This is a very helpful video - thanks a lot! :-) I am using scrivener on a Mac so far, but with my tendency to go more linux by the time, it's great to see what Obsidian can do. I am using it for journaling and daily planning and also as a PKM tool and for writing daily emails - but I never got my head around it how to use it for more complex writing! So thanks a lot! :-) I love how you show all the details in the video and explain them!
thank you for this really helpful advice. I was testing out Ulysses, and this advice got me to convert my Obsidian experience into a great writing app.
Awesome! Good luck on the novel 🙂 A couple of other plugins for you to take a look at for your specific use case: Novel Word Count can give you the total word count in the File Explorer (if you're trying to hit a certain length), and I really like the Projects plugin which can create a project based on a folder (i.e. your novel) and you can track each note inside the folder using a kanban board. I wouldn't generally recommend additional plugins to people, but if you're coming from Scrivener you probably aren't too intimidated by some complexity 😉 I intend to do a video on how I use these in the near future too.
Just wanted to add my thanks for your video. New ones for me were Writing Goals and Stille. I use Obsidian in conjunction with 750 Words (the online app) for my daily journal writing. Then I paste it into my obsidian Daily Note as well as the 750 Words app for the day.
Thank you for the precise and simple-to-understand walkthrough on setting up Obsidian. Finally, a tutorial that provides the details for writing without the over-technical aspects. I have one request that I believe you can assist me with. Please make a simple and concise workflow, with demonstrations, from literature notes to permanent notes, to convert these notes into an assignment that can be transferred into an MS Word document for my university. Thank you once again.
Glad you found it helpful! I’ll look into your literature notes idea. What do you currently do for the workflow you described (turning literature notes into MS Word documents)?
@@MikeSchmitz Thank you for reaching out to me so promptly. I am completely new to Obsidian, having only got going recently (a few months). I understand the process of Fleeting notes / Literature and turning them into Automic Permanent notes. I can also link the notes to other notes (Front links and Backlinks). So, I have a note-taking workflow (folders/tags), which is fundamental for now and, I presume, will evolve with time. My only stumbling block now is as follows. I have all these notes linked with other notes, which look pretty awesome in the graph view, but it would be even more awesome if I could turn them into an assignment for my university. There is no tutorial on the net, as far as I understand. There are tons of videos on setting up Obsidian, core plugins, community plugins etc., etc., but no one has done a tutorial on how to turn all that note-taking into a product (assignment, essay, book) and export it into an MS Word document for handing it to a university, school, or in the case of a book to a publisher. What is the point of learning all the skills of note-taking when it just sits in your vault? Like I said previously, I believe you can assist me and many others who follow you. I would be eternally grateful if you could produce such a step-by-step tutorial with a simple assignment as your demo.
@aidoo2804 I'm not sure if you eventually sorted this out in the time since your comment but the Longform community plugin should be great for this. It's geared towards novelists and scriptwriters but any longform document such as your assignments. You create a project inside Obsidian and add notes to that as 'scenes', you can rearrange these at any time as well as manage drafts of these. Then you compile them via the plugin into a single manuscript note. You can use a separate plugin like Pandoc to export any note in your Obsidian vault in Word .docx or PDF format.
@@deenanaidoo2804 sorry, been on vacation and this slipped through the cracks. I like the suggestion by @vaughanvandyk455 to use the Longform plugin, but I don't have much experience with it. Sounds like it could be just what you're looking for though!
I use Obsidian for writing and it was a great and useful video. Thanks. I'll definitively drop Focus Mode for ProZen and give a try to Writing Goals (I already use Word Sprint which is nice too). I'd like to mention Longform which is pretty handy for large projects, although maybe a tad intimidating at first.
Man... thnks for the channel. This stuff will be important to me. I have, always had, very poor study habits and results. At 56yo, I'm still strugling with it. This new tools and ways can help a lot.
Thanks a lot of the tips! Do you think I can use the plug-in "writing goal" to track all the words I write per day? (Not in a specific folder or note) Thanks for your help in advance,
Hi Mike, Excellent resource as always. Your video is an extremely helpful time-saver to identify and configure the plugins and settings to build a powerful markdown writing app in Obsidian. Did you also evaluate the Typewriter Mode plugin by Davis Riedel? It seems to have all the Typewriter features covered in its long list of options. I also find many more core markdown features in the Obsidian help each time I refer back to it so I can do more from learning how to use them. I also need to do more experimentation on confirming feature compatibility when using Obsidian publish.
