Abstract
This How to explains the basics of obsidian and outlines a few guidelines that help creating notes in a standardized way.
The Intro
Wikipedia
Obsidian is a personal knowledge base and note-taking software application that operates on Markdown files. It allows users to make internal links for notes and then to visualize the connections as a graph. It is designed to help users organize and structure their thoughts and knowledge in a flexible, non-linear way. The software is free for personal use, with commercial licenses available for pay.
Every obsidian note is a single raw text file written in the markdown markup language. This means that each conventional formatting (think : heading, blod, italic, lists, tables, links, …) is done through a specific syntax. It is not a what you see is what you get editor (like MS word) in the sense that it does not provide you with a Graphical interface that can be use to format your documents. However, it still has a live preview editing mode where it will render you document as you type it in raw text. In exchange for this, you get
- Complete portability across any operating system
- Complete future proofing. (Your notes will always be readable and portable)
- Every note/content you create is in a centralized directory
- Light-weight files
- Built-in standardization. (there is only 1 way of doing something)
Ok, sounds good, but where to get started?
Getting Started
The first thing you need to know is how to create a Vault. In a purely technical aspect, an Obsidian Vault is any folder on your computer that has a .obsidian/ folder within it. For instance, this very vault is the folder .../DocuVault/content/.
