Use Obsidian (BEST Markdown editor) for note taking and tech docs!

[@jrrtolkin]

I have seen some videos about Obsidian but never understood how useful it is. Now after watching your video I am eager to start using it, its wonderful. Thank you so much!!! I think that Obsidian team should recommend your video as the best Obsidian video ever.

[@christianlempa]

Oh I'm glad it was useful to you :D Thanks :)

[@FromSergio]

Glad to see this as obsidian is the focus of my channel, after 2 years of using it, it still amazes me! Keep up the good work, you've helped me a lot in my self-hosting journey :)

[@christianlempa]

Amazing ;)

[@tomaytto9407]

You've both helped me loads in completely different areas. I use your Obsidian tips and recommended plugins to take notes of what I learn from Christian haha!

[@FromSergio]

@@tomaytto9407 haha that's great! Love to see it:)

[@Eragon-go4ww]

You can past images from your Clipboard directly in your markdown document in obsidian. It will past the image in the folder and make a link to it. I use it a lot for screenshots

[@christianlempa]

Yep that's nice! Great tip, thanks for sharing ;)

[@Cloverpine1234]

@@christianlempa what did you use to draw your network diagram that you have in your obsidian?? Also, do you have a daily notes app you use other than obsidian?

[@christianlempa]

@@Cloverpine1234 Using asciiflow for the diagrams, and notion for daily notes

[@BakrAli10]

@@Cloverpine1234 13:48 bookmark comment later

[@Tri-Technology]

@@christianlempa Is it only possible to resize images in addition with html/css in obsidian?

[@MatthewFawcett-np1tz]

This video was helpful and informative - thank you.

[@christianlempa]

Thank you so much for your support! I'm glad it was helpful to you :)

[@steveteare3865]

This is excellent! Not referring to Obsidian, but to your presentation of it - especially in this particular context. Great work.

[@christianlempa]

Thank you so much 😊

[@Johndoe-176]

Obsidian has been the best this I have ever come across and has come so far from where it was. Personal notes, knowledge base, D&D campaigns, work notes, and so much more. It replaced MS one-note and Joplin and Cherry tree. Good to see others are loving it. Also learned a few things here I did not know. Consider me subscribed

[@christianlempa]

Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@arieheinrich3457]

The biggest benefit of Markdown is that is a text/character-based language, which means placing the file in a GIT repository means you enjoy all the benefits of DIFF changes and Pull Request branch policies. There are multiple programs that convert Markdown to any other formats, which means you can store the text in a repo and in you pipelines just convert it to whatever format you need, thus maintaining version compatibility between the code and the documentation.

[@christianlempa]

That's indeed a big plus of Markdown!

[@stewartjames932]

Thanks!

[@christianlempa]

Thank you so much! :)

[@eikeimnetz]

Sehr cool, genau so etwas habe ich gesucht, ohne aktiv zu suchen. Durch deinen Kanal erfahre ich immer von den coolsten dev Tools, vielen Dank dafür!!

[@wnclug-linuxusersgroupashe4061]

Excellent video explanation of Obsidian! I've been using Obsidian now for about a year and it has become one of the best Markdown editors/PKM tools I've ever encountered.

[@christianlempa]

Thank you! It’s really amazing :)

[@meowcula]

I LOVE Obsidian! I started using it earlier this year, as I found I was forgetting the process mid-project with a lot of things. It's been invaluable and I take notes on everything now, it's so easy. I sync it up with Syncthing between all my devices and my server.

[@christianlempa]

Awesome! I need to try out Syncthing

[@bernoulli9047]

I've heard people rave about Obsidian, and now I can see why. It looks really fantastic.

[@yashkhd1100]

Amazing video. I'm too on the tech side...and got burn out when I was trying to find something from tons of things I learned. This video is exactly I was looking for..!!

[@christianlempa]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you learned so much :)

[@ncoles4890]

Excellent video, Christian!! Many thanks for making it!

[@christianlempa]

Thank you so much :)

[@dougbas3980]

I am a retired EE, systems/software/hardware/IT/automation person. I use Nike Milo for Obsidian techniques, but you have given me a USE case that fits my background and thinking ... Many Thanks!👍

[@christianlempa]

Thank you that is amazing!

