Top Obsidian Plugins for Productivity & Visualization

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Just started with Obsidian the past week and thought I'd watch some random tutorial while drinking my cup of tea. The tea's long finished and I've about a half dozen of your videos watched and a couple of substack articles read. Far beyond tutorials your mind is wonderful and I love seeing the cross-disciplinary connections you are making in between. I've got loads of new ideas on how to harness my Obsidian. What a delightful surprise for a Sunday afternoon! On a side note I'd love your thought on something. I've been importing all my Kindle highlights and my Instapaper articles into Obsidian. But watching your video on Zettelkasten, what initially made me fall in love with Obsidian is the idea of making notes personal. And so I've been wrestling with the thought of what to do about this. On the one hand it's good to have the original sources to reference back to when I'm writing but on the other hand I really like the idea of Obsidian being just my small atomic notes on different topics. While I was watching your Zettelkasten video I was toying with the idea of having two vaults: one for Zettelkasten and one as a sort of hub for collecting primary source materials. What's your feeling on this? (apologies for the essay I wouldn't normally do this but I genuinely feel like you will have a valuable perspective on this)

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Heya! First of all thank you for watching, sharing this, and checking out my newsletter posts! I love that Obsidian found you on a Sunday afternoon haha! Re question - I definitely thought about this a lot - original reference vs personalising your notes since I also import through readwise. For me there are 2 aspects to address: 1/ Filing references I really like your idea of setting up 2 vaults. Because notes are not created equal, there should be some mechanism to separate them. For something as fundamental as references vs thoughts, separation by vault sounds a lot easier than using other methods like tags, links, folders, etc. because when you search for ideas, you won't get flooded with references. The two "down sides" I can think of is 1) linking across vault isn't as automated (yet) -> you can use: [note in other vault](obsidian://vault/other_vault/note). But using a template to prepopulate most of the file path is a pretty easy way to get around that. 2) searching for the sake of idea generation might have to take place in both vaults, so double the work. But this is definitely not a big deal! So all in all, 2 vaults sound pretty good! I might tweak my system too! 2/ Extracting ideas from references For me, I realized when I auto-import, the docs never see the light of day unless I set time specifically to digest them. So setting up a system that helps you internalize the references might be helpful! Personally, I try to take notes as I read so I don't have to read something twice if not needed. Then for materials I file under "read later", I set up a time weekly in my calendar to digest. And if you have a system for this, I'd love to hear it too!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

​@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP Ah wonderful thank you for the very detailed response! I think you are right that the main thing I need to work on is the digestion process. The references shouldn't be such a worry if I do that. I'm enjoying doing that a lot more with Obsidian and armed with the Zettelkasten philosophy. I've tried to create these sorts of systems in the past with Evernote, Notion and even a physical Commonplace journal but I just never developed faith that I'd be able to find something in future and it wasn't enough use in the short term to justify it. Obsidian is giving me faith that it will be useful right off the bat so with that and a bit of digestion hopefully it'll pan out. I'm going to hold off on the exporting of the non-Zettelkasten for now but I had a thought in the last couple of days that would get around the problem you suggested. In order to get dual screen Obsidian working I had to nest my main vault in another. That got me thinking that if I was to do it I could put all my reference materials in the outer vault and then in the nested vault I could have just my zettelkasten that way I could have two levels of search - one with everything and one with just the zettelkasten depending on which window I was looking into. Food for thought anyway. For now I'm just going to plough on and keep learning from people like you and cultivate the garden before making any major changed. Thanks again for the suggestions and the response!

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy yes to making notes useful right off the bat, and see them compound overtime. Please keep me posted on how you're going :D

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP Will do!

[@marksamplesmedia]

Update: The "Find Unlinked Files" plugin (Plugin /2) is now called "Find orphaned and broken links." Thanks for your great videos!

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Are you a visual learner? Let me know if you like these plugins! More Obsidian tutorials: » Essential Plugins: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJ7MmaGLdreVodU » Obsidian for beginners: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmTIaHqNqNaii5I » Zettelkasten for Beginners: kzbin.info/www/bejne/faG5ZWqoir6ebqs

[@realgouravverma]

Yes I do want a detailed dataview video from you because u explain very well😊😊

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Thannk you Gourav! Appreciate your comment and stay tuned!

