I use aliases a lot in my Obsidian vault for names and epithets of deities. I'm doing a PhD on ancient funerary art and that can cross over three distinct cultures and languages (Greek, Etruscan and Roman). So for example, I have a note for Hades but it's also aliased as Aita (Etruscan) and Pluto (Roman). Within that note I have specific sections for each culture/language. I might separate them out later but for now it's all just in one note. Not just names but epithets too. The Romans also referred to him as Dis Pater. The Greeks calling him Aidoneus. He can be referred to as the 'lord-of-many' (aka the dead), the 'commander-of-many' etc. So having the aliases is really nice because I can link directly in a text for phrases that I'm not used to just by wiki bracketing the phrase or epithets without having to try and add a footnote or callout box etc.
That is such a perfect example of the usefulness of aliases! And what a cool PhD topic! When I was trying to think of random examples to use in the video, one I thought of was the play "Macbeth" because it's often referred to as "The Scottish Play" or just "Maccers."
I found that descriptive note titles are much easier for me to recall than names of concepts, especially after some time has passed. That's why I have converted a lot of my notes to have more descriptive titles. For example, the note "liking gap" became "other people like us more than we assume", and I added "liking gap" as an alias. This makes it easy to search for concepts and link to them, while preserving the descriptive titles that come to mind much easier when I try to find connections between notes.
@@morganeua It works really well for me. And as a bonus, it helps with keeping notes atomic. Whenever I struggle to find a good descriptive title, more often than not the reason is that there is actually more than one idea contained in my note, and it might be a good idea to split the whole thing up. Of course I didn't come up with this, but I'm nowhere as rigorous as you are with citing my sources, so I can't tell you who I stole the idea from. =)
Aliases are great for multilingual purposes. You can alias different names for the same concept in different languages. Thank you for saying about them :)
Thank you for the advice. As Italian working with both articles and academic papers, I have notes in Italian and English, sometimes mixed inside the same note.
Thanks for highlighting this feature. I've found it handy to add the plural (or singular) form as an alias when creating notes, especially for terms and definitions
I love to use aliases and often also use them for abbreviation, which are really common in my field of research (biophysical chemistry). This way I can easily refer to a note with the abbreviation, but still have the full name of e.g. a certain technique in the title of the note.
I have Obsidian installed in my computer for more than 3 years now (lol) as I contemplate one day - finally - starting my Zettelkasten. I never knew this tweak existed! And you make note-taking sound simple and at the same time so exciting that you renovated my willing to give it a go! Can't wait to see more of your vids! :)
I've not used aliases, but opted for the (more tedious) `[[linked note|alias]]` format, which could be used in your last example about research if you, don't want to alias it in case you do want to distinguish general and academic research, in the rendered text you'd see `alias` but the link would still refer to the `linked note`.
I love this way of using aliases! I've only just started to use them for in-text citations (I have a lot of papers in my vault and do a lot of rough drafts). That way I can easy share documents with my advisor, lab mates, etc..
Just discovering this today, has hugely helped me not have to make multiple notes like : [[self-sacrifice|sacrifice]] , [[sacrificial|sacrifice]], etc.
I also just found out about using the vertical bar ‘|’ symbol as a way of creating Aliases in links ie [dog|canine] which will change the name of the link to the new Alias this may simplify the look of the notes. Also I could use the “Properties” feature to show Aliases… I’m not sure which is best. I’m still investigating this.
Ooh, I didn't know that about the vertical bar. Now you can just type the three dashes and the properties just pops up automatically! So, that's what I do.
This is extremely helpful! One of my main interests at the moment is intergenerational/transgenerational trauma, where these two notions are used interchangeably most of the time and I was struggling organizing them in Obsidian. Thank you!
Great example! There are so many inter vs trans terms in my field as well 😂 I'm sure they mean something slightly different, but they often do seem to get used interchangeably!
I use aliases a lot in my Obsidian vault for names and epithets of deities. I'm doing a PhD on ancient funerary art and that can cross over three distinct cultures and languages (Greek, Etruscan and Roman). So for example, I have a note for Hades but it's also aliased as Aita (Etruscan) and Pluto (Roman). Within that note I have specific sections for each culture/language. I might separate them out later but for now it's all just in one note. Not just names but epithets too. The Romans also referred to him as Dis Pater. The Greeks calling him Aidoneus. He can be referred to as the 'lord-of-many' (aka the dead), the 'commander-of-many' etc. So having the aliases is really nice because I can link directly in a text for phrases that I'm not used to just by wiki bracketing the phrase or epithets without having to try and add a footnote or callout box etc.