[@faustozecca4187]

Been meaning to try and learn this and just gave it another go. Went to give this video a "like" and seems like I have already been here before. Thanks for doing what you do! Cheers

[@christianlempa]

Though Obsidian is free, it's actually not an open-source application (sorry for the confusion and mistake in the video!) EDIT: I've cut out the misleading parts

[@dexterflodstrom9975]

A fantastic libre alternative is Logseq! They have a very active and very helpful discord as well. Its quite similar to Obsidian, but its a little different. After using it for a while I eventually grew to prefer it though :)

[@GadgeteerZA]

I have been using it myself and at least it is based on open standards and is fully cross-platform, so definitely no lock-in. So my markdown files from 100's of meetings and knowledge base stuff is already years old, even though I just started with Obsidian about 6 months back.

[@mrzvaniga3851]

@@dexterflodstrom9975 as a guy who always trys to self host -- obsidian was a no go for me, since it is not open source. this video should have been about Logseq instead, the video clearly says obsidian it is open source and free but that is just not the case,... making me think I should unsub from this channel,.. its unfortunate but this video is going to mislead people and introduce them to a program that very well could be malicious.

[@charlescc1000]

I think the portrayal of this app as open source is a huge oversight. In my view it’s not a small error, but rather a detail that could in theory change the entire conclusion and presentation of this video. Mistakes are human. Maybe a follow up and a presentation on open source alternatives would be great

[@christianlempa]

@@charlescc1000 it is a huge oversight, I'm sorry for that. However, it doesn't change the conclusion or point of the video. Actually, I don't care much about whether a software is open-source or not (which is the reason why I intentionally thought it was open-source :D)

[@zainoferd7852]

Thank you for sharing how u use it and not just talking about the tool. This inspire us to get the best practice.

[@christianlempa]

Thank you! :) great feedback

[@OhertRasmus]

I've been using VSCode for a while now, but never knew you could live view md files. Thanks!

[@theblowupdollsmusic]

Awesome video. That ASCII network diagram is next level!

[@t3ddi]

Indeed, is that a plugin or just elbow grease?

[@christianlempa]

I was using asciiflow

[@agentxx3022]

@@christianlempa Oh my god, that website is absolutely amazing. Thank you so, so much, best thing I took out of this video (already used Obsidian :P)

[@christianlempa]

@@agentxx3022 Haha thanks mate :D

[@ericsmathmoments6765]

Very intelligent presentation! I have looked at several introductions to Markdown and Obsidian but this one is special and I will be looking at it again.

[@kevdok2541]

Need to use it ASAP. I've been using notepad for taking notes and, to be honest, I wasn't taking that much notes because of the program. Thank you very much!!! 🥰

[@christianlempa]

Glad it was helpful!

[@alexanderdeyneka3879]

Greate stuff! Started with obsidian 3 weeks ago. Thank you for sharing your knowledge base with the rest of the world!❤

[@codesurferdev]

I have been slowly going down this path and continue to think about actual implementation. Great video, thank you for sharing this Christian! Just subscribed.

[@thebharath.]

Incredible presentation of using obsidian from a tech perspective Chris, Thanks.

[@christianlempa]

Thank you! :)

[@peterholthoffman]

I had not used Obsidian before but I'm giving it a go as a result of this video. So far, it's doing what I wanted. In particular, I wanted to be able to easily create documents that link to each other and Obsidian does that very easily.

[@christianlempa]

Nice! Hope you like it :)

[@shoafer0]

Your videos are constantly scary on point with what I'm working on. I appreciate your videos and content. I always come away knowing more about the subject than I started and have been able to use you as a constant resource for relevant knowledge. Thanks!

[@bedar89]

I couldn't have said it better myself. I've also started the Obsidian journey a few weeks ago.

[@christianlempa]

Thanks guys :D That tells me I'm on the right path

[@djdenton6153]

This will be great for engineering courses next semester !

