Links: [[Obsidian]] # Obsidian Configuration This is how I have Obsidian configured. It is highly opinionated! I have included explanations for each setting so that you can take what works for you and ignore what does not. ## Settings ### Options #### Editor ##### Disable "Readable Line length" If you leave this enabled, then no matter how wide you make the application the text will not run wider than a certain width. I believe the idea of this is that if you have the window really wide it'll avoid letting the text run so wide that you'd be scanning left/right a lot, but I would just avoid that by not making the window too wide in the first place. And, if I do have the window wide, it would be because I have a reason I need to see a lot of one text on one line (such as when I am editing a table). ##### Enable "Spell check" Who doesn't want spell check? #### Files & Links ##### Disable "Confirm File deletion" I don't feel it's necessary to be warned before deleting a file if you have good [[Obsidian Version Control and Backup]] in place. ##### Set "Deleted files" to "Move to Obsidian Trash (.trash folder)" If you have it actually delete the file from the file system, it seems to hang for a moment. That doesn't happen when using the ".trash" folder. ##### Enable "Automatically Update Internal links" You don't want to have to fix all the references to a file every time you rename it. ##### Enable "Use [[Wikilinks]]" At first I did not want to use [[Wikilinks]] because I wanted to maximize compatibility, but there are two good reasons to use them: First, they look much nicer in your notes. Compare this Wikilink: `[Other Interesting Topic]` to this regular markdown link: `[Other Interesting Topic](Other Interesting Topic.md)` Second, compatibility isn't actually that big of a concern. If you ever need to switch to regular markdown links I believe it would be trivial to do so with some find/replace via regex. It would probably also be easy to do this on-the-fly so that you can continue using wikilinks even when regular markdown links are needed for some other purpose. ##### Enable "detect All File extensions" If you want to reference another file in your notes, it's nice to be able to see that file in Obsidian. It's also nice for the scripts / shortcuts I keep at the root level of my vault, since they can be ran / opened right from the File explorer in Obsidian. Beyond that, if you don't want to see a file in Obsidian, just don't put it in your notes folder. ##### Set "Default Location for New notes" to "In the Folder Specified below" and Set "Folder to Create New Notes in" to "📥 Inbox" If you try to use "Same folder as current file" it can be very annoying because sometimes you don't have a file open or you're trying to create the first file in a new folder. In both cases you hit the button to create a new note and then it becomes difficult to find in the outline. If you use "Vault", you'll find that it does not take long for everything to devolve into chaos, since you're top-level directory is filling up with random nonsense (I take notes on just about everything). There are many words you could choose here; I chose "Inbox" to remind myself that it needs constant attention to clear out by organizing and filing away notes so that the Inbox itself has no more than a dozen or so notes at any one time. ##### Set "New Link format" to "Shortest Path When possible" Most notes are intended to end up in the "Notes" folder but start off in the "📥 Inbox" folder, so it's nice to use shortest path here so the links pretty much always end up as just the note name and don't include some path to the note unless something strange has happened like having a note in the "Inbox" folder with the same name as one in the "Notes" folder. ##### Set "Default Location for New attachments" to "In Subfolder Under Current folder" and Set "Subfolder name" to "\_\\Attachments" The `"_\Attachments"` folder is to store assets (images and other files) referenced in Notes. The "\_" folder it is nested in makes it less distracting when you are navigating in the "File explorer". #### Appearance ##### Themes I highly recommend [kepano/obsidian-minimal](https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-minimal). There are a ton of other great Themes for Obsidian, but I like minimal because it's very tight and clean, placing the focus on your actual notes. There are a few other things in the configuration that relate to the minimal theme and getting it just how I want. #### Core Plugins ##### Daily Notes Enable, then click "Options" button. ###### Set "New File location" to "📝 Daily Note" You might want to name your folder something different, but configure this so you can use Daily notes. ##### Templates Enable, then click "Options" button. ###### Set "Template Folder location" to "\_/Templates" I like to bury Templates under "\_" with everything else you don't need to see very often. ##### Markdown Format Importer Disable. There's really no use for it once you've got things going. If you have notes from other applications you still need to get loaded into Obsidian, hold off on disabling this at first. #### Community Plugins ###### Disable "Safe mode" ###### Browse, Install, and Enable the Following: - [tgrosinger/advanced-tables-obsidian](https://github.com/tgrosinger/advanced-tables-obsidian) This is a must-have because tables are _sometimes_ necessary and _always_ deeply painful to work with in markdown. This plugin makes working with markdown tables tolerable. - [jplattel/open-note-to-window-title](https://github.com/jplattel/open-note-to-window-title) In the taskbar I definitely want to see the title of the note I have open instead of just always seeing the vault name. It's also nice for many time-tracking programs where the window title is important. - **Set "Default Template" to "{{filepath}} - Obsidian"** - [ozntel/oz-image-in-editor-obsidian](https://github.com/ozntel/oz-image-in-editor-obsidian) Use this to view images inline while editing. It also has a pretty neat WYSIWYG Editor mode that allows you to hide the markdown syntax in the editor while you are editing. You can still type the syntax to do things but it will disappear as you finish it. - [nothingislost/obsidian-workspaces-plus](https://github.com/nothingislost/obsidian-workspaces-plus) Adds the workspace name to the bottom right of Obsidian. You can then click it to quickly switch between workspaces and create new ones. Super helpful when working on different things and having lots of notes open. - [valentine195/obsidian-admonition](https://github.com/valentine195/obsidian-admonition) - [phibr0/obsidian-advanced-toolbar](https://github.com/phibr0/obsidian-advanced-toolbar) - [tgrosinger/advanced-tables-obsidian](https://github.com/tgrosinger/advanced-tables-obsidian) - [liamcain/obsidian-calendar-plugin](https://github.com/liamcain/obsidian-calendar-plugin) - [jdbrice/obsidian-code-block-copy](https://github.com/jdbrice/obsidian-code-block-copy) - [blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview](https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview) - [deathau/cm-editor-syntax-highlight-obsidian](https://github.com/deathau/cm-editor-syntax-highlight-obsidian) - [platers/obsidian-linter](https://github.com/platers/obsidian-linter) - [argenos/nldates-obsidian](https://github.com/argenos/nldates-obsidian) - [lynchjames/note-refactor-obsidian](https://github.com/lynchjames/note-refactor-obsidian) - [SilentVoid13/Templater](https://github.com/SilentVoid13/Templater) - [ryanjamurphy/vantage-obsidian](https://github.com/ryanjamurphy/vantage-obsidian)