That is such a perfect example of the usefulness of aliases! And what a cool PhD topic! When I was trying to think of random examples to use in the video, one I thought of was the play "Macbeth" because it's often referred to as "The Scottish Play" or just "Maccers."
@@morganeua Exactly my case. Tragedy of King Lear, History of King Lear, King Lear, Lear...
I found that descriptive note titles are much easier for me to recall than names of concepts, especially after some time has passed. That's why I have converted a lot of my notes to have more descriptive titles. For example, the note "liking gap" became "other people like us more than we assume", and I added "liking gap" as an alias. This makes it easy to search for concepts and link to them, while preserving the descriptive titles that come to mind much easier when I try to find connections between notes.
Oh, I love that. I might have to try that out, what a good idea!!
@@morganeua It works really well for me. And as a bonus, it helps with keeping notes atomic. Whenever I struggle to find a good descriptive title, more often than not the reason is that there is actually more than one idea contained in my note, and it might be a good idea to split the whole thing up. Of course I didn't come up with this, but I'm nowhere as rigorous as you are with citing my sources, so I can't tell you who I stole the idea from. =)
Aliases are great for multilingual purposes. You can alias different names for the same concept in different languages. Thank you for saying about them :)
Thank you for the advice. As Italian working with both articles and academic papers, I have notes in Italian and English, sometimes mixed inside the same note.
Thanks for highlighting this feature. I've found it handy to add the plural (or singular) form as an alias when creating notes, especially for terms and definitions
Oh, absolutely. I've totally started doing that, too!
I love to use aliases and often also use them for abbreviation, which are really common in my field of research (biophysical chemistry). This way I can easily refer to a note with the abbreviation, but still have the full name of e.g. a certain technique in the title of the note.
Ah, very smart. Great idea!
I have Obsidian installed in my computer for more than 3 years now (lol) as I contemplate one day - finally - starting my Zettelkasten. I never knew this tweak existed! And you make note-taking sound simple and at the same time so exciting that you renovated my willing to give it a go! Can't wait to see more of your vids! :)
I've not used aliases, but opted for the (more tedious) `[[linked note|alias]]` format, which could be used in your last example about research if you, don't want to alias it in case you do want to distinguish general and academic research, in the rendered text you'd see `alias` but the link would still refer to the `linked note`.
This is exactly what I needed to make my notes more efficient. Thank you!
Wow, I'm so glad!
I love this way of using aliases! I've only just started to use them for in-text citations (I have a lot of papers in my vault and do a lot of rough drafts). That way I can easy share documents with my advisor, lab mates, etc..
Just discovering this today, has hugely helped me not have to make multiple notes like : [[self-sacrifice|sacrifice]] , [[sacrificial|sacrifice]], etc.
That's great!
Just started and this is an incredibly helpful idea thank you for expressing this so clearly
I also just found out about using the vertical bar ‘|’ symbol as a way of creating Aliases in links ie [dog|canine] which will change the name of the link to the new Alias this may simplify the look of the notes. Also I could use the “Properties” feature to show Aliases… I’m not sure which is best. I’m still investigating this.
Ooh, I didn't know that about the vertical bar. Now you can just type the three dashes and the properties just pops up automatically! So, that's what I do.
so helpful! i know nothing about these things. super protective to know. maybe i'll know how to collaborate and publish my pkms
Wow I’m going to create a snippet on my Alfred for this YAML 👍
Thank you Morgan for Amazing content.
This is extremely helpful!
One of my main interests at the moment is intergenerational/transgenerational trauma, where these two notions are used interchangeably most of the time and I was struggling organizing them in Obsidian.
Thank you!
Great example! There are so many inter vs trans terms in my field as well 😂 I'm sure they mean something slightly different, but they often do seem to get used interchangeably!
@@morganeua at least not transchangeably 🤣
Really useful Morgan, thank you :D
Good video morgan!! I love your videos.
Thanks so much! ☺
they recently updated it to now 3 dashes brings up the thingy and you just pick aliases!
Yes, it's sooo convenient!
What is your keyboard? It sounds quite pleasant :)
I think it's a Razer Pro. It's mechanical, it's white, it lights up underneath and on the keys. I love it 😍