[@MikeWood]

Not going to lie, since watching your video earlier today, I downloaded the flatpak and spent a good chunk of time setting it up for use. As someone who supports end users on the regular, this is a great way to keep cheat sheets and reference material. Took your advice and I am Trying to keep points brief and link to elsewhere. Thanks for showing this to us. New sub.

[@christianlempa]

Thank you 😊

[@madeyeQ]

I've only used VS code for my markdown notetaking, but I'll definitely be checking out Obsidian. I also looked at Joplin, but the fact that it doesn't store plain markdown files makes me hesitate to use it. The big strength of markdown is that it's simple text files I can edit with anything.

[@orko2027]

I´m using Obsidian for some months now. I really like it! It´s simple and has all features I need for taking notes or organizing my daily tasks for example. (For documentations I´m using BookStack.) I also use Obsidian on my mobile phone. For syncroization of the vaults (and other important data) I use syncthing. Just an other great open source tool that does one thing and does it great🙂. This works perfectly fine across all my devices.

[@christianlempa]

Oh cool! I need to try out syncthing ;)

[@adfjasjhf]

@Orko Obsidian isn't open source.

[@kanutomay]

I keep coming back to your videos Christian, they have great video quality and show/teach stuff in a simple way. I use OneNote to keep my notes but will definitely have a look to this.

[@christianlempa]

Thank you so much :) tell us how you like it!

[@nonicknamenoname3450]

Great stuff! It is amazing to see your vault repo is actually public!

[@christianlempa]

Thanks :) you’re happy to use whatever you need, and a small contribution always helps xD

[@RonnyVasquez]

Thanks for your video I will definitely give it a try, almost all the features are what I need in my current certification path documentation

[@christianlempa]

Glad it was helpful!

[@henryj5054]

So glad I saw this video! Using Obsidian now for all of my documentation and loving it!

[@christianlempa]

Thx! :)

[@sridharkaushik9290]

I use Obsidian a lot for educational contents. I also learnt Markdown while using it.

[@sergiorivas1857]

Haven’t finished watching the video but I love your content. Fun to watch, informative. All around great!

[@christianlempa]

Thank you :)

[@JPEaglesandKatz]

Thanks for bringing this fantastic app to my attention.. Been using One note for a while now but this one beats it in many ways!!!

[@christianlempa]

You’re welcome :)

[@Silent1Majority]

Thanks for presenting this important aspect for home labs.

[@christianlempa]

You're welcome ;)

[@cwhitmore88]

Well done Christian. I'll definitely take a look.

[@christianlempa]

Thx :)

[@peace_truth1471]

You are god sent. Exactly the content I needed to make up my mind about a Second Brain App, or Knowledge management system app. And at the same time, you have provided a clear and concise explanation for a lot of different topics. Well done! Thanks a lot. Just subscribed to your channel!

[@leonlee9518]

Thanks a lot for you video, i finally decide to use Obsidian, i really need my data under my control .

[@christianlempa]

Nice! You're welcome :)

[@tthe9591]

Thanks Christian! You ROCK!!

[@christianlempa]

Thanks! You too :D

[@danyloostapchenko3256]

Man thank you a lot for sharing! There are so many things I would like to have

[@Danny-mr4em]

Very clear and appreciated. Thank you!

[@danieltheshark]

Hi :) Habe gerade dein Channel entdeckt. Geil... hast das beste aus der Pandemie gemacht. Well done

[@Gr33n37]

Damn, well explained. i just installed this tool but you gave me all i needed, thanks

[@christianlempa]

Glad you liked it! :)

[@patrickprucha5522]

Thanks Christian. Your ideas for using your pkm and obsidian are very similar to mine. I realize i have alot of information on it and linux, sometimes i find copies , or i cant the data. So i am using obsidian as a organizer of my knowledge, then take it from there. Many thanks again....see you in the next one :)

[@christianlempa]

Thank you mate! :)

[@wildflowers465]

Great video! If you ever want to try something that's open source, there's Logseq, which uses markdown as a backing format as well, but shares its code.

[@zyntax81]

Insta like even before watching! I run my life around Obsidian! Love it.

