a lot! Is there a way to re-activate it? Also: is there a way to add line-breaks for new typed in words? Best

[@VisualPKM]

not sure what you mean by auto-pair-brackets. Also not clear what you mean by line breaks, you mean word wrapping?

[@oscar-blum]

Yes, i mean word wrapping. In regards to the other: if I go to Options-Editor-Behaviour the 3rd point is: "Auto pair brackets Pair brackets and quotes automatically." However, this is not working in excali-draw.@@VisualPKM

[@oscar-blum]

Alternatively to word wrapping, simply pressing "enter" for a line-break works just fine for me! @@VisualPKM

[@dpsmanila7931]

How do u put the channel rack in the playlist

[@sindiahoeller1487]

Thank you so much for this awesome plugin!! My original question is answered already - I just missed that I need to click CMD (Windows) while dragging the file in, that's how this sort of embedded files are made (2:15). But I have another question - is it somehow possible to just link one Heading with this? I am using many code blocks and latex blocks, so sadly the transcluded version usually doesn't work for me, even though it's an awesome feature :)

[@VisualPKM]

In short, yes. Just alt/option + click the embedded markdown document and follow the format: filename#heading|widthxheight . you can leave out any of the component i.e. you can just write filename#heading or filename#ˆblockref or filename#heading|width or filemane|widthxheight, etc. Otherwise I recommend creating more atomic notes and transclude your different codeblocks in the main document if you wish to see them together. You can enhance the experience with some css. You can see an example of the css to display embeds without scrollbars and borders in my latest video (how excalibrain is transforming how I use obsidian @17:43). I recommend the Note Refactor plugin to help you create more atomic notes.

[@sindiahoeller1487]

@@VisualPKM Thank you so much! That was exactly what I was looking for. I am sorry to bother you, for sure you did document this somewhere... Thank you for this great tool, it really feels like a hole powerful application within obsidian!

[@VisualPKM]

You’ll find documentation and lots of videos on specific features in the readme in the Excalidraw community plugins page, and some further explanation in the plugin settings (in this case the markdown embeds section of settings). If you will use markdown embeds extensively you may want to explore the css capabilities to format how markdown embeds look like. I have couple of videos on the subject.

[@sindiahoeller1487]

Thank you so much! I already continued watching all your youtube videos, they are great :)

[@user-vh2bf7yb9u]

very cool

[@OddBunsen]

Do the links you draw between things in excalidraw also show up in the graph view, or only in the excalidraw image?

[@VisualPKM]

links between things in Excalidraw are just an image they will not create the same links on the graph. However, both files (assuming you are linking two links to files with a line in Excalidraw) will be linked to the drawing in the graph, so while they will not be directly linked with each other, you will see the indirect link relation via both of them being linked to the drawing.

[@sprutch11]

The drawing shown here looks like a mindmap-ish diagram with all the coloured connection strokes (instead of the standard arrows) and borders and such. Is this a specific Excalidraw feature or just a result of manually drawing the strokes?

[@VisualPKM]

These are manually drawn strokes, plus a bit of a scrip to format the lines. I draw the lines on my tablet with a pen, and use the organic line script to format them the way they look on the drawing. I use my PC and my tablet parallel to draw these maps. On the desktop I type and add images, etc; on the tablet I add the lines. With Obsidian sync I have both open at the same time and see the sync between the two devices quasi real time.

[@SogMosee]

4:15 how do I open documents to the side? When I click the blue link icon in my excalidraw canvas it opens in a new tab. Same if I cmd+click it. If I hold cmd and hover, I see a preview window, but I want it to open notes to the side from excalidraw

[@VisualPKM]

You can now configured modifier keys: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaGUfGp9h9d4bKc ... and here are the default modifier key settings: github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin/blob/master/images/excalidraw-modifiers.png

[@AFGautonompunk]

wauw, impressive! how does one make use of the equation editor 1:50 ?

[@VisualPKM]

Click equation icon in the Obsidian Tools Panel or use the command palette action to install an equation

[@hellsowner8513]

I m very very new to obsidian, is there any video guide to excalidraw from basics, for the time being I just want to draw basic shapes and embed them as image in the same note with my texts, is it possible?

