I started using Obsidian close to the end of last semester (Spring 2023) because I didn’t like all the note-taking applications I used prior to it (post on that later, but it was Evernote and OneNote). I’m a big fan of customization when it comes to any software that I use, so I understood the appeal of Obsidian.

Hotkeys #

Obsidian is a note-taking application that allows for a lot of customization, including custom hotkeys and community plugins alongside its built-in “core” plugins. For hotkeys, you can customize your own hotkeys by going to Settings > Hotkeys and searching for various ones. The ones I have are very similar to the hotkeys I use on my browser for opening/closing tabs and for splitting that I use on my terminal multiplexer Terminator. Here are my hotkeys:

• Close current tab: CTRL + W
• Close window: CTRL + SHIFT + W
• Create new note: CTRL + N
• Go to next tab: CTRL + TAB
• Go to previous tab: CTRL + SHIFT + TAB
• Split down (to create new window): CTRL + SHIFT + DOWN_ARROW
• Split right (to create new window): CTRL + SHIFT + RIGHT_ARROW

Core Plugins #

For normal built-in Obsidian core plugins, I only use a couple:

• Quick switcher: CTRL + O, allows you to quickly switch/search between different notes based on note title
• Templates: allows you to make templates for notes that you can insert upon note creation. I have a template that contains the current time as well as a field for putting “tags” (i.e. “cryptography”, “exam-logistics”) for taking lecture notes. My template file for lecture notes is very simple; it just adds this “properties” section at the top of a note. This is what it looks like in source mode:

---
tags: []
created: {{date:YYY/MD/DD hh:mm a}}
---

Community Plugins #

You can enable community plugins by going to Settings > Community Plugins > Turn On Community Plugins. This is not a setting that is turned on by default upon creating an Obsidian vault.

These plugins are, as the name suggests, made and maintained by the Obsidian community for other Obsidian users to enjoy and use. If you click Browse when on the Community Plugins tab in settings, you will see a vast list of all the different ones you can choose from. It’s very overwhelming, so I wrote down a list of ones that I am currently using.

• Advanced Tables: auto-formatted and navigation QOL changes to Markdown tables. You can hit tab/enter to navigate between the different rows similarly to Microsoft Excel.
• Better Word Count: allows you to select a portion of text to see the word count, since Obsidian only displays the full document word count in the bottom corner. This is good for when I have writing assignments that ask me to write within a certain word count constraint.
• Discord Rich Presence: similarly to other rich presence applications (i.e. VSCode, actual video games, etc.), now your friends can see what files or vault you’re editing :)
• Excalidraw: allows you to draw/highlight/etc.
• Highlightr: the downside to Markdown-based note-taking is that there isn’t a lot of formatting you can do besides heading to catch your attention as you skim through your notes. This allows easier HTML-formatting (span) to highlight certain key words/phrases in different colors.
• Omnisearch: a better search for Obsidian with OCR support. Requires a different plugin called Text Extractor.
• Quick Latex for Obsidian: as the name suggests, provides quick, auto-formatted LaTeX formatting (i.e. auto-closing $) to your Markdown notes.
• Spreadsheets: allows you to make spreadsheets in Obsidian à la Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.