[@christianlempa]

Awesome :D

[@Hakayami]

Thanks for all the tips, I think this tool should help me. I am struggling with my note taking

[@guybarros]

that was really useful, thank you for a great video!

[@XcyteBike]

Thanks for this note app! I was working on writing a web server guide and this will definitely help!

[@christianlempa]

Great to hear!

[@drbyte2009]

At the moment i make all my notes in Notepad++, but i definitly are going to switch to Obsidian. Thnx a lot Christian !!

[@christianlempa]

You're welcome! :)

[@Roarssk6920]

This video is very useful. Obsidian is something I needed horribly but had no idea I needed. I've always struggled with finding good solutions to organization problems. The linking you can do in obsidian is simple but genius. I can't wait to learn more and grow my data map.

[@christianlempa]

Thank you! Happy you enjoyed it ;)

[@franciscotorres4231]

Thanks for sharing your Cheat-Sheet repository!. It is useful to have content in text files easily migrated to Obsidian. A suggestion: define some templates for automation and other kind of notes. I personally use LogSeq for notes I daily take and move to Obsidian definitive information for my "Second Brain". Thanks again Christian.

[@8x13b]

I DIDN'T KNOW I WANTED THIS IN MY LIFE

[@christianlempa]

XD

[@andrewiglinski148]

Ah dude this kind of did what the iPad dude to my workflow… I use vsCode for absolutely everything, but I was bored so I downloaded this and 20 mins later I love it. That’s how it went with my iPad… like ‘this is the dumbest thing ever… it’s just for watching Netflix on a plane’ but instantly it changed the way I work

[@darthkielbasa]

Initially I thought this would be overkill for a novice like myself. However, you’ve made a great argument for using a markdown editor for lab management. Several times I’ve reinvented the wheel due to bad or no documentation.

[@christianlempa]

Nice, let me know how it works for you ;)

[@AHTUCYKA]

Thank you for your content and your pronunciation! I can watch interesting video and improve my listening skill at the same time. 👍🏻🙂

[@christianlempa]

Thank you! 😃

[@purposepowerlove]

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

[@christianlempa]

Thanks for watching!

[@maruda41]

I'm using Typora for my documentations, notes etc. in Markdown and it's for me it's the best md editor atm, but it's much simpler than obsidian, doesn't have this kind of vault functionality etc. Sadly, since the version 1.0 it's not free. One thing I really like in Typora are CSS stylesheets, so when exporting a PDF or printing out a document, I can style it using CSS, so the documents fit in the general design and colours of the company. I'm going to give Obsidian a chance and test it for my documentations as the vault and ordering single notes inside the vault seems to be pretty handy. Maybe I'll switch from Typora, although I already paid for it.

[@christianlempa]

Btw you can import own CSS in obsidian as well, pretty useful

[@evanjohnson2961]

That network topology diagram at 13:47 is great, did you make it manually or did you use a tool?

[@HprMg]

I would recommend using Syncthing (FOSS) in order to sync between devices. I have Obsidian on my smartphone and two laptops and it works great!

[@michael36923]

Same for me... Obsidian and Syncthing is a great combo! Works perfectly on Android as well.

[@NathanielBabalola]

What theme do you use for Obsidian?

[@christianlempa]

Thx for the suggestion

[@FKZYTV]

To use Syncthing I need to set up my own server or NAS, right?

[@HprMg]

@@FKZYTV yes, I believe you have to host it yourself. A raspberry pi should be enough.

[@SaschiIein]

I used a very long period keynote - it was written in delphi, I think. But it's developer quits work on it. So many years I used it (its like the first OneNote). It worked good, but not on linux, so many years I searched for a new tool. a few years ago I found joplin and it fits my needs very well. I saved the database in my seafile cloud so I can use it at work or at home. I started using note-tools when starting work as an developer. As you said, you forget many things when you need it once every year.

[@christianlempa]

Joplin also seems like a viable option!

[@souradchOSS]

Liked it, and already started using it

[@christianlempa]

Nice! :)

[@GrundGad]

I currently use the mac/windows sticky notes to make notes on the respective OS I'm using. I'll give Obsidian a try. Thanks for sharing.

