diff --git a/_notes/Note-taking/Obsidian/obsidian-plugins.md b/_notes/Note-taking/Obsidian/obsidian-plugins.md index 95a1aa76..3b89ae12 100644 --- a/_notes/Note-taking/Obsidian/obsidian-plugins.md +++ b/_notes/Note-taking/Obsidian/obsidian-plugins.md @@ -18,9 +18,9 @@ blogged: false One of the best—and most anxiety-producing, from the viewpoint of long-term stability—aspects of Obsidian is how the developers have opened up the app to community plugins. These plugins extend the core behaviors in various ways. -While your notes are ultimately just a bunch of Markdown files, the plugins can produce dynamic queries, allow the "source code" of the note to contain instructions on how that are rendered differently in the "reading view" or "live preview" of the note. Here's an example: +While your notes are ultimately just a bunch of Markdown files, the plugins can perform so-called "dynamic queries". In hopefully simpler terms, the plugins let you add instructions to the "source code" of the note that tell the plugin to query, or **search for something** (like search for tasks in some or all of your notes), and these instructions can be rendered **dynamically**, or on the fly, differently in the "reading view" or "live preview" of the note (like actually showing the list of tasks you've specified in your query). -If the "source code" of a note contains the following instructions: +For example, if the "source code" of a note contains the following instructions: ````` ```tasks not done @@ -30,19 +30,19 @@ group by happens ``` ````` -Then the "reading view" of the note can display a list of tasks from any of your Obsidian notes, nicely grouped together by day, and with optional links back to the original note that contains the task. +Then the "reading view" or "live preview" of the note can display a list of tasks from any of your Obsidian notes, nicely grouped together by day, and with optional links back to the original note that contains the task. Here is an example with five different tasks, grouped into headings under three different days: ![five example tasks, each about writing a set of clever task examples](./../../../assets/images/obsidian-tasks-clever-example.png) This means your notes can take on the behavior of databases or task-management systems—yet still retain all the cross-app portability and longevity of text files! +## My Shortlist + When I first looked at Obsidian years ago, I was frustrated by the lack of obvious ways to customize the look, feel, and behavior. Both for better and for worse, the app's core developers have allowed community members to create plugins. This is great in terms of allowing for a wider variety of customizations than a small handful of official developers can support. But it's simultaneously worrisome to have some of the most crucial elements of my everyday experience be outsourced to volunteers in the community. In any event, I figured I'd write a list of some of the plugins I find most essential for my own experience, in case it helps save other people frustration in setting up Obsidian to work for them. -## My Shortlist - Here's an alphabetical list of the Obsidian plugins I rely on most frequently. - Linter @@ -65,25 +65,25 @@ Here's the plugin's [website](https://platers.github.io/obsidian-linter/) and it ### Style Settings -This one is made by [Matthew Meyers](https://matthewmeye.rs/), who has made a number of other Obsidian plugins. - -It's known on GitHub as [Obsidian Style Settings](https://github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-style-settings) and is listed within the app itself just as Style Settings. +This one is made by [Matthew Meyers](https://matthewmeye.rs/), who has made a number of other Obsidian plugins. It's known on GitHub as [Obsidian Style Settings](https://github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-style-settings) and is listed within the app itself just as Style Settings. Other themes, such as Chris Geiser's [Shimmering Focus](https://github.com/chrisgrieser/shimmering-focus/), rely on it as a common interface for their own theme settings. +Depending on the theme, this plugin will allow you to specify things like various colors, fonts, font sizes, how backlinks are displayed, and whether to hide or display entire sections of the app interface. + ### Periodic Notes Obsidian has a built-in [Daily notes plugin](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Daily+notes), which might be sufficient for many people. -Liam Cain's [Periodic Notes plugin](https://github.com/liamcain/obsidian-periodic-notes) add the ability to create weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly notes, each with different templates. +Liam Cain's [Periodic Notes plugin](https://github.com/liamcain/obsidian-periodic-notes) adds the ability to create weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly notes, each with different templates. You can see and navigate these in the Calendar pane, and even create new ones directly by clicking on that day or week. ### Tasks Originally written by Martin Schenck and now expertly maintained by Clare Macrae, the [Tasks plugin](https://github.com/obsidian-tasks-group/obsidian-tasks) is honestly what made me ultimately switch from Dendron to Obsidian for the bulk of my notes. -It lets you track and display tasks in various ways. I'll eventually write a whole separate note on how I use it. +It lets you track and display tasks in various ways. I'll eventually write a whole separate note on how I use it. For now, you can see the [example above](#tasks-example) for a quick overview of what it can do. -For now, I'll just link to its [documentation site](https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Introduction), which might be the best I've ever seen or used. +Beyond that, for now I'll just link to its [documentation site](https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Introduction), which might be the best I've ever seen or used. ### Templater