The least scary Obsidian guide you’ll ever see

Get Obsidian here obsidian.md/
0:00 - Welcome!
0:20 - The problem with Productivity KZbin
1:18 - Installing Obsidian
1:36 - Creating a vault
2:20 - Installing a theme
4:02 - Changing fonts
4:50 - Window style
5:21 - Enable spell check
6:07 - Changing tab indenting
6:43 - Organizing your attachments
9:27 - General organization
9:51 - Installing plugins
10:05 - Better link pasting
11:34 - Hide some of Obsidian's cruft
12:30 - Shortcut Launcher
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Blog: birchtree.me
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[@Sammysapphira]

Turning Obsidian into light mode is absolute heresy.

[@chowrites6179]

You taught this like you ACTUALLY like using this software. I can't tell you how many times I watch a vid like this and its got all the flair and know how but it really feels like the youtuber just uses it to make content not to actually enjoy and show off how much they know. Its amazing and I felt genuinely engaged in everything you explained. Thank you!

[@adesai1000]

THANK YOU for actually showing a way for beginners to start rather than just piling on complicated stuff to overwhelm the viewer

[@abelardadebayor5642]

LOL i expected to just create a tree of notes in 2 mins, because i want to start myself. I have adhd, i dont have patention for dark mode info xd

[@CoreLeadership]

Great video! I was thinking about Obsidian, but was completely overwhelmed by the other videos I watched. This one really simplified things and helped me get started.

[@watheusbr]

Thank you very much, Matt! I saw some tutorials for obsidian and none explained it as well as you. You showed everything I needed to understand the app and start using it. One more subscriber!

[@Merryande]

The Assets folder thing helped me so much, thank you!

[@weatherep0rt]

Awesome guide, thanks for the clarity and effort you put in this kind of videos, it shows! It'd be nice if you could explain in a video what apps do you use for taking notes etc. Also, the intro is just gold.

[@russheritage]

I've always been intimidated by Obsidian, so this was incredibly helpful. Thank you!

[@GaelyneGasson]

I really liked your screen share format and where you put yourself on the screen. I watch videos while having dinner. I made the video full screen so I could read the text and found every time I looked over in the corner you were there and you did one of those things I'm not seeing too often. You look at the camera fairly often. It's a really nice touch! I've been using Obsidian daily since last October but I've taken on things very gradually. I definitely have issues with reading text on the screen so I'll be looking to find the font you mentioned. Thanks!

[@th3ja]

Beautiful! Concise and straight to the point! Thank you!

[@sketchley]

Great video. I think you're absolutely right about productivity videos on KZbin: they're often just too much for us mere mortals.

[@DL-sx7yh]

simple to the point, clean, and efficient = new subscriber

[@hewsontran1389]

This series is really great, keep it up!

[@emoneylovesyou]

Finally a good simple intro video.

[@AtomLabX]

You know this is not normal when he uses light mode instead of dark mode...

[@Karl2Peter]

Cannot watch that because of light mode lol

[@jonr6680]

The guy has runway lights in the ceiling, so...

[@BathtubStillBill]

Right? Overhead lighting suuucks

[@garrettpatten6312]

i can't see well in the dark mode

[@garrettpatten6312]

i can't see well in the dark mode

[@amandaalyse]

I'm glad the first thing I did after installing Obsidian was watch this video. Super helpful!!!

[@mffaruqi6830]

Your video lived up to its title. It's is the best and the least scary Obsidian guide on KZbin. You covered all the basics I needed to get started. Thanks.

[@BroonParker]

Just what I needed to see. Thank you.

[@chrisvmazer9692]

Someone told me to get Obsidian because it's apparently useful for productivity. I was kinda overwhelmed and didn't know the difference to the standard Notes app I was using. I just now got introduced to the plugins, thank you!

[@SivWUK]

Great introduction, thanks!

[@luca414s]

dude....thank you SERIOUSLY for this easy tutorial

[@zedsmelee]

Nice intro, very helpful just to hear those ideas.

[@patataeve]

I had given up on obsidian because everything look super complicated and I just needed a simple notebook with smaller notebooks xD Thank you for the awesome video! Now I want to learn more!