Thanks! I played briefly with Typewriter Mode, but I once I decide to use something I tend to stick with it since it works. But there are new plugins every day, so I’m sure there are good ones that do similar things - it’s impossible to keep up with all of them 😂
I was just looking through the comments to mention using Typewriter Mode too instead of Typewriter Scroll because Mode is being regularly maintained. According to the documentation, Typewriter Mode started as a fork of Scroll before it "was turned into a separate plugin because many new features were added, breaking changes were introduced, and the code was completely restructured to make it more extensible." So it should be a fairly seamless switchover
I actually wrote my creative writing in vs code with many extensions for a year and half. Now im using Obsidian because its very simple, efficient and customizable like vs code with its community plugins
Great video! Why does this 2:05 only happens with italics. With bolds I need to add the (** )at the end. With italics it adds it automatically to the beginning and end of the word. Is that normal?
Hmm, looks like you're right. I get the same behavior. Guess I never really thought about it before! It does auto-add the closing double asterisks if you use the keyboard shortcut to make bold text though (i.e. ⌘-B).
Hi! How do you combine several pieces of text (like scenes, chapters, sections...) and produce a good document to share with other people? A useful Ulysses function is the production of a document.
I don't actually have a need for that, but if I did I would use this plugin which compiles things from multiple notes: github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-easy-bake
I have just downloaded Obsidian and I have not yet used it so I came here to check a few functionalities that might be useful for my personal needs. There are probably loads and I will investigate further but most of the functionalities mentioned here also exist in Ms Word. Or am I mistaken?
This question is really stupid but my only problem with Obsidian is that I don’t like markdown… is there an option not to see the code at all? A WYSIWYG editor??
The thing that would help my writing the most would be to have Zotero operate in Obsidian the same way it works in LibreOffice; add a citation, and then at the end click to add a bibliography automatically.
Author of 'Focus Mode' here, are you still experiencing bugs with it? I still use it every day and have not noticed any issues. There has not been a need to update it since no one has filed a bug report recently.
That is a custom version of the NeuYear wall calendar I developed for my podcast, Focused (relay.fm/focused). Here's the link to the 2024 version of the calendar: www.neuyear.net/products/focused
Hi. Thanks for the video. The Outline setting is really handy for me. I'm fairly new to Obsidian, and I'm wondering how do I type paragraphs that have an indent tab on the first line without the font changing? I.e., I want my paragraphs to look like this: James 1:5-11 (CSB) 5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God - who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly - and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, 8 being double-minded and unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, 10 but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field. 11 For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.
Sorry, not quite sure how to do that... that kind of formatting I used all the time in word processors like Pages and Word, but it's a lot harder to do in plain text. I just always put a blank line between paragraphs.
Agreed, that would be great. I host my sites on Wordpress, there is a plugin for publishing there that I use but more destination options would be nice.
One thing that drives me nuts about obsidian is that you can't really justify text easily. Text jut's in and out all along the right hand side. I would love to write long form content inside of obsidian but I can't send that format to anyone
Finally a REALLY useful list of pluggins for Obsidian.
Thanks.
Glad you liked it 🙂
I'm usually in my programmers Obsidian bubble, very interesting to see a writers perspective.
Glad you found it interesting 🙂
Amazing walk-through - clear and illuminating! I didn't think I could be anymore enthusiastic about Obsidian, but here we are... Thank you!
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful 😊
Nice set up! Great video. Thanks for mentioning my plugin, Stille in the video, Mike!
Thanks for a great plugin!
Thanks, it feels like I've been searching for this video for a long time.
Glad you liked it 😊
This is a very helpful video - thanks a lot! :-) I am using scrivener on a Mac so far, but with my tendency to go more linux by the time, it's great to see what Obsidian can do. I am using it for journaling and daily planning and also as a PKM tool and for writing daily emails - but I never got my head around it how to use it for more complex writing! So thanks a lot! :-) I love how you show all the details in the video and explain them!
Thanks for the kind words, glad you found it helpful 😊
thank you for this really helpful advice. I was testing out Ulysses, and this advice got me to convert my Obsidian experience into a great writing app.
Incredible! I'm working on my first novel right now and trying to port my workflow from Scrivener to Obsidian. This is extremely helpful.
Awesome! Good luck on the novel 🙂 A couple of other plugins for you to take a look at for your specific use case: Novel Word Count can give you the total word count in the File Explorer (if you're trying to hit a certain length), and I really like the Projects plugin which can create a project based on a folder (i.e. your novel) and you can track each note inside the folder using a kanban board.
