Getting Started with Visual PKM from scratch using Obsidian-Excalidraw

[@mauriciolee7349]

This is EXACTLY what I need: a set of 79 video tutorials to use Obsidian and Excalidraw from beginner to advance. It has DOUBLE Obisidian's usefulness for me because it makes my Obsidian notes VISUAL with little effort. Thank Zsolt very much

[@RameshBaburbabu]

I thought using Obsidian was habit-forming. But trying Excalidraw felt almost psychedelic - it transported my mind somewhere new and creative. Now I feel excited exploring Excalidraw more, like I'm discovering endless potential. This tool has me totally hooked.

[@Paladin101]

This is a beautiful tool and thanks for the great demonstration. I’m in my 60’s, dyslexic, ADD, and this looks like an absolute godsend to me so thank you. 👍 I’ll be playing with this for days 😊

[@viktoriia2776]

My goodness, how wonderful it is!! Thank you so much!!

[@kamikamen_official]

Damn, I finally understand what I am supposed to use Excalidraw for. Until now I was essentially using it as a glorified drawing tool (with stylus) to solve math problems in Obsidian and there was no interaction with my Md notes. Amazing, Glorious, I'll have a lot of fun with this.

[@BT-vh4lz]

Thank you for being so kind and thoughtful for making this video for beginners. I really like Excalidraw and use it daily for studying and organizing notes. You're the best Zsolt !!!

[@willliu1306]

Thanks Zsolt, this arrangement is what I need. I love your contribution for this community. Hope this series can help me step by step from Excalidraw to Excalibrain.

[@matheus_MVPMB]

Omg, when I discovered Obsidian I always thoght it wasn't suficient for my style of thinking. Always used a notebook and inkpen to represent my thoughts and missions. You just made THE tool for my style, thank you so much!

[@SuperBeanson]

This man, Zsolt, is an altruistic genius

[@rafaelcadaval4759]

Thank you for all your work, Zsolt! I hope you continue sharing your perspective as well as these demonstrations, it helps a lot! Wish the “one man band” well 🙌

[@RickCrist-hn9wo]

Wow, this is an amazing plug-in for Obsidian. Thanks to Zault for developing it. I will need to explore the many, many capabilities of this tool and I look forward to adding Excalidraw drawings to my alternate brain.

[@RameshBaburbabu]

Awesome and Thanks Zsolt !! , for giving a wonderful tool to the community. I have been trying and trying to use this tool for an year. ( I know, I am lazy ). This clip, helps to just to start to create a simple excalidraw, and slowing add more and more to it. Please continue this series. and once again thanks for all your hardwork.

[@randalfmajere7239]

Yes this video was absolutely missing! Thanks!

[@renzogaz6554]

Thanks! It is what I was always looking for! Great tool!

[@ВладимирАстраханцев]

OMFG THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!

[@razvanuscatu8137]

This is amazing!!! I just discover obsidian and excalidraw and the share potential that you can do with them is astonishing!

[@wongsimon2387]

Thank you for what you have done for the community. ;-)

[@rgsmess]

This is perfect for me, thanks! I get overwhelmed quickly by all the features in Obsidian and Excalidraw.

[@rjalberto]

Your contribution is fantastic!!! Congratulations!!!

[@webb996]

As a newbie to obsidian and excalidraw this is extremly useful ! I LOVE the plugin and this is one of the main reasons I use obsidian ! But It's true that it is a bit overwhelming at start and get a bit confused, so thank you so much, I understood a lot here !! 😍

[@dadsh85]

This is insane! Thank you! I think Obsidian+Excalidraw will be in my life for a long time!

[@asstrole]

Spectacular. Thank you for your hard work and explanations

[@nolanroube1009]

Thank you Zsolt very much for this video ! I'm waiting for the second part.

[@jamesgyarmathy9206]

Wow, this is awesome. I love how passionate you are and how excited you get about these capabilities!

[@bobbysands5385]

Thanks for this, Zsolt!

[@Cygnus-A2]

Excellent video!! Thanks for sharing.

[@gebebege]

Vous faites un excellent travail. Avec une très patiente et méthodique pédagogie. Bravo pour la qualité de vos vidéos !

[@grahamjoss4643]

Thanks for all you do. It’s very helpful for me. Peace and love from Chicago

[@mariuspretorius2130]

I am new to Obsidian and looking at how to leverage it as a teacher. I was looking at Canvas and Excalidraw to determine which tool to use for visual thinking. Your passion regarding your creation has convinced me to use Excalidraw. Thank you for creating such a wonderful tool!

[@farzadmf]

Ultimate respect for everything you do, AMAZING job. Honestly, I'm out of words to describe how I feel about all the genius things you do for these plugins

[@1dripy-e5s]

Love this. This took my vault to a whole new level. I’m visual and love linking my notes. Plus being organized. Love it! Will support your work.

[@brycegardner6171]

That was really helpful. Thanks!

[@DayoSamuelMastery]

This is what I've been looking for. Thanks

[@VisualPKM]

Glad you found it!