[@VisualPKM]

see the 10 part series here: github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin#video-walkthrough

[@sulomercan7532]

Hello. Your videos really helped me a lot and excalidraw is a very nice program. However, when I switch from excalidraw to a note page while working in obsidian, what I have done in excaldraw is deleted. In other words, it does not record what I do instantly, with a little delay. This slows me down, am I doing something wrong?

[@VisualPKM]

Can you open an issue for this on GitHub? github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin/issues What device are you using? Normally Excalidraw saves your drawing regularly, and in every case when you switch to another document in the vault. On a mobile you should click save before closing Obsidian to ensure everything gets saved before the application is terminated.

[@sulomercan7532]

@@VisualPKM When I hit the save button, the problem was solved, thank you very much. I thought it was auto-saving.

[@VisualPKM]

@@sulomercan7532 It should be autosaving. Please check plugin setting for Excalidraw to confirm that Autosaving is enabled (it should be, since that is the default). Also check the autosave frequency. Mine is set to 15 seconds.

[@DutchNorthAtlanticAlliance]

Joo I really want to use this for math on my pentablet and tablet, but the lines are too big, even on lowest setting .. please advice

[@VisualPKM]

Try alternative pens. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4vdZoCdr7yLn68 However, Excalidraw is no ideal for lots of handwriting. Pens are great if you want to draw a simple illustration, but not if you want to write lots of text and formulas. For long stretches of text, not for formulas unfortunately you can get pretty good results with scribble helper kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKe8nIKXod5gh68

[@joshualim4051]

Hi is it possible to embed a preview of an excalidraw into another excalidraw?

[@VisualPKM]

Absolutely. CTRL + Drag (SHIFT+Drag on Mac) the file from the Obsidian file explorer or use the Command Palette (Excalidraw: Insert Image command). You might also be interested in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/foPXkpR6aJmNsMk

[@Samborondon11]

Neat!

[@Anton-zb9dc]

Could I link audio to illustration, like links, so I could play it inside obsidian?

[@VisualPKM]

I recorded a demonstration for you: github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin/issues/509

[@Anton-zb9dc]

@@VisualPKM That's soooo powerful. Thank you!

[@TheInternetFan]

Zsolt, are you sketching on a tablet or on computer keyboard?

[@VisualPKM]

Both. I typically work at my desktop PC, however, when I use Excalidraw I tend to have the same document open on my tablet as well, an I add small bits and pieces with the pen to the drawing.

[@Y-Soightnie]

If I use a tablet and a desktop with Obsidian, would the vault have to be located on Google Drive or some other cloud service?

[@VisualPKM]

I recommend using Obsidian Sync. But Google Drive, One Drive, can also work. There is also and Obsidian Git plugin that uses Github to synchronize the vault between devices. Personally, after trying first google drive, then one drive, then Obsidian Git, I gave up wasting my time on workaround solutions and purchased an Obsidian sync subscription. It was the right decision. It simply works without any hassle.

[@Y-Soightnie]

@@VisualPKM Once again thank you for your insight and prompt response. I, too, am looking for these solutions. Thanks!

[@brandonistenes3470]

If I click on an excalidraw drawing embedded in a file, is there any way to go back to that file?

[@VisualPKM]

Check the hotkey for "Navigate Back" and "Navigate Forward" in Obsidian settings. If you CTRL+SHIFT click an image it will open in a new pane. If you CTRL+Meta click an image, it will open in a popout window. Finally, I recommend installing the pane relief plugin which improves history navigation significantly.

[@infogo5966]

soft just keeps getting better

[@RobKohr]

On my mobile device, how do I show a grid when in excalidraw?

[@VisualPKM]

long touching the canvas should bring up the context menu. alternatively you can install the "Set Grid" script from the Excalidraw script engine store, then you'll have a button for setting the grid with a custom grid size in the Excalidraw Obsidian menu.

[@user-hu4hl4on6l]

牛逼，love from china

[@pakemilio]

I could not find a way to group items on the iPad

[@VisualPKM]

Select the items and tap the group items button at the bottom of the element properties panel. The button looks like two small black boxes.