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Obsidian has replaced all (work, home, mobile) note taking solutions everywhere for me. The last want from my side is removing the friction related to editing m
by noisy_boy 3y ago
Obsidian has replaced all (work, home, mobile) note taking solutions everywhere for me. The last want from my side is removing the friction related to editing markdown tables (e.g. multi-line content in cells) - Obsidian has some plugins that makes things better but it is miles behind what, say, confluence wiki offers for tables.
- deelly 3y agoIs it ok for you to pay 8$ monthly for sync between devices? Or did you use another way of sync or don't use it at all?
- ssss11 3y agoThat’s my only gripe with obsidian.. I’d like sync between my devices that avoids central servers.
- hoppyhoppy2 3y agoSyncThing can accomplish that.
- ssss11 3y agoThank you - I’ll check it out
- vs4vijay 3y agoYou can use SyncThing
- ssss11 3y agoThank you I’ll check it out
- evolve2k 3y agoCharging for the sync is their primary revenue model. Zotero is doing the same. I don’t bemoan this approach that basically gives everything local away for free.
- whatyesaid 3y agoHaving an easy way to sync is kind of a core feature of a note taking app. I'm not sure how profitable Notion is though.
- ssss11 3y agoIt’s a tricky one in this age of “free”. I’d ironically pay for them to allow my agency and privacy, I’m probably not _most_ people though.
- evolve2k 3y agoSorry whete are you missing agency and privacy? It’s desktop first software you can back it up and pretty much sync it as you like. Specifically regarding Obsidian it’s just a folder full of plain text markdown files, doesn’t get much more portable than that.
- geedzmo 3y agoI just store my vault in a backed up iCloud folder. Syncs to Apple devices automatically for free.
- post-it 3y agoDoes it work on iOS devices?
- InTheArena 3y agoyes. This is the configuration I use.
- noisy_boy 3y agoI just use syncthing. Regarding keeping configurations in sync, I have a "template" vault where I install and test all my plugins first and have a script that copies the entire .obsidian folder (minus some specific files) from the template vault to all my other vaults which results in syncing of all plugins/settings. I did buy their Catalyst license though since I wanted to pay back something for all the good work they did.
- smcleod 3y ago$8 USD ($12 AUD) seems incredibly expensive just to sync your markdown notes around. That’s three times the price of my entire iCloud services (which apps other than Obsidian sync with fine, but Obsidian has all sorts of issues with it).
- GivinStatic 3y agoI use Resilio sync to sync the Obsidian vault on all my devices and NAS.
- sva_ 3y agoThere's a plugin called Remotely Save to sync files in a s3-like service (I use the 10gb free backblaze offer for it). Setting it up was a bit of a hassle but now it just works.
- mey 3y agoBiggest issue I have with Obsidian is sharing notes with others. Conversely the crimes I am able to commit with the dataview plugin make it all worthwhile.
- bx376 3y agoYou can use https://github.com/KosmosisDire/obsidian-webpage-export https://github.com/KosmosisDire/obsidian-webpage-export to turn Obsidian into a static site generator, and deploy the html to Vercel or github pages for free
- flor1s 3y agoWhen tables get too complex (e.g. generated columns using dataview) I switch to embedding subnotes using the ![[]] syntax and "clean embeds" CSS [1]. [1]: https://kool.casa/notes/dft1156nwrunrsma9dmyegh/ https://kool.casa/notes/dft1156nwrunrsma9dmyegh/
- noisy_boy 3y agoThis is a good tip but I'm referring to the inadequacy of markdown tables + Obsidian plugins that deal with that. I'm yet to see a solution that works as well as tables in wiki. I think Obsidian should focus on improving that as part of the core software.
- mickelsen 3y agoVrite was featured recently, I just mention it because I like how the editor does tables: https://editor.vrite.io/ https://editor.vrite.io/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446045 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446045 Obsidian should definitely take a page from that. I'm currently with a plugin they won't add to the community marketplace: https://github.com/Stardusten/ob-table-enhancer https://github.com/Stardusten/ob-table-enhancer
- fastball 3y agoVrite doesn't support mobile though, which seems important for OC's usage.
- timothevs 3y agoThanks for the link to the plug-in for Obsidian! This solves so many of the problems I have had switching to Obsidian completely. If only there were a way to enable a three pane layout in Obsidian, I’d be in heaven.
- mickelsen 3y agoI think you can as it has both left and right sidebars. All settings, plugins, themes get saved in a dot subfolder from your starting point, so you can replicate that layout for other vaults if you want. I like highly minimal interfaces, so I modded mine with the Border theme and few CSS snippets so it looks like this: https://cldup.com/LAeiG4q2ED.jpeg https://cldup.com/LAeiG4q2ED.jpeg
- evolve2k 3y agoI mentioned my workflow in a separate comment here but I’d say for personal notes yes you can use Obsidian for everything. Where Zotero has come in useful for me is to gather and sort academic journal articles and to be able to feed them into Obsidian.
- smcleod 3y agoI found the Obsidian mobile app to be really flaky. Unreliable sync and it didn’t feel at all like a native app (on iOS at least).
- RockRobotRock 3y agoI'm not an Electron hater but I really want notes apps to feel as responsive as possible.
- smcleod 3y agoIve been using Bear (now Bear 2 beta) for years for that reason, but I really wish it had a few features such as shared notebooks and a plug-in system.