[@ss-manoa4534]

This is just what I needed. Thank you Zsolt!

[@ericmaina6779]

I found this very useful. Thanks

[@shiki5290]

You are absolutely awesome!

[@tonyatlas5653]

Thank you so much for the video. Very accessible and clear! This video was definitely needed by many. Don't hesitate. I have already shared it with someone :) Congratulations on your million downloads. You mentioned that there are a lot of settings in the plugin and their number can be intimidating for beginners. I suggest you take a look at how these customizations have been distributed in the Linter plugin. It looks like a very elegant solution to me. At first they also had just a lot of settings piled up in one menu.

[@VisualPKM]

I will take a look. Thanks.

[@bobbishop1621]

Strongly suggest making several sessions along this trail! Had been using Notability and Concept. The fundamentals along with the fundamental reason for Excalidraw have been hiding in plain sight. Linked sketches is the core value. "PKM" is jargon that can fade into the background. Sketches and Notes that link, PERIOD. Put this video at the top of everything: KZbin, Obsidian, Twitter.....

[@MJGenevroEducation]

This is spectacular work. Thank you, Zsolt. - Mike

[@ARNBNDL]

Really nice and perfect for newbie of Obsidian/Excali like me, thank you so much for this... you are brillant.

[@marcorl100]

Excalidraw is a game changer for me. I also use it on my phone (s24 with an S Pen) and its so easy and fun to make drawings on my mindmaps. The only drawback on mobile version is that it doesn't seem to be loading embbeded pdfs. It just looks transparent.

[@VisualPKM]

That is a bug. Thanks for letting me know

[@TheOriginalDuckley]

This was so great! I haven’t checked yet but I really hope you did end up doing “session 2” and beyond!

[@VisualPKM]

I haven't continued it yet, but I plan to...

[@betterkeiii]

that‘s really really helpful for me! i'm totally a beginner

[@rdj8060]

Great presentation as always 👍

[@ijustankit]

Thank you for this ❤

[@1conscience0dimension]

Finally, after 1 million downloads. You better do a session 2 dude. 🤣

[@pedramabbasi4172]

Hi Thanks for this awesome video Do you have a playlist that includes videos about the basics of obsidian ... from basic to advance actually.

[@VisualPKM]

This is the best starting point I can offer: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpC0Z5Ssf6yijas - watch it, then follow the link in the video description

[@vladimirnorenko7720]

Awesome tool! Thanks!

[@MaxwellBuba]

Good explanation, keep up the great work, very excellent program

[@AlexandreCOULON-cx3yh]

And it's free ! Thanks 😭

[@kristomen]

Ever since I started using Obsidian with the ExcaliBrain and ExcaliDraw plugins, I feel as peaceful as if I've achieved mental enlightenment. Before the era of Obsidian, I always had the feeling that the software didn't meet my expectations.

[@realgouravverma]

Hi, when "display central node as embedded frame" option is turned on in the excalibrain canvas then on clicking on the canvas links it is directly opening the canvas note in the next tab. But when that option is turned off then on clicking on canvas links it is opening it in the excalibrain with its all the connections. So when that option is on how to open that canvas link in the excalibrain itself? Even if it doesn't embed the canvas that it fine too but it should atleast show as note with its connections just like it shows when that option of embedded frame is off.

[@datonernegen]

Wonderful, thank you!

[@DarrenHillis-nh2km]

At the start of this video, your Screen seems to have a lot of tools on the right vertical of the screen. During the demo part, there are only a few "tools" on the vertical right. How do you get the "tools" to display there? Thanks for all your videos I'm learning!!...

[@VisualPKM]

Those are custom pens and pinned scripts. You can find info about custom pens in this video (I recommend watching the entire video, but there are timestamps if you want to jump to where it talks about pens): kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpC0Z5Ssf6yijas And this shows you how to pin scripts: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmmxm6Ntj72Ml8k

[@kuratazam]

Mr Zsolt, Your efforts are extremely appreciated and have added massive value in my central and visual knowledge management. Please do continue the series and include ExcaliBrain. Does ExcaliDraw linking & other functions work with Arabic Language as well?

[@VisualPKM]

Linking should work language independent. What works in Obsidian should work in Excalidraw. That said, I restrict my own links to English characters (even though that is not my native language, but I socialized with computers at the time when character support was not very reliable... and still think to keep my links and filenames simple, to maintain platform independence. I do have a series on ExcaliBrain here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bn2okISajraNjM0

[@JLXcellent]

This is a fantastic plugin. One of those things that once you've started using it, you can never go back! Thank you for making it and sharing with the community. Is there a way to have the mouse scroll wheel act act as zoom by default? And have Ctrl-wheel be scroll up/dn instead?

[@VisualPKM]

Go to plugin settings/Excalidraw appearance and behavior/zoom

[@JLXcellent]

@@VisualPKM Found it! Tnx :-)

[@vivekr463]

Hi Zsolt, Is there any possibility to get library searchable and grouping option in excalidraw plugin. sometimes i have more diagrams in library. its a time consuming process to search the appropriate one that i am looking for.

