Rename Series -> Actually Useful Obsidian

DandyLyons · DandyLyons · commit b10f401b5c82 · 2025-02-17T18:32:24.000-07:00
diff --git a/content/en/posts/post-30/index.md b/content/en/posts/post-30/index.md
@@ -1,27 +1,29 @@
 ---
-title: Essential Obsidian - Formatting
-description: Learn how to format your notes in Obsidian with Markdown.
+title: "Actually Useful Obsidian: Formatting"
+description: Learn how to style and format your notes in Obsidian with Markdown.
 date: 2025-02-18
 tags: ["Obsidian", "Markdown", "WYSIWYG"]
-slug: essential-obsidian-formatting
-series: ["Essential Obsidian"]
+slug: actually-useful-obsidian-formatting
+series: ["Actually Useful Obsidian"]
+postNumber: 30
 ---
 
-# Essential Obsidian: Formatting
+# Actually Useful Obsidian: Formatting
 
 Today we start a new series on one of my favorite note-taking apps, [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/). In this series, we'll cover the basics of Obsidian. Here we will intentionally NOT be doing anything particularly fancy. We won't be using strange plugins or custom CSS. Instead we'll be focusing on the most helpul, core features that I use every day. Beginners will be able to finally overcome the initial learning curve and start using Obsidian effectively. And experienced users will find helpful tools to simplify their setup! 
 
 ## What is Obsidian?
 Obsidian is a note-taking app with three key superpowers that I want to highlight:
-1. Local-first and offline: These are your notes, stored on your computer, and controlled by no one else. 
-2. Extremely customizable: Practically anything that you can think of doing with your notes, you can do in Obsidian.
-3. Markdown-based: Obsidian uses Markdown for all of its notes. This means that you can write your notes in plain text, and they will be rendered beautifully in Obsidian.
+1. **Local-first and offline**: These are your notes, stored on your computer, and controlled by no one else. 
+2. **Extremely customizable**: Practically anything that you can think of doing with your notes, you can do in Obsidian.
+   - Seriously. You can make AirTable-like databases, Notion-like dashboards, Kanban boards, Todo lists, mind maps, and anything else that you can think of.
+3. **Markdown-based**: Obsidian uses Markdown for all of its notes. This means that you can write your notes in plain text, and they will be rendered beautifully in Obsidian.
 
 ## How the heck do I make my text bold? 
 Usually when I tell people about Markdown they seem like their on the same page, until they see Markdown. It seems like a strange programming language and let's face it, many of us don't want to learn something that looks confusing and intimidating. We just want to take notes and do simple things like make our text bold. I hear you. Let's make this simple.
 
 ## The Formatting Menu in Obsidian
-Most of us are familiar with traditional word processors like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. These tools are what is known as a **WYSIWYG** editor. WYSIWYG stands for "**What You See Is What You Get**." They're called that because you can simply highlight your text and click a button to change the way that it looks. For example, to make your text bold, just highlight it and click the bold button.
+Most of us are familiar with traditional word processors like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. These tools are what is known as a [WYSIWYG editor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG). WYSIWYG stands for "**What You See Is What You Get**." They're called that because you can simply highlight your text and click a button to change the way that it looks. For example, to make your text bold, just highlight it and click the bold button.
 
 WYSIWYG editors are great because they're simple and easy to use, at least at first. But they have some downsides, which we'll talk about in a bit. For now, let's focus on how to make Obsidian as easy to work with as a WYSIWYG editor.
 
@@ -83,7 +85,7 @@ You can switch between these three views, but the truth is, **I spend almost all
 
 Live Preview is so simple to use that it almost feels like a WYSIWYG editor, but there is one thing that you need to be aware of. Even though it looks like a WYSIWYG editor, you are still editing a plain text file, with Markdown syntax in it. Live Preview does a fantastic job of hiding the Markdown syntax, so that we can focus on our writing, but it is still there. For example look at this: 
 
-![](ObsidianLivePreviewMode.gif)
+![An example of the UI formatting menu from the Obsdian Format Menu plugin.](ObsidianLivePreviewMode.gif)
 
 As you can see, the text appears to change, depending on where the cursor is. This is because the Markdown syntax is being hidden. But when the cursor moves into a section of text that has Markdown syntax, the syntax is revealed. So when the cursor moves into the word "bold", then the `**` characters are revealed before and after the word. The truth is, those `**` characters are always there, but Live Preview is only showing them when you need to see them.
 
