Obisidian How-To

Handy tips for optimizing your Obsidian experience

Headings

To create a heading, add up to six # symbols before your heading text. The number of # symbols determines the size of the heading.

# This is a heading 1
## This is a heading 2
### This is a heading 3
#### This is a heading 4
##### This is a heading 5
###### This is a heading 6

Creating Callouts

Like This:

https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Callouts

Change the title

By default, the title of the callout is its type identifier in title case. You can change it by adding text after the type identifier:

> [!tip] Callouts can have custom titles
> Like this one.

You can even omit the body to create title-only callouts:

> [!tip] Title-only callout

Foldable callouts

You can make a callout foldable by adding a plus (+) or a minus (-) directly after the type identifier.

A plus sign expands the callout by default, and a minus sign collapses it instead.

> [!faq]- Are callouts foldable?
> Yes! In a foldable callout, the contents are hidden when the callout is collapsed.

Nested callouts

You can nest callouts in multiple levels.

> [!question] Can callouts be nested?
> > [!todo] Yes!, they can.
> > > [!example]  You can even use multiple layers of nesting.

Customize callouts

CSS snippets and Community plugins can define custom callouts, or even overwrite the default configuration.

To define a custom callout, create the following CSS block:

.callout[data-callout="custom-question-type"] {
    --callout-color: 0, 0, 0;
    --callout-icon: lucide-alert-circle;
}

Basic Formatting

Style

Syntax

Example

Output

Bold

** ** or __ __

**Bold text**

Bold text

Italic

* * or _ _

*Italic text*

Italic text

Strikethrough

~~ ~~

~~Striked out text~~

~~Striked out text~~

Highlight

== ==

==Highlighted text==

==Highlighted text==

Bold and nested italic

** ** and _ _

**Bold text and _nested italic_ text**

Bold text and nested italic text

Bold and italic

*** *** or ___ ___

***Bold and italic text***

Bold and italic text

Formatting can be forced to display in plain text by adding a backslash \ in front of it.

This line will not be bold

**This line will not be bold**

This line will be italic and show the asterisks

*This line will be italic and show the asterisks*

Internal links

Obsidian supports two formats for internal links between notes:

Wikilink: [[Three laws of motion]]
Markdown: [Three laws of motion](Three%20laws%20of%20motion.md)

External links

If you want to link to an external URL, you can create an inline link by surrounding the link text in brackets ([ ]), and then the URL in parentheses (( )).

[Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md)

Obsidian Help

You can also create external links to files in other vaults, by linking to an Obsidian URI.

[Note](obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=Note.md)

Escape blank spaces in links

If your URL contains blank spaces, you must escape them by replacing them with %20.

[My Note](obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=My%20Note.md)

You can also escape the URL by wrapping it with angled brackets (< >).

[My Note](<obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=My Note.md>)

External images

You can add images with external URLs, by adding a ! symbol before an external link.

![Engelbart](https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/images/Engelbart.jpg)

You can change the image dimensions, by adding |640x480 to the link destination, where 640 is the width and 480 is the height.

![Engelbart|100x145](https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/images/Engelbart.jpg)

If you only specify the width, the image scales according to its original aspect ratio. For example:

![Engelbart|100](https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/images/Engelbart.jpg)

Embedding Video

To embed video use the following:

![Title of Video](Link to video)

![Obsidian Dash](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rCveomZHDQ)

Here is an example:

Embedding PDFs:

Just drag and drop the PDF into the notebook:

Quotes

You can quote text by adding a > symbols before the text.

> Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.

\- Doug Engelbart, 1961

Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.
Doug Engelbart, 1961

Lists

You can create an unordered list by adding a -, *, or + before the text.

- First list item
- Second list item
- Third list item

First list item
Second list item
Third list item

To create an ordered list, start each line with a number followed by a . symbol.

1. First list item
2. Second list item
3. Third list item

First list item
Second list item
Third list item

Task lists

To create a task list, start each list item with a hyphen and space followed by [ ].

- [x] This is a completed task.
- [ ] This is an incomplete task.

This is a completed task.
This is an incomplete task.

You can toggle a task in Reading view by selecting the checkbox.

You can use any character inside the brackets to mark it as complete.

- [x] Milk
- [?] Eggs
- [-] Eggs

Milk
Eggs
Eggs

Nesting lists

All list types can be nested in Obsidian.

To create a nested list, indent one or more list items:

1. First list item
   1. Ordered nested list item
2. Second list item
   - Unordered nested list item

First list item
1. Ordered nested list item
Second list item
- Unordered nested list item

Similarly, you can create a nested task list by indenting one or more list items:

- [ ] Task item 1
	- [ ] Subtask 1
- [ ] Task item 2
	- [ ] Subtask 1

Task item 1
- Subtask 1
Task item 2
- Subtask 1

Use Tab or Shift+Tab to indent or unindent one or more selected list items for easy organization.

Horizontal rule

You can use three or more stars ***, hyphens ---, or underscore ___ on its own line to add a horizontal bar. You can also separate symbols using spaces.

***
****
* * *
---
----
- - -
___
____
_ _ _

Code

You can format code both inline within a sentence, or in its own block.

Inline code

^c9a534

You can format code within a sentence using single backticks.

Text inside `backticks` on a line will be formatted like code.

Text inside backticks on a line will be formatted like code.

If you want to put backticks in an inline code block, surround it with double backticks like so: inline code with a backtick ` inside.

Code blocks

To format a block of code, surround the code with triple backticks.

```
cd ~/Desktop
```

cd ~/Desktop

You can also create a code block by indenting the text using Tab or 4 blank spaces.

    cd ~/Desktop

You can add syntax highlighting to a code block, by adding a language code after the first set of backticks.

```js
function fancyAlert(arg) {
  if(arg) {
    $.facebox({div:'#foo'})
  }
}
```

function fancyAlert(arg) {
  if(arg) {
    $.facebox({div:'#foo'})
  }
}

Footnotes

You can add footnotes//[/1] to your notes using the following syntax:

This is a simple footnote[^1].

[^1]: This is the referenced text.
[^2]: Add 2 spaces at the start of each new line.
  This lets you write footnotes that span multiple lines.
[^note]: Named footnotes still appear as numbers, but can make it easier to identify and link references.

You can also inline footnotes in a sentence. Note that the caret goes outside the brackets.

You can also use inline footnotes. ^[This is an inline footnote.]

Note

Inline footnotes only work in reading view, not in Live Preview.

Comments

You can add comments by wrapping text with %%. Comments are only visible in Editing view.

This is an %%inline%% comment.

%%
This is a block comment.

Block comments can span multiple lines.
%%

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