I wouldn't generally recommend additional plugins to people, but if you're coming from Scrivener you probably aren't too intimidated by some complexity 😉 I intend to do a video on how I use these in the near future too.
Just wanted to add my thanks for your video. New ones for me were Writing Goals and Stille. I use Obsidian in conjunction with 750 Words (the online app) for my daily journal writing. Then I paste it into my obsidian Daily Note as well as the 750 Words app for the day.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing about 750 Words, I hadn’t seen that before.
I had no idea Obsidian could do all this. I'm so glad I decided to download it.
Great video, loving the type writer. Defiantly needed this.
Glad you liked it 🙂
Obsidian is primarily a writing app. Great job explaining it. I like your workflow.
Thanks 😊 Glad you liked it!
Thank you for the precise and simple-to-understand walkthrough on setting up Obsidian. Finally, a tutorial that provides the details for writing without the over-technical aspects. I have one request that I believe you can assist me with. Please make a simple and concise workflow, with demonstrations, from literature notes to permanent notes, to convert these notes into an assignment that can be transferred into an MS Word document for my university. Thank you once again.
Glad you found it helpful! I’ll look into your literature notes idea. What do you currently do for the workflow you described (turning literature notes into MS Word documents)?
@@MikeSchmitz Thank you for reaching out to me so promptly. I am completely new to Obsidian, having only got going recently (a few months). I understand the process of Fleeting notes / Literature and turning them into Automic Permanent notes. I can also link the notes to other notes (Front links and Backlinks). So, I have a note-taking workflow (folders/tags), which is fundamental for now and, I presume, will evolve with time. My only stumbling block now is as follows. I have all these notes linked with other notes, which look pretty awesome in the graph view, but it would be even more awesome if I could turn them into an assignment for my university. There is no tutorial on the net, as far as I understand. There are tons of videos on setting up Obsidian, core plugins, community plugins etc., etc., but no one has done a tutorial on how to turn all that note-taking into a product (assignment, essay, book) and export it into an MS Word document for handing it to a university, school, or in the case of a book to a publisher. What is the point of learning all the skills of note-taking when it just sits in your vault? Like I said previously, I believe you can assist me and many others who follow you. I would be eternally grateful if you could produce such a step-by-step tutorial with a simple assignment as your demo.
@aidoo2804 I'm not sure if you eventually sorted this out in the time since your comment but the Longform community plugin should be great for this. It's geared towards novelists and scriptwriters but any longform document such as your assignments. You create a project inside Obsidian and add notes to that as 'scenes', you can rearrange these at any time as well as manage drafts of these. Then you compile them via the plugin into a single manuscript note. You can use a separate plugin like Pandoc to export any note in your Obsidian vault in Word .docx or PDF format.
@@deenanaidoo2804 sorry, been on vacation and this slipped through the cracks. I like the suggestion by @vaughanvandyk455 to use the Longform plugin, but I don't have much experience with it. Sounds like it could be just what you're looking for though!
I use Obsidian for writing and it was a great and useful video. Thanks. I'll definitively drop Focus Mode for ProZen and give a try to Writing Goals (I already use Word Sprint which is nice too).
I'd like to mention Longform which is pretty handy for large projects, although maybe a tad intimidating at first.
Thanks! I was using Word Sprint, but personally think Writing Goals is better. Not used Longform, but does look useful!
Fully agreed about Longform, and has writing goals included (target number of words and words per session)
Man... thnks for the channel.
This stuff will be important to me.
I have, always had, very poor study habits and results. At 56yo, I'm still strugling with it.
This new tools and ways can help a lot.
Thanks for the kind words 🙂 Glad it's helpful to you.
Thanks a lot of the tips! Do you think I can use the plug-in "writing goal" to track all the words I write per day? (Not in a specific folder or note)
Thanks for your help in advance,
Hi Mike, Excellent resource as always. Your video is an extremely helpful time-saver to identify and configure the plugins and settings to build a powerful markdown writing app in Obsidian. Did you also evaluate the Typewriter Mode plugin by Davis Riedel? It seems to have all the Typewriter features covered in its long list of options. I also find many more core markdown features in the Obsidian help each time I refer back to it so I can do more from learning how to use them. I also need to do more experimentation on confirming feature compatibility when using Obsidian publish.
