Installing Obsidian#

Download it from their web site (https://obsidian.md/download) or install with winget:

winget install Obsidian.Obsidian

Configuration#

Once you install Obsidian, you can point it to an existing folder of Markdown files (or vault as Obsidian calls it).

Obsidian will create a folder called .obsidian within the vault. This is where all the settings will be stored.

app.json#

Create or update the file app.json to have the following content:

{
  "livePreview": false,
  "showLineNumber": true,
  "showInlineTitle": false,
  "showUnsupportedFiles": true,
  "tabSize": 2,
  "attachmentFolderPath": "./"
}

Most of this is self-explanatory but here’s a quick explanation:

• livePreview: Obsidian will display the markdown preview at your cursor location which can be a bit annoying. Setting this to false will turn this off
• showLineNumber: shows line numbers
• showInlineTitle: Obsidian uses the file name as a heading/title. This is also shown in the path so feels redundant
• showUnsupportedFiles: allows you to see all file types (not just markdown files) in the file browser
• tabSize: 2 spaces per tab
• attachmentFolderPath: setting this to ”./” will paste images into the same path as markdown document you’re pasting into

appearance.json#

Set your favorite font and font-size etc:

{
  "textFontFamily": "CaskaydiaMono Nerd Font",
  "monospaceFontFamily": "CaskaydiaMono Nerd Font Mono",
  "showViewHeader": true,
  "showRibbon": true,
  "baseFontSize": 12
}

hotkeys.json#

Hotkeys - the most important thing! Making sure that:

• The “Command Palette” opens with Ctrl+Shift+P
• Ctrl+P is “File Open”
• Ctrl+Shift+V is “Preview”
• Ctrl+B toggles left sidebar

cat hotkeys.json 
{
  "command-palette:open": [
    {
      "modifiers": [
        "Mod",
        "Shift"
      ],
      "key": "P"
    }
  ],
  "switcher:open": [
    {
      "modifiers": [
        "Mod"
      ],
      "key": "O"
    },
    {
      "modifiers": [
        "Mod"
      ],
      "key": "P"
    }
  ],
  "markdown:toggle-preview": [
    {
      "modifiers": [
        "Mod"
      ],
      "key": "E"
    },
    {
      "modifiers": [
        "Mod",
        "Shift"
      ],
      "key": "V"
    }
  ],
  "app:toggle-left-sidebar": [
    {
      "modifiers": [
        "Mod"
      ],
      "key": "B"
    }
  ],
  "editor:toggle-bold": []
}

daily-notes.json#

If you want to do journaling, you probably also want to set up the daily-notes.json.

{
  "folder": "daily-notes",
  "autorun": true,
  "template": "daily-template"
}

Explanation:

• folder: the folder to keep your daily notes in
• autorun: will open the daily notes when you start up Obsidian
• template: a template markdown file which will be used for every new daily note file (Obsidian will use a new file per day)

The Command Palette can also be used to Open today's daily note, which makes it really quick to open or create the daily note:

Graph view#

Obsidian also allows you to create links/maps between documents and display it as a graph view.

To add links use the double brackets: [[type-the-document-name-here]]

Typing the document name inside the brackets will let you select the document and link it up.