- noisy_boy 3y agoI use synchthing so syncing is quite prompt. The android version works well.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 3y agoThis is first I've heard of Obsidian, and looking at the web page I sort of maybe get what it does. But to help me out, can you describe what you use it does for you. I didn't see any references to citations or the like that zotero is mainly for. Is it just a note app? If so, what makes it so good?
- noisy_boy 3y agoWhat it does for me: - everything is markdown which I'm comfortable in - I can use conventional structure of folders and notes within folders (not for everyone but it works for me) - extensive support for cross-linking/embedding/bookmarks along with connection graphs/search (out of these, I had use cases for cross-linking and embedding which worked very well) - nice responsive UI with support for themes/customizations (I particularly like the Nord theme). Allows lots of control like custom CSS etc for more fine-tuning - allows customizing keyboard shortcut for practically any action - quality of desktop and mobile (Android) application is pretty good and the look and feel is consistent - extensive plugin system: I mainly use plugins out of the box but with stuff like Data tables plugins, you can automate/implement your own workflow (I am too lazy to use all that). Even with out-of-box stuff, things like the git plugin allows version control with minimal effort, smart links allows regex based rules to convert strings to URLs (like entering JIRA ticket no. which converts to clickable URL), MathJax support for entering formulas which render beautifully etc; there are lots of such quality of life benefits via the plugins which adds up. - allows easy syncing either using their paid service or using syncthing (which is what I use)
- Eddy_Viscosity2 3y agoThanks for this. Would you recommend this to someone who is not already a markdown user or that a key prerequisite for this to be useful?
- noisy_boy 3y agoThe only concern I have is that the content that happens to match markdown rules will get interpreted and the subsequent highlighting etc might surprise/annoy a user not familiar with markdown. E.g. adding a dash at the beginning of the line will get interpreted as a list item, typing asterisk will trigger the editor to put another asterisk and put the cursor in the middle with the expectation that you want to type bold text - you can press backspace to remove the extra asterisk and continue as per normal but if you are in the business of dealing with loads of asterisks/dashes at the beginning of the line, and don't care about markdown, you might be pissed. All the approaches to handle this kind of thing are not as simple as turning off a checkbox. If that is a deal breaker, then this may not be the app for you. OTOH, if you don't mind occasionally dealing with that (or better still, picking up the bare minimum amount of markdown), it'll provide a pretty rich note taking experience. For typical content, I don't think this will be a frequent issue but then again, what is typical for someone may be atypical for me and vice versa. Personally I think it is totally worth it but YMMV.
- bmurphy1976 3y agoWhat are you doing to sync your files? I'm current using the git integration and while it works it's a bit too manual for my tastes. I think I'm ok with last write wins as long as the sync stores history. The whole commiting changes, pushing, pulling, dealing with merge conflicts is a bit too much workflow for my notes.
- edvinbesic 3y agoNot parent, but I have had a good experience using SyncThing to keep my obsidian notes synchronized across devices. I have a server at home where I self host a few services and access over tailscale so I have a device that is “always on” and syncing, but prior I used a $5 droplet for much of the same. Can recommend.
- fho 3y agoI second SyncThing in combination with Obsidian. Works like a charm.
- timal 3y agoI just setup Obsidian a couple days ago and have been using https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync which seems to work ok. I'm curious if SyncThing would be preferable. How does it handle conflicts? How often does it sync? Does it drain the battery on mobile if it syncs too often?
- edvinbesic 3y agoI cant speak to mobile personally as it is not a use-case for me but as far as conflicts SyncThing works great. I have been running it for a little over a year now across three primary devices and the server and I don’t think I’ve seen more than a handful of conflicts. Don’t remember a single one with my obsidian directory which is currently ~500 files (markdown/pdf etc).
- LVB 3y ago
- davidy123 3y agoI don't think people should be making tables, they should be making data, which they put into a table via a query. I ran with this for my own note taking system, mdld. https://github.com/vid/mdld https://github.com/vid/mdld , which works with hedgedoc.
- PurpleRamen 3y agoA Table is data, don't make things unnecessary complicated. Some data are better managed directly in a table, if you have a good table interface, others are more natural managed in separate files. Each case their own. And how does mdld differ from dataview?
- davidy123 3y agoHuh! I hadn't seen dataview before (I think mdld predates it), I'm more than happy to use another work if it's a supported superset. mdld is sort of inspired by Semantic Mediawiki, dataview uses SMW's :: notation, which is a good sign. However, I don't see a few features that mdld has, like concepts, which are very useful, and the hedgedoc application of mdld has some nice dynamic views, for example, creating a gantt chart out of data dispersed across markdown files. In general, its emphasis is creating things out of data to support features like round-tripping, rather than creating self-contained black box information views. But its more of a proof of concept, so I'm going to look at adopting dataview.
- bloqs 3y agoThe problem I have with obsidian is I cant use it on my corporate machine which I'm forced to use all the time.
- laeri 3y agoI don't think both serve the same use cases. Or can you use obsidian or does a plugin exist to annotate and read pdfs?
- depaulagu 3y agoI use this one: https://github.com/elias-sundqvist/obsidian-annotator https://github.com/elias-sundqvist/obsidian-annotator
- bad_username 3y agoNative PDF search and frictionless adding of metadata to non-markdown files are lacking also.