[@sdnnvs]

Very good...

[@wangtao-xz8um]

功能真的太强大了😍😍😍

[@frequencymanipulator]

Magic, Thanks.

[@jacquelinebueno9561]

Amazing video about starting point. I was using as separated tools. Now I would love to integrate them. Is there some way I can open my .excalidraw files from computer on obsidian?

[@VisualPKM]

Place the .Excalidraw files in your Vault folder. From the Obsidian Command Palette select convert .Excalidraw files to .MD files. You can also open the.Excalidraw files directly (though I don't recommend it). For this you need to go to Obsidian settings end enable Obsidian to display unrecognized file extensions under "Files & Links"

[@thegoldenbites3682]

Hi, I'm just getting started with Obsidian...and I'm blown away with your content...the combination Obsidian and Excalidraw is super powerful. Is it possible to install or access the libraries on Excalidraw and use it in Obsidian? Im interested in having a AWS icons to be able to use in obsidian. Thank you in advance.

[@VisualPKM]

yes. you need to download the library from excalidraw libraries and then load the library to Obsidian Excalidraw clicking "open library"

[@thegoldenbites3682]

Thank you for your prompt reply. I see, but does obsidian save it or I need to do this process every time, please? ​@@VisualPKM

[@VisualPKM]

@@thegoldenbites3682 your library is saved in Obsidian. If you use Obsidian on multiple devices and use Obsidian sync, then your library is synchronized to all your devices

[@thegoldenbites3682]

Excellent, thank you so much @VisualPKM for your kindness and help

[@levopotak]

Hey Zsolt, how are you doing? Two future requests here for ✍ in obsidian: Would it be possible to add: 1. Script or command to see →character and word count← in selected element or in highlighted text. 2. Autocomplete feature or Various Complement - plugin working in Excalidraw Canva.

[@Wingedmagician]

This helped a lot!

[@DJ-rt2hj]

Just WOW

[@alcxander]

my excalidraw opens up as a md file off the bat not as a drawing. what is the configuration to show as canvas first and not a md first?

[@VisualPKM]

There can be several reasons: - Do you by any chance have the "excalidraw-open-md" document property set to true? - Do you have other plugins installed? Excalidraw uses an approach called MonkeyPatching to hijack the function when a markdown document is opened to switch it to Excalidraw view mode. Some other plugins use this approach as well... there could be a conflict between two plugins. Try turning off other plugins and restarting Obsidian. - Obsidian will remember how a page was last opened, so if the last time you looked at an Excalidraw file it was in markdown view mode, it will open in that mode the next time around. Switch to Excalidraw mode, close and try to open the drawing again. How do you open the drawing, using the Quick Switcher (CTRL+O) or from the Obsidian File Explorer, or from search results, maybe following a link?

[@_jenfi]

Thanks for the tutorial! I just installed Excalidraw, but I can't figure out how I can get access to the extra tools you have in the intro section of this video (and many of your other videos) on the righthand menu (like the highlighter, different pens, ...). Does anyone know how to do this?

[@VisualPKM]

I think this vide will answer your questions: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZuxmZ2XfZd-oKs

[@_jenfi]

Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for!

[@CtrlGame]

I use your plugin. It is great for my needs. I am a student. I will love to have the power to organize the drawings in separate folders, by date, just like the daily notes does. Can you do this in the feature? For example, if today is 12 August 2023 and I create a new Excalidraw, then, it will be automatically inserted in the path: Excalidraw/2023/August. If it is September, then add it in Excallidraw/2023/September... and so on. This can be done by updating the option for file name in such manner that it can let user to decide the path like: YYYY/MMMM/Excalidraw_YYYY-MM-DD-HH.mm.ss. And if already is a way to do it, and I didn't figure it out yet, can I have some advice?

[@d3j4v00]

wow. Now i just need a way to bulk import my Canvas files because there's nothing Canvas does that Excallidraw doesn't do better.

[@1conscience0dimension]

oh I kept my vaults on the F drive too, until I discover it was in FAT32 (to not lose it if I uninstall the OS) and it was making obsidian very slow.

[@munish259272]

unable to select the square, circle. It just wont get selected

[@VisualPKM]

You mean the drawing on the canvas or the tool in the toolbar?

[@munish259272]

@@VisualPKM It is working now, i had a plugin external link opener causing probelms with excalidraw. It is working fine now. This is an awesome tool, i think this is what obsidian was missing to be complete note taking, PKM tool. After getting headache from Microsoft one note sync issues i am coming here to obsidian and excalidraw and i don't think i will ever go back to one note.

[@VisualPKM]

It turns out the issue was caused by the External Link Opener v1.0.2 plugin. More info here: github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin/issues/1402

[@grahamjoss4643]

i'd argue the "one man band" should focus on making great "music"! the community will make the explainer vids...

[@Michaeljxy]

Admire! You are awsome!