diff --git a/content/en/posts/post-31/Actually Useful Obsidian: Formatting.md b/content/en/posts/post-31/Actually Useful Obsidian: Formatting.md
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+---
+title: "Actually Useful Obsidian - Links"
+date: 2025-02-25
+tags: ["Obsidian"]
+series: ["Actually Useful Obsidian"]
+image: 
+description: 
+slug: actually-useful-obsidian-links
+---
+The following is my very rough draft outline of the blog that I am writing below. 
+### The Power of Links
+
+#### Graph View
+
+#### Forward Links
+
+#### Backlinks
+
+### External Links
+- External link: `[Google](https://www.google.com)` 
+- precede any link with `!` 
+- Link shortcut: 
+	- 1. Highlight text
+	- 2. Use Obsidian Command: *Insert Markdown link*
+### Internal Links
+Obsidian supports the following link formats:
+
+- Markdown: `[Three laws of motion](Three%20laws%20of%20motion.md)`
+	- Markdown (simpler formatting): `[Three laws of motion](<Three laws of motion.md>)` 
+- Wikilink: `[[Three laws of motion]]`
+	- Wikilink with alias: `[[Three laws of motion|3 laws of motion]]` 
+- Heading Wikilink: 
+	- **heading in another note**: `[[Three laws of motion#first law]]`
+	- **heading in the same note**: `[[#first law]]` 
+- Link to a block: 
+	- `[[Three laws of motion#^37066d]]`
+### Non-Graph Links: External Links to Internal Files
+- External link to internal file:
+	- **Copy Obsidian URL**: `[Three laws of motion](obsidian://open?vault=content&file=Three%20laws%20of%20motion)`  
+	- **Advanced URI: Copy URI for Current File**: 
+		- **With UUID**: `[Three laws of motion](obsidian://adv-uri?vault=content&uid=6e80cd59-8be7-4bce-a8ab-b1752d7a9ff1)`
+		- **With Human Readable ID**: `[Three laws of motion](obsidian://adv-uri?vault=content&uid=beaver)` 
+
+### Aliases
+- Wikilink with alias: `[[Three laws of motion|3 laws of motion]]` 
+- Markdown with alias: 
+	- `[3 laws of motion](Three%20laws%20of%20motion.md)` 
+### Embed Files
+- precede any link with `!` 
+- Another internal file
+	- A Section of another file (picked by heading)
+	- A "Block" of another file
+- Fantastic for embedding: 
+	- YouTube videos
+	- Images
+	- PDF Files
+	- Webpages: 
+		- [[Auto Link Title]] 
+		- [[Link Embed]] plugin
+		- [[Auto Embed]] plugin: Adds support for embeds of Notion, Reddit, Mastodon and other sites. 
+
+---
+# Actually Useful Obsidian: Links
+Last week we started a new series entitled _Actually Useful Obsidian: Links_. In this series, we explore the most helpful and important features of Obsidian. But don't be fooled. **This series is not just for beginners.** Even if you have been using Obsidian for a while, you will most likely find some new tips and tricks that you didn't know about. Let's focus on one of Obsidian's most powerful features: Links.
+
+Note: You can follow along in this guide, but you will get much more out of it if you have many notes in your vault already. If you only have a few notes in your vault, then I recommend opening the Sandbox vault that comes with Obsidian. To open it, click the ? icon in the lower left corner of the Obsidian window and select "Open Sandbox Vaul".
+
+## The Power of Links
+Links are one of the most powerful features of Obsidian but it may not be immediately obvious why. What is the big deal? Unfortunately, plain old links can be a bit underappreciated.
+
+To demonstrate the power of links we'll need to look at another feature of Obsidian: the Graph View.
+
+### Graph View
+Unlike plain old links, the Graph View is perhaps a bit _overappreciated_. It is a visual representation of all the notes in your vault and how they are connected. It is a powerful tool for seeing the connections between your notes and for discovering new connections that you didn't know existed. At least, that is the theory. In practice, the Graph View can be a bit overwhelming. It can be hard to see the forest for the trees. There are many ways to open the Graph View. You could click on the Graph View icon in the left sidebar. Or you could use the keyboard shortcut[^1]. But I strongly recommend using the Obsidian Command Palette[^2]. Just press `⌘ P` and type "Graph View".
+
+[^1]: The default keyboard shortcut on macOS is `⌘ ⇧ G`.
+[^2]: Turn on the Core Plugin "Command Palette" to enable this feature if you haven't already.
+
+As you can see, the Graph View is very pretty, and perhaps it makes for a very interesting post on social media, but it's not exactly the most helpful view. Many of the nodes are too small to read and the connections are too numerous to make sense of. But there is another view that tends to be more helpful: the Local Graph View. 
+
+### Local Graph View
+Use the Command _Graph view: Open local graph_. Now we see a graph of only the notes that are linked to the current note. This is much more manageable. We can see our current note in the middle and all the notes that are linked to it. You can also click on any of the linked notes to jump to that note and see their connections. This is a very powerful tool for seeing the connections between your notes. But how do we create these connections?
+
+### Forward Links
+
+
+### Backlinks
+
+## External Links
+
+## Internal link
+
+## Non-Graph Links: External Links to Internal Files
+
+## Aliases
+
+## Embed Files