Thanks! I played briefly with Typewriter Mode, but I once I decide to use something I tend to stick with it since it works. But there are new plugins every day, so I’m sure there are good ones that do similar things - it’s impossible to keep up with all of them 😂
I was just looking through the comments to mention using Typewriter Mode too instead of Typewriter Scroll because Mode is being regularly maintained. According to the documentation, Typewriter Mode started as a fork of Scroll before it "was turned into a separate plugin because many new features were added, breaking changes were introduced, and the code was completely restructured to make it more extensible." So it should be a fairly seamless switchover
I really thank you. Your suggestions were great. I've been using obsidian for a long time, but I hadn't discovered these.
Awesome! Glad you found it helpful 😊
I actually wrote my creative writing in vs code with many extensions for a year and half.
Now im using Obsidian because its very simple, efficient and customizable like vs code with its community plugins
Nice! I used Sublime Text back in the day. Plain text editors FTW!
omg í#ve just watched the intro and Ím already obsessed!! this is everything I need! 🤩
Glad you liked it 😁 Obsidian really is a great writing app with a couple of tweaks
Great video! Why does this 2:05 only happens with italics. With bolds I need to add the (** )at the end. With italics it adds it automatically to the beginning and end of the word. Is that normal?
Hmm, looks like you're right. I get the same behavior. Guess I never really thought about it before! It does auto-add the closing double asterisks if you use the keyboard shortcut to make bold text though (i.e. ⌘-B).
Thanks Mike . . . great and informative video. Wishing you the very best!
Appreciate the kind words. Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it!
thank you! that boosted my process
Glad it was helpful 😊
Thank you for this useful information!!
Glad it was helpful 😊
Woah! Awesome Mike. Thank you so much 🙌
Glad you liked it 😊 Thanks for watching!
Can't seem to find the Practical PKM Obsidian Starter templates. Used the link in the description but no download links on the page.
Hi! How do you combine several pieces of text (like scenes, chapters, sections...) and produce a good document to share with other people? A useful Ulysses function is the production of a document.
I don't actually have a need for that, but if I did I would use this plugin which compiles things from multiple notes: github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-easy-bake
Very useful, Thanks!!!
Glad it was helpful 🙂
Great video!
Thanks! Glad you liked it 😊
I have just downloaded Obsidian and I have not yet used it so I came here to check a few functionalities that might be useful for my personal needs. There are probably loads and I will investigate further but most of the functionalities mentioned here also exist in Ms Word. Or am I mistaken?
This question is really stupid but my only problem with Obsidian is that I don’t like markdown… is there an option not to see the code at all? A WYSIWYG editor??
The thing that would help my writing the most would be to have Zotero operate in Obsidian the same way it works in LibreOffice; add a citation, and then at the end click to add a bibliography automatically.
Sorry, I don’t have much experience with Zotero. But I know there’s plugins for it, so maybe it can do what you’re describing?
th-cam.com/video/zEYp0BJL7MU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=sV9HUpml1trzGZyl
Author of 'Focus Mode' here, are you still experiencing bugs with it? I still use it every day and have not noticed any issues. There has not been a need to update it since no one has filed a bug report recently.
OffTopic: What poster is that close to your guitar?
Is that a productivity tool?
That is a custom version of the NeuYear wall calendar I developed for my podcast, Focused (relay.fm/focused). Here's the link to the 2024 version of the calendar: www.neuyear.net/products/focused
Hi. Thanks for the video. The Outline setting is really handy for me. I'm fairly new to Obsidian, and I'm wondering how do I type paragraphs that have an indent tab on the first line without the font changing? I.e., I want my paragraphs to look like this:
James 1:5-11 (CSB)
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God - who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly - and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, 8 being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, 10 but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field. 11 For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.
Sorry, not quite sure how to do that... that kind of formatting I used all the time in word processors like Pages and Word, but it's a lot harder to do in plain text. I just always put a blank line between paragraphs.
The only thing missing is publishing. I wish Publishing to Ghost / Medium plugins were available.
Agreed, that would be great. I host my sites on Wordpress, there is a plugin for publishing there that I use but more destination options would be nice.
Thanks!
Thank You!
Thanks for watching 🙂
One thing that drives me nuts about obsidian is that you can't really justify text easily. Text jut's in and out all along the right hand side. I would love to write long form content inside of obsidian but I can't send that format to anyone
No first line indent for fiction writing.
Good to know
Awesome
The great problem still the “justified text”😢
And you have to pay to share
Not sure what you mean… with Ulysses?
Hello bro
Do you need a professional youtube thumbnail designer??
Sorry, not looking to hire a designer just yet
@@MikeSchmitz ok
Super helpful, thank you for this video!
Glad it was helpful 🙂
Thank you!
You're welcome 🙂