[@christianlempa]

You’re welcome :)

[@joeg3117]

hey your sharing is really helpful for me, thanks !

[@christianlempa]

Thank you! Glad it helps :)

[@daman823]

Thanks! This was something I really needed

[@christianlempa]

Awesome! Glad it was useful :)

[@kalifornia909]

i absolutely love obisidan. i use vautls for whatever im studying at the time like certifications then i consoldiate everything into a self hosted mediawiki. probably overkill but thanks to pandoc its prety easy to convert markdown to wiki. fun fact discord also will also do a lot of markdown in the chat as well.

[@tamaratiny]

Tnx, will check it out. I'm currently using Notion.

[@BrendaAnderson]

Thanks for introducing me to Obsidian.

[@christianlempa]

Any time!

[@flobow8446]

I started to using it for my AWS Studies and extended it with all sorts of hobby projects. It's great , fast and simple. I may have a look in the multiple plugins available. Need to get into the graph thing:)

[@robertfichtinger]

Great video, as always! Big fan of your channel. So I tried Obsidian and I truly like the way of orchestrating all sources of knowledge in this horizontal way (instead of the vertical mapping type of structure). Particularly for academic purposes, I am enthusiastic about the Zotero integration. On the other hand, I am not that fond of the complexity and the endless fiddling. So recently I may have found the actual gem: Anytype. It is provided for all distributions (Mac, Windows, Linux) and is apparently open sourcing their code (really looking forward to the first one to set up a Zotero integration). There is also a self-hosted version planned for this year.

[@luqmanhamdan9285]

I'm using Joplin as my note taking for all IT & technical documentation. It is free and open source software which is a huge must for me, paid version is really cheap starting from $1.99 give you the ability to sync your notes to multiple devices using Joplin Cloud and the ability to publish notes online by shareable link. It also got many plugins that you can install to create the note taking experience you desired.

[@andreg6203]

Great video!

[@84Actionjack]

Great video. I've been using a plain text file to keep notes on commands while learning Linux which offers no organization and a lot of scrolling. I think this will be a great help. Thanks.

[@christianlempa]

Glad it was helpful!

[@seppneimusser5723]

OMG°° you are my hero... I desperatly used BasKet before xD Thank you so much^^

[@johngleeson7919]

Obsidian isn't open source, though you say it is in your intro. Maybe I'm wrong!

[@christianlempa]

Yep, you're absolutely right! Sorry for this mistake, don't know why it was burned in my head, it was :D thanks for the heads-up mate!

[@blazekyn2750]

Obsidian isn't but Trilium is!

[@Mike-cu3kj]

As is Joplin

[@cantis]

Obsidian isn’t open source but it’s output/files are in markdown only so you’re not stuck!

[@xbbast]

Hello Christian, Thank you ! You made me discover Obsidian and I'm installing it right away :D. I'm currently using Simplenote from Wordpress. It is not a GREAT tool, but I like the "publish" feature which allows me to quickly share notes with coworkers. Still I'm happy to test Obsidian, especially if I can share a knowledge git repository with my team ! About code blocks : you said to use "three single quotes". I think you meant "three backticks". But anyway, people will figure it out (or already know) :) Cheers ! EDIT : I just saw that it is free only for personal use. So I will not use it with my team.

[@samuelskeirik2608]

Professional use isn’t that expensive

[@xbbast]

@@samuelskeirik2608 Yes indeed, but I'm not in charge of it in my company.

[@GoranZuzic]

I've been keeping a knowledge base for the last 5 years and converged to a very different system (I saw a few things in your presentation I consider suboptimal, at least for me). Most importantly, I think it's best to use a single file with search (!) so I don't need to think what file/vault is something stored at or where do I write in (very important if you have like 100+ files like I did at a point). Second, I write much less stuff for systems like Docker (just a glossary of definitions and commands, no installation guide lol). Third, I only write for myself so it doesn't need to be neat like yours (no sharing with ppl). Fourth, I mostly organize by dates, so I don't need to think where to write (I always on top, unless it's expanding a prior topic). Details: I use a simple file on Dropbox, that grew to 80k lines, in emacs org mode, but those choices are unimportant.