[@VaderFuntime]

Lol from the title I expected this to be a parody of Obsidian guides. Great stuff though!

[@QuikSnoopy]

great video mate

[@matth285]

Great video! I was overwhelmed as well, this did help me with some base stuff I hadn't yet done or thought of. Thank you!

[@laylam4241]

Great video!

[@fabricioakira.]

Please i need more of that

[@arnold4631]

This is awesome! Thank you for simplified things that others not do it

[@Greebstreebling]

My day got better just with ABC= A Better Computer. 🙂 The rest was brilliant too. I'm making a Baroque Lute and wanted to document my progress. Your vid gave me everything I need to do that 🙂 Thanks for sharing.

[@felik888]

thank you. I like this KISS (Keep It SImple Silly) version of Obsidian video!

[@alltheloveannie]

This video is so great to get started. There is so much that you can do with the app but I found it really hard to just get started, this video really helped with that:)

[@justnaturalcake1]

I have managed to making sync work with iCloud, and it's fairly easy. It works on my Mac/Windows/iPhone, there's barely any delay and it's free

[@_elroyjetson]

On the Mac you can highlight a word or phrase, hit cmd+k and then paste in your url. cmd+k is a pretty standard way of adding links across Mac apps.

[@WalidDamouny]

This a feature copied from MS Office 98 or 95. It's good to have cross compatability.

[@kristiharman2843]

This is so freaking helpful thank you so much!

[@garrettcox]

This is hilarious (title) I absolutely felt anxiety watching every other video posted. Thanks.

[@winterdreaming]

Are you still using Craft? How do you decide what to put in Craft and what in Obsidian?

[@user-be3ep2jp2q]

Thanks dude

[@GabeAmely]

Awesome and very unscary 😂 I’m new to PKM and have been looking for a good entry into obsidian. Thank you.

[@fulllifeadventures]

Great video as usual👍🏼

[@AnimalAce]

Very nice! Thanks for these tips!

[@csilipo]

Hi any chance you could show up the ‘banner’ plugin? I’m really confused. Tks Carlo

[@HenrikFrejasFar]

It went pretty fast and I had to go back a couple of times to get everything, well I tried to follow your actions in my own obsidian. ... SLOOOOOOWWWWW DOOOOWN

[@tsukareppi]

Holy cow, I am so grateful to you for this video. I have watched 837 videos about Obsisidan, Zettlekasten, etc. until I wanted to pull out my hair. All I want is to be able to take notes and link them. Now I feel I can actually use this thing!

[@Reoku64]

Great intro video, got a sub from me!

[@davidsen5439]

"I'm gonna use the light mode because it looks better".......

[@stephenlister3599]

This was really helpful Thank you

[@spencerniemeier4243]

Bless this man and his suspiciously Lego shaped plants

[@dezkar7944]

great video! helped a lot, thanks!

[@chechin4797]

My savior

[@GarryKnight]

Great video, thanks! Like you, I created my vault in my iCloud folder, and I set Obsidian up to have my images go into a folder called attachments inside the same folder as the note the image is in. And it all works well on my Mac. However, neither the attachments folder nor the images in it get synced to iCloud and hence don't show up on my iPad and iPhone. Have you had this problem? If so, how did you solve it?

[@shaileshsundram]

I didn't know Obsidian was free for individuals. You explain really well. Great video. Though I am hopping the Notion bandwagon, I am not sure if Obsidian will be a better choice. Have to try it.

[@DannyHatcherTech]

Interesting video. I think some of the points you make at the start are too generalized but that is me... "look at this mindmap I created" - Most Obsidian users don't use mindmaps - maybe you meant graph or canvas but they are often briefly mentioned. "look at how my life is in here" - Most Obsdiian creators I watch discuss how their notes are in Obsidian not necessarily work things, tasks, projects etc... "producutivity youtubers" - a subjective category which in the Obsidian world to what I see is very small and many show what they are doing at the time "not useful to most people" - sharing everything for someone to get 1 tip from is the point right? as you said in the video we all organize things different. Apart from aesthetic changes I would be curious to see how you are using Obsidian. You titled it "least scary" yet discuss communities themes and community plugins which go straight into addons rather than the core app. Not saying that is a bad approach, just not sure it is the least scary from my experience helping new users. Thanks again for the video, and just sharing my initial thoughts.

