Makes Obsidian note-taking app It's easy to jot down your thoughts wherever you are. It can do everything from tracking your random thoughts to acting as a Markdown editor. However, Obsidian isn't much fun if you can't create notes the way you want! These 12 Obsidian tricks will make your notes more organized and beautiful, while also making it easier to find important information.
Also Helpful: Is Obsidian not working the way you want? Check out Best Brand Editors for Windows.
1. Create a Canvas
If you haven't updated your Obsidian to include Canvas Core Plugin Then you're missing out. It's a new plugin that lets you create better-looking charts than a mermaid.
While this and most other core plugins are turned on by default, you can activate them by going to Settings -> Basic Plugins And select the green toggle key.
To create a new canvas, right-click a folder, and then click “New canvas”You can drag the buttons at the bottom to add them to the canvas and set their colors to turn them into something like sticky notes! Right-dragging lets you move around the canvas and look around other areas.
It's a great trick from Obsidian when you get tired of working with Mermaid.js charts.
2. Set Canvas Arrows
As mentioned earlier, you can create charts using canvases. Do this by pointing the cursor to one side of a card, note, or image, and then dragging the green arrow to one side or the other. You can remove the arrow by right-clicking on it and clicking "Removal".
You can also add labels to arrows by right-clicking on the arrow and clicking Label. "amendment".
Tip: If you need to print Obsidian elements, you can export them as PDF files, then Merge PDF files And print it.
3. Canvases are read-only
It would be terrible if you put so much effort into making your canvas look neat, only to have it ruined. Locking your canvas makes sure you don't accidentally ruin it.
Doing this is simple. Just tap the cogwheel icon to the right (the icon that looks like the settings button for Obsidian), then tap Read only To convert the current canvas to a read-only canvas.
4. Make tables
While it's not as good as Excel, you can create tables in Obsidian using Markdown's table format. Try pasting these into an Obsidian note:
|Species|Name|Age| |-|-|-| |dog|Maddogna|3| |cat|Fluffman|3| |iguana|Gizzards the Great|2|
As you move your cursor down the last line, you'll see that Obsidian automatically formats the text into a table. In this format, each | is a cell wall or border. All lines in the first section define a field and must have a series of | - | underneath them to distinguish them from items. There must be one of these in each field, or you'll have more or fewer cells than fields available.
Of course, unlike Excel Or Google Sheets You can't use this to do math. But it's an easy way to organize information in your notes without having to copy and paste a screenshot of a spreadsheet.
5. Create metadata
Metadata is the part of a note that you don't see in Reading View. It's a great place to find information about the note without scrolling through lines of text you don't care to see.
You can create metadata by going to the first line and typing one — and the other — in the line below it. Everything you put between these two becomes hidden, as shown below.
author: Terenz Jomar Dela Cruz year: 2023 edited: false tags: - article - internet - maketecheasier
You must format your metadata in YAML, as in the example. Obsidian allows JSON as an alternative, which can cause issues with other community plugins that read metadata, such as Dataview.
6. Find your notes
When you create multiple notes and forget where you put last week's dinner recipe, things can get complicated. Fortunately, you can search for that recipe note based on its title.
Allows you to press Ctrl + O Search notes by title. You can also easily create a note by typing a name you haven't used yet. It will appear in the parent-level folder.
7. Full screen mode
Obsidian's full-screen mode is useful for avoiding distracting notifications and the flashing of minimized windows in the corner of the taskbar. By pressing F11 You can turn the Obsidian window (possibly maximized) into a full-screen window.
Obsidian full screen (left) is separated from zoomed in (right) by a red line. Notice how the taskbar is missing in full screen.
Remember that full screen mode works just like pressing the F11 In your browser. You can still click on Alt + Tab To move to other windows. The windows you selected will continue to display. "Kept in front" Over the Obsidian fullscreen window.
8. Take full advantage of the right side drawer.
The right-hand drawer is usually reserved for backlinks and the community calendar plugin. There's not much you can do with it, especially since it's so small! But did you know you can place notes there?
You can drag a note to the appropriate side drawer to open it. It's a neat place to add a checklist while working primarily in the middle area. You can even place photos, canvases, and databases there.
Tip: Once you have everything in the right place in your file, you can Take screenshots To capture everything.
9. Dashboard
Obsidian lets you do a lot of things, but it's hard to remember them all. It's nice to have the command panel all in one place!
You can open up Command Prompt by pressing Ctrl + PIt even has shortcuts for each command. The best part is that you don't even need to take your hands off the keyboard to use these commands. This nifty trick from Obsidian lets you navigate using the up and down arrow keys, then press Enter To use the special command.
10. Check your version
Since Obsidian is an offline editor, you'll need to update it to see the latest features and essential plugins. However, downloading the latest Obsidian installer is a waste of bandwidth, just to find out you're already working with the latest version.
You can view the latest version by going to Settings -> About. Shows you the latest version, changelog, and how to check for updates.
Good to know: If you're using Obsidian on iOS, learn about How to update your apps on iOS To get the latest version of Obsidian.
11. Formatting with Markdown
Obsidian uses Markdown syntax for design notes. It's a kind of leave-and-see approach where you type text, press a spacebar, and the text is automatically formatted.
12. Formatting with HTML and CSS
Besides Markdown, Obsidian also lets you format using HTML and CSS. It doesn't support multiple files, so most HTML5 practices won't work here. Also, you'll need to use inline CSS to make things work.
The great thing is that this allows you to design your notes much more than regular Markdown. You can also draw using In-line CSS , and it's stylish!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: How to use Obsidian Graph View?
The answer: Obsidian chart view for looking at the connections between notes. Each line in the view represents a link or hyperlink that points to another note. Notes that do not contain links to other notes are called "Orphans". You can filter these and others like tags and attachments.
Q2: Do I need to install anything to use Mermaid.js on Obsidian?
The answer: Obsidian natively supports Mermaid.js for building charts. You don't need to install anything to use it. You can also create a canvas to avoid using Mermaid.js.
Q3: What are Obsidian insider builds?
The answer: Obsidian insider builds are development-level builds intended to test new features before they are introduced to stable builds. You must purchase a Catalyst license, then go to Settings -> About -> Receive insider builds To do that.