[@GoranZuzic]

Of course, many many other things I also agree with you :)

[@positivity1016]

Awesome video 👍

[@1conscience0dimension]

You are so clear in your mind. do you spend some time each day cleaning up things you worked on previously? Oh I recommand the plugin close similar tabs

[@ic9628]

I had been doing this for years with Typora and Git. This program looks amazing. I also like Bear notes for Mac OS. Will give this a try

[@christianlempa]

Thx! Let me know if you like it ;)

[@ic9628]

@@christianlempa yeah love it! Although reluctant to use any special proprietary syntax in case I want to take my notes to another application in future. But definitely love the interface and customisation options. I had been using Typora but their 3 license limit has started to cause me problems using my notes on my machines. Thanks for this recommendation!!

[@christianlempa]

@@ic9628 You're welcome! Thanks for your feedback mate :)

[@naderbelal8439]

Hi Kristian, I would like to advise you this, 1. Use Zotero to manage the references, there're are many youtube videos that tech how to link Zotero's references with Obsidian. 2. Make your notes more atomic (smaller), then make a host file that is composed of those atomic notes

[@christianlempa]

Thanks for sharing

[@ishandiablo]

Hi, can you elaborate 2nd point?

[@petebw]

hey Christian, I use iCloud to sync my Obsidian folder and that allows for iPhone usage that stays up to date with the desktop. This also allows for vault sharing too, if you share the vault folder with someone else; I use this to keep my up to date vault on my mobile, personal mac, and work mac (my work mac has a different iCloud user for instance).

[@christianlempa]

That's right! Since I switched to iPhone, that becomes a viable option :)

[@FuzailShaikh]

I personally use Notion and love it’s versatility

[@ZachGoebs16]

Me too! Switched from onenote. I also use sublime for on the fly stuff but I'm not a fan of being forced into markdown editing format for everything. Still looks like a good product!

[@bedar89]

Love the video, but I hope there will be a part 2 in the future when your pkm has grown even more. Thanks for sharing!

[@christianlempa]

Maybe! ;)

[@spark-games-uk]

Thanks for sharing mate ❤

[@christianlempa]

You’re welcome ☺️

[@MilanStojanovic9]

*Bold markdown feature works here* :)

[@davidfoster6433]

Very help full.... Thanks

[@christianlempa]

Most welcome

[@raylabpro]

@christianlempa could you tell, which software did you use to draw network topology in your docs -> network -> Network Topology :) and today i started moving from Joplin to Obsidian after your video about plugins, thanks for that :)

[@Good-and-Geeky]

I tried Obsidian and liked it well enough. Since the I got into Logseq and like it more…😊

[@Good-and-Geeky]

@@priapulida I've never heard of Dynalist - I'll check it out

[@rodrigoromero8276]

Hi Christian, at minute 13:47 you show a very interesting graphic, what language did you use or what kind of labels? I would be very grateful

[@glenn22dv]

Great video! I'm learning markdown at the moment for mapping my network configuration. I'm learning new things every day by watching your videos. keep up the good work! Question: Did you also use markdown for your network diagram that shows the connections to your firewall etc? Or did u use other software?

[@christianlempa]

Thank you! Great that the videos help you so much :) I have used asciiflow for the diagram and some handish work to improve it

[@MTSoliman]

I came a long to Obsidien last year I found it not friendly enough, but after your offering I am using it already. O searched about and i found many people use it

[@calculate_gc]

Also markdown understands some html commands which means that if you already got used to markdown, you can always go deeper in improving your documents

[@Bielocke]

This was a fatastic video, thank you Chris!

[@christianlempa]

Thank you 🙏

[@nelsontovars]

HUGE Advice. I WILL Take it.

[@christianlempa]

Awesome :D

[@streamdoctor2258]

For my own notes I use Joplin which does support cloud storage services, so in my case I sync to my mobile using OneDrive. At work where I need to be able to share knowledge, I use bookshelf which is a wiki like server. both are based on Markdown

[@christianlempa]

Sounds interesting as well!