Obsidian is an excellent tool for capturing and organizing your notes in markdown format. Here are some tips for using Obsidian.md/

Getting Started #

• Beginners Guide: One of the best resources you'll find if you are new to Obsidian Getting Started with Obsidian Notes: A Beginner’s Guide - Obsidian Rocks
• Import: Import notes - Obsidian Help 'Import from other apps and file formats'
• How I use Obsidian — Steph Ango Creator of Obsidian
• Even if you think you know what you are doing in Obsidian, Nick Milo's "If I Had To Start In Obsidian, Here's What I'd Do" YouTube is worth your time: https://youtu.be/c6wXmkmt8WM
• My Template Vault and How I Use Obsidian

UI #

• Quickly find a note by title (or part of the title) - Obsidian has a "quick switcher" (default shortcut: `Ctrl + O`) that searches only by note titles. On mobile, the quick switcher is at the bottom middle of the screen. and looks like a circle with a + in the middle.
  

Markdown #

• Markdown table: How to Create a Great Looking Table - Markdown Land https://markdown.land/markdown-table
• How to use Markdown to Center a Text, Image, Title, or Table - Markdown Land https://markdown.land/markdown-center#markdown-center-a-table

Getting Text into Obsidian #

• Obsidian Web Clipper — Steph Ango 'Web Clipper is an open source browser extension that saves articles and pages from the web as Markdown files in Obsidian.' It is supported on all major browsers.
  • You can add templates to your Web Clipper that customize how the content looks in your vault. They save you time later by pre-formatting your notes with the right frontmatterGitHub - kepano/clipper-templates: Obsidian Web Clipper templates for various sites.
    • Lou Plummer has a good one for Mastodon tips and tricks posts: Automation/Amerpies Obsidian Web Clipper Templates/Mastodon at main · cyclelou/Automation · GitHub
  • A side effect of #Obsidian web clipper is that the images can be huge when viewing your note and you have to do a lot of scrolling to get past them. So, I set out to find a solution. TechLifeWeb - Enhancing How Images Look in Articles Captured by Obsidian Web Clipper
• All the Ways to Get Web Content Into Obsidian | Lou Plummer

Useful Plugins #

• Obsidian with Spaced Repetition Plugin - upskill.quest https://upskill.quest/obsidian-with-spaced-repetition-plugin 'The Spaced Repetition Plugin is a great addition for enhanced learning through flashcards and here's a quick intro!'
• Dataview
  • List Everything Obsidian Dataview Can See on a Page Put a small dataview query on a page and you'll see all the fields that Dataview can see
  • How to get a list of items containing a specific tag with Obsidian and Dataview link
  • Dataview Cheat Sheet linkThis cheatsheet provides a handy reference guide for writing powerful queries using the dataview plugin in Obsidian.
  • Basic Dataview Query Builder link 'The Basic Dataview Query Builder will guide you through some questions and put together a dataview query based on your answers. You can use this query as-is in your vault or as a starting point to refine a more advanced query.
    The goal is to help you on your first dataview queries and to give you a better understanding of the syntax and needed information to build dataview queries from scratch.'
  • Bases is a new feature in Obsidian (1.9 is in pre-public release currently (May 2025). Someone has already developed a tool to convert from Dataview Tables to Bases. Bases Toolbox 'Convert Dataview TABLE queries to Obsidian Bases format'
• Itinerary
  • Link 'Planning a vacation or need to otherwise see a set of events on a monthly, weekly, or daily calendar? If so -- obsidian itinerary can help you keep your plans in order.'
• Kanban
  • Link How I use Kanban boards in Obsidian to manage my personal projects
• Mononote
  • Link 'ensures each note occupies only one tab per window pane. If a note is already open, its existing tab will be focused instead of opening the same file in the current tab. Works for opening notes via links, menus, hotkeys.'
• Templater
  • Link 'Templater is a template plugin for Obsidian.md. It defines a templating language that lets you insert variables and functions results into your notes. It will also let you execute JavaScript code manipulating those variables and functions.'
  • Templater code for daily note navigation
  • Obsidian: Templater Converters Link 'how I am also using Templater to convert existing content, transforming it in a variety of ways to effectively build my own text processing functionality within Obsidian.'
• Tasks
  • Obsidian Tasks Custom Statuses is a nice way to mix the Tasks plugin with regular checklists
• Webpage Export:
  • Link Export html from single files, canvas pages, or whole vaults. Direct access to the exported HTML files allows you to publish your digital garden anywhere. Focuses on flexibility, features, and style parity.

Useful Websites #

• How to speed up loading Obsidian: If your Obsidian vault is loading slowly, especially on mobile, follow the tips here. If you can copy and paste you can get this up and running. Basically it allows you to choose how quickly certain plugins load. It does take a little experimentation but I have found it to be very useful in the short time I've had it set up: Improve Obsidian Startup Time on Older Devices with the FastStart Script | by TfTHacker | Obsidian Observer | Medium 'While this hack works on all devices, the main goal is to improve startup on mobile devices, where startup speed makes the most significant difference.'
• 9 Obsidian plugins for your vault management | Daniel Prindii
• 11 Obsidian tips and tricks for boosting productivity 'Whether you are a power user or just exploring this trendy tool, we have got a treasure trove of tips to elevate your Obsidian setup in no time.'

Styling Your Vault #

• Properties view CSS - The Fall Collection - Share & showcase - Obsidian Forum
• 27 Awesome CSS Snippets For Customizing Obsidian - Obsidian Ninja
• Alex Qwxlea: has CSS code to hide Dataview in Published Notes

Troubleshooting #

• Lou Plummer has some advice gathered for Using Obsidian on an iPhone - Troubleshooting Advice from All Over
• YouTube - Obsidian Troubleshooting: Fix Dataview Performance, Plugins, Minimal Theme, Restoring Vaults