[@astty1074]

I agree that some videos start way too deep and are not friendly to beginners. But 15 minutes for mostly interface and basic functions is a stretch.

[@xmanavenger1728]

bro woke up and chose to violate the consciousness of 165k people by choosing light mode

[@thethefts1741]

so, you are also part of the Hyperlegible cult, huh?

[@FaunoAtelie]

Light mode on Obsidian is borderline criminal

[@bobbastian760]

"Light interfaces look nicer" Is this the Mirror Universe? 🤔

[@bobbastian760]

It would be nice to get into how it works rather than esoteric interface stuff immediately. I have no idea what this app can do and I'm half way into the video and still have no idea.

[@marcorobbe9003]

Hi and thanks for your Great Video. Yes, I think, you are right. Most People are doing think much to complex. Regarding Apple shortcuts: Do you know a way to Import contacts from the iPhone into obsidian? I think, it is possible to read Name, etc from the contact and write it to a file. But maybe there is an easier way? I would like to trigger the contact from within the contact or by selecting the contact After the trigger. Then I would like to read some contact Information and write them to obsidian and also write a Shorts Note into the contact

[@Defebwar]

Um...Lorem Ipsum are real words...just not English. Lorem Ipsum dummy text is Latin from Cicero's "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum".

[@Alche_mist]

But some of the word are intentionally malformed so that the text doesn't distract (too much) even Latin speaker.

[@akioasakura3624]

sir thank you so much. youre amazing at explaining and the video is fun. tysm. every other tutorial goes on and on about nothing. big up sir

[@one-seventh]

What is Obsidian used for? Does it actually have a use?

[@amthystxx]

Taking notes

[@bobbastian760]

This should be called "interface guide to Obsidian" 😂 Still no idea really what this app even does beyond text notes 😂

[@mrodrod9553]

what an absolute psycho choosing light mode. Ngl i sincerely had to research if your theme choice was good after the light mode take.

[@mrodrod9553]

good vid tho

[@shadowseek27]

light theme gross lmao, nice guide though

[@Timey]

I still don't understand why people would use this over Google docs, is there something this can do that docs can't?

[@HonestidadeDesativada]

I mean, why would people prefer Obsidian over Fantasia Archive for writing novels?

[@Timey]

@@HonestidadeDesativada yeah but I can take all my notes in Google docs for every class except math but I don't think you could take math notes in obsidian either unless you have a drawing tablet

[@HonestidadeDesativada]

@@Timey I made a chat in ChatGPT especially for notes, where I make file simulator, as /File/sub-file/math-notes as a sample of it, so that when I want to retake those notes, I call back for the directory easily, even with listed brute information of my previous texts. I mean, quite hard to use at first, but very useful.

[@SHONNER]

Works with Grammarly?

[@Nutrisof]

Dude looks like a grown-up baby, lol. Great video btw! 💫

[@NomDeBits]

I want to like Obsidian, and other apps like Reflect and Capacities, but the non-native Electron text entry just kills it for me. For a writing app, I can’t not have autocorrect, so I’d rather use a less capable but way more native app like Agenda, or even the new linking to other notes-capable version of Apple Notes.

[@enoynaert]

My criticism of KZbin software videos is that they spend minutes changing the fonts and colors. It now works the same on every piece of software out there. Get light or dark by your preference. Anyone who is interested enough to use something like Obsidian does not need two seconds of introduction about how to change the appearance. Every text software lets you indent text. They work the same. Move on. Focus on what makes the software significant. You can still make that part simple and direct. That is what most people want to watch in the video.

[@evaander]

im sorry but getting flashed by light mode is not it

[@meninuralph]

0:47 The most big truth ever said on KZbin 😂

[@bozzigmupp510]

This didnt show anything of the usage of obsidian :/

[@saschavjater9065]

Blud literally said nothing. Asset folder is cool, remove scrollbars if you have extreme adhd is cool too, but I came here for a tutorial of using obsidian, not for setting it up tidily

[@marcotonelli1526]

He specifically chose white mode? why do some people hate their retinas

[@edwardserfontein4126]

Contrary to your intro you spent quite a lot of time on the interface.