[@Nil-js4bf]

6:57 The reason is because markdown doesn't have syntax for highlighting by default. I'm surprised how feature rich Obsidian can be when at a glance it looks like a simple markdown editor with the ability to easily create links between files. The plugins are all amazing but you need to keep in mind that plugins reduce the ability to export notes to another note taking app since things like highlighting essentially "extend" the markdown syntax with the plugin dev's own syntax. Every dev will come up with their own syntax, meaning there's no standard and thus it's not feasible to support every plugin when exporting. That said, power users often use each tool's niche features to their full advantage which inherently limits the cross-app compatibility of their notes. So no point worrying, just take advantage and don't jump ships too often to avoid wasting time dealing with the migration to the next shiny app. Pretty cool to see how Obsidian has been embraced by the general public despite having such strong likeness to a code editor which you wouldn't expect to be "intuitive" to use.

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Great points - I agree with you re how feature rich Obsidian has become. Can definitely be borderline distracting! Also your point about extending the md file, definitely something to think about for future proofing notes. LIke you said, hopefully I don't have to jump ship haha hopefully I never have to make a video on how I'm switching apps lol

[@DanaesDialogue]

Thank you so much for this!! I've been looking for a video that explains the minimal but highly needed plugins that didn't require me to have a Masters Degree in coding. This was EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you again.

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

🙏 thank you for watching and yes! I share your frustration haha it doesn’t have to be so complicated

[@Justgoodvids]

If you don’t want to use a plugin, you can use control or command K to insert the link syntax and then paste in the link. You may need to use paste special to avoid breaking the link as obsidian will sometimes insert the link’s title automatically

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Thanks for the suggestion! Will try this out 👍

[@abbkabbk1536]

You were a main factor in my tremendous note-taking shift, bless your soul, love the content!! ❤❤

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

That’s amazing to hear, thank you so much for sharing this with me 🙏🙏🙏 thank you for watching! See you around :)

[@DanielNjoo]

Thanks!

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Thank you Daniel for the support!!

[@futuregootecks]

Brilliant! Especially the part about not using calendar to not get distracted. I’m gonna trim down my setup or maybe just make a new vault

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Awesome!! Keep me posted on how it goes!!

[@GilMichelini]

Vicky Saves The Day!! Thanks for the tip on "Paste URL into Selection"!!

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Haha Paste URL into selection saves me so much time! Thanks for watching Gil

[@cristianlivadaru3599]

If you need just one color to highlight, you could try with the built in markdown by enclosing the text you want to highlight in two equal signs. ==highlighted text goes here==

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Great tip!! Thank you for sharing this. I'll try it in my workflow :D

[@gororok]

You're such an inspiration! Thanks for these helpful videos 🫶

[@therohanfelix]

You explain awesomely well. Looking forward to a video about the dataview plugin!

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

It's under works, dataview is so powerful I'm almost intimidated lol

[@therohanfelix]

@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP haha!

[@davideylerYT]

Thank you about 9,000 million times for this video : )

[@___x__x_r___xa__x_____f______]

Just wondering what theme you use, I like the color coding I see in your text? Or was that done manually? Same with tags formatting (green)

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

I use Things by Colin Eckert! I quite like the theme too :D

[@Christinchong]

Awesome list of obsidian plugins for power users!

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Glad you like them Christin!

[@GrahamAtDesk]

Nice video. I hope you keep doing Obsidian vids - I think you managed to get a lot of value into a short video. As an alternative to the Paste URL... plugin you can just use Cmd+k or Ctrl+k (it's mapped to the "Insert Markdown link" command). Highlight the text, hit the keybinding, it inserts the brackets and puts your cursor in the right place, then paste. To highlight without plugins, highlight text and tap `==` twice (this is the native Markdown syntax for highlighting). Alternatively, map a key binding to the "Toggle highlight" command. I'll be using the Emoji toolbar for sure. While installing it I noticed there's another emoji plugin called Emoji Shortcodes, which is great for adding frequently used plugins quickly. Type a colon followed by some text (e.g. `:smile`) and it pops up a menu from which you can pick matching emojis. So how it works in Slack, and a bunch of other web apps. Complimentary, rather than a replacement. 👍😉

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Thank you for watching and for sharing more ways to do some of these commands :D I'll give them a try too. Will make more of these vids and feel free to suggest topics :D

[@garyjohnheteau5400]

Another neat, clear and efficient little video, very nice, Thank you !

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Thank YOU for watching and sharing your encouragement with me 🙏🙏 it really makes a difference so thank you

[@LailaHomemade]

Thanks Vicky! I think using dataview for ideas and published is probably better for me than a kanban. I just haven't been able to make a kanban work for me yet.

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

I'm definitely in the same boat. I tried kanban multiple times to no avail lol

[@charlesbonfante9188]

Great video. Thank you. What theme are you using?

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Thanks Charles! I use "Things" by Colin Eckert!

[@DanteMishima]

Great list. Thank you... Also callouts also have the option to be collapsed also

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Oh that's great! Thank you for sharing that and thanks for watching too :D

[@KevinMullet]

I only just today discovered Obsidian, and already have one or two of your videos in my favorites list. Thank you so much! This will help me in my Anthropology research project immensely. I have a process question. I like how you record the videos with your face in a circle that you can move about in the frame when convenient. Could you share what you use to do that?

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Hey Kevin!! I’m glad you liked the video! And I use loom to film myself in a circle 👍

[@KevinMullet]

@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP I just looked at the Loom site. My research advisor is out of country, so making brief loom videos for her could be such a helpful communication tool. Thanks!

[@ChrisLonsberry]

You are my main Obsidian/ZK tutor! ❤️ Question: are you still using excalidraw as your main way of creating mindmaps?

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Hey Chris! Thank you for watching and sharing the support :D I'm still using excalidraw! If you've got good suggestions or questions about it let me know here!

[@andypassion5787]

You need to try Hover Editor plugin!

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

Hello, new to your channel and Subscribed today. Request you to please make a detailed video on Dataview and DataviewJs. Showing few examples of difference between dataview and dataviewjs will be of big help. Thanks in advance 🙏 Unfortunately, nobody is covering this in youtube .

[@brandonburzon5188]

Great video! What tool do you use for visualizing?

[@abbyr.2602]

Ok sorry if this has been explained already but I'm still learning my way around Obsidian: how do you get your tags to turn green like that?? Is it also a plugin? Because anytime I add a #tag it just shows up as grey or purple. I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure it out and have had no luck lol

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Hey Abby! Haha yeah that’s how I felt when I first started too!! It’s the theme I use. Depending on which community theme (aka NOT default Obsidian theme), the formatting will look different! I go through some of the themes in my 7 day obsidian video!

[@countryman6083]

Hello thanks for the content :) What about the charts plugin ?

[@teeI0ck]

interesting and insightful. Obrigado 🤝

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Obrigado for watching!!! 🤓

[@airmaxarmani]

How to get the section headers along the left in the panes? >_>

[@jayachandrank2875]

How urs workspace coloured text(font), not hightlight??

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

I’m using the theme Things!

[@BalaMenon]

How do you get the note title to be flipped vertically?

[@Manas-jj6xf]

Which theme are you using?

[@wizardelite]

Another vote for an atomic video on Dataview!

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Okay! I'll see what I can come up with :) stay tuned!

[@soumyajitsarkar2972]

If anyone can't find the 'Find Unlinked File' plugin Search this 'FIND ORPHANED FILES' the plugin's name has been changed

[@waterfall3479]

ah you have a visualized list no wonder your twitter has drawings like that

[@VickyZhaoBEEAMP]

Yes! Visualizing really helps me activate a different part of my brain (also helps me write better interestingly). Thanks for checking this out!

[@ignatio6662]

She’s bright and cute

[@Shgbnudjt]

This is an excellent example of Obsidian for editing. Paste this in your obsidian