Obsidian Tutorial for Beginners

[00:00] In this video, you'll learn how to use Obsidian  step-by-step. Obsidian is a free note-taking app   that stores your notes right on your computer,  making it easy to organize information,   connect related ideas, and quickly find  what you need. We'll start by installing  

[00:16] Obsidian and creating your first vault. Then  I'll show you how to organize your notes,   link related information together, and even  connect AI tools like Claude to search, summarize,   and build on your notes. I'm Kevin, and let's dive  in. To get started, head to the following website  

[00:33] to install Obsidian. You'll find a link right  here at the bottom of the screen. On the homepage,   click Get Obsidian. Here, you'll find downloads  for all the major desktop and mobile platforms.   I'll be using Windows for this tutorial, but the  experience is similar regardless of which platform  

[00:49] you choose. Click the Download button and then run  the installer. Once the install finishes, launch   Obsidian, and here you'll see a few different  options. Since we're starting from scratch,   let's click on Create New Vault. A vault is simply  a folder where Obsidian stores all of your notes,  

[01:05] attachments, and settings. We'll take a  closer look at vaults in just a moment. First,   give your vault a name. I'll call mine the Kevin  Cookie Company. Next, choose where you'd like to   save your vault. I'll click here. This opens  up a file picker, and you can now choose a  

[01:20] location on your PC. If you'd like to sync your  vault across multiple devices, you can also save   it in a cloud storage service like OneDrive or  Google Drive. Just choose a folder on your PC  

[01:32] that's already syncing. Down below, I'm going  to select this folder, and right over here,   let's click on Create. And just like that, you've  created your first Obsidian vault. Nice work.   Before we start creating notes, let's take a quick  tour of the interface so you know where everything  

[01:47] is. Over on the left is the sidebar. Here, you'll  find all of your different notes and the different   available tools in Obsidian. In the middle is the  editor where you'll create and view your notes.  

[01:59] And over on the right-hand side is the graph  view. As you create notes and link them together,   this provides a visual map of how everything  is connected. We'll come back to this later   in the video. For now, let's close it out. I'll  click here. Now, let's create our first note. 

[02:14] At the top of the navigation pane, click on  this icon to create a new note. Throughout   this tutorial, we'll build a knowledge base for  my small business, the Kevin Cookie Company, as   we prepare to launch a brand new double chocolate  chip cookie. Hopefully it's a hit. Otherwise, we  

[02:28] might have to consider a different business, like,  I don't know, making tutorial videos on YouTube.   Now, let's give this new note a name. Right up  here, I'll call this the cookie launch. Now, press   Enter. And we're going to organize our note with  a few different headings. To create a heading,  

[02:44] simply enter two pound signs, followed by a space,  and then type in the text. For the first one,   I'll call this Overview, press Enter. Two more  pound signs, a space. And for this next one,   I'll call this Tasks, Enter. Two more pound  signs, a space. And for this one, I'll call it  

[03:00] Related Notes, and then hit Enter. Obsidian uses  a simple formatting language called markdown. Now,   don't worry about memorizing the syntax. As  we continue throughout this tutorial, you will   naturally pick it up. Under Overview, I'd like to  add a short description. I'll click here, press  

[03:15] Enter, and then type in some text. Now, notice  that right next to Overview, I get this arrow   icon. I can click on that to collapse or expand  that section. This is especially useful as your   notes become longer. Right here under Tasks, I'd  like to add a checklist. So, let's press Enter,  

[03:31] and enter in a dash, followed by a space, an  opening bracket, a space, a closing bracket,   and then another space, and just like that, we  now have a checklist. I'll type in my first item,  

[03:43] Finalize Recipe, then I'll press Enter. Let's  design some packaging, press Enter, and also   launch the marketing campaign. Now, notice that  every time I press Enter, Obsidian automatically   created another checkbox. That makes it really  easy to build out a task list. If you don't want  

[03:59] to have to remember the Markdown syntax, there's  also another way. You could simply right-click,   and right under Paragraph, you could insert a  task list right here. So multiple ways to do it,   but I think you'll find that as you use  Obsidian more and more, simply learning the  

[04:14] markdown syntax will help you save time and also  work more efficiently. This note here gives us   a high-level view of the project, but instead  of putting everything into one long document,   I like to create separate notes for different  parts of the project. Let's start with the product  

[04:28] itself. So right up on top, let's create another  new note. I'll click here, and let's give it the   name, Double Chocolate Chip Cookie. This note will  contain all the details about our new cookie. Now,   let's add a heading called Description, and just  like we did before, type in two pound signs,  

[04:43] a space, and then I'll enter in Description, and  press Enter. Below that, I'll type in some text.   I'll start with an asterisk, enter my text, and  then close with an asterisk, and press Enter. Now,   notice that I surrounded a text with asterisks  to make the text italic. Let's now add another  

[04:59] heading called Ingredients. In this section,  I'd like to create a bulleted list. To do that,   type in a dash, followed by a space, and then I  could type in my ingredients. So here, I'll type   in flour, press Enter, and you'll notice that  it automatically creates another bulleted item,  

[05:15] and here, I could simply type in my list. Obsidian  isn't just limited to text. You can also add files   directly into your notes. Let's add another  heading. I'll call this one Pictures, and I'd  

[05:27] like to paste in a picture of our Double Chocolate  Chip Cookie. So right here, I'll paste it in. Now,   along with images, you could also add files,  like PDFs, audio, and video, directly into your   notes. Let's now create another note. In the top  left-hand corner, let's click on this icon again,  

[05:42] and I'll call this Marketing Campaign. I'll add a  heading called Launch Ideas and then let's create   a numbered list. To do that, I'll type the number  one, followed by a period, and a space, and then   I'll type in some ideas. We'll announce the cookie  on social media. We'll send an email to customers,  

[05:58] and we'll also offer a limited time launch  discount. Now, notice that when I press Enter,   Obsidian automatically continues the numbered  list. Finally, let's create one more note,   but this time, instead of pressing the icon in  the top left-hand corner, let's use a shortcut  

[06:12] key. Press the Control key together with N, and  that drops us into a new note, and here, I'll   call it Product Launch Meeting. Here, I'll add a  heading, and let's call this Discussion Topics,   and I think for meeting notes, checklists tend to  work really well. So, let's add a few items. Now,  

[06:28] if you remember from earlier, to add a checklist,  enter in a dash, followed by space, an open   bracket, space, close bracket, and then another  space, and then we have our task list. Now here,   I'll add a few items in, like Review Recipe,  Finalize Packaging, and Confirm Launch Date.  

[06:44] We've now created several notes, each focused on a  different part of our project. You can see all the   notes listed here in the navigation pane. Now, you  could simply click on any one of these notes to   jump to that specific note. So far, we've created  several notes, but they're all separate from one  

[07:01] another. One of the things that makes Obsidian so  powerful is the ability to connect related notes   together. Back on the cookie launch note, this  is the first one we created. Let's go down to   the Related Notes section. And right here, let's  type in two opening square brackets. And as soon  

[07:18] as I do that, Obsidian displays a list of all  of my existing notes. So right over here, let's   select Double Chocolate Chip Cookie. Now, when I  do that, Obsidian automatically creates a link to   that note. Now, let's do the same. Here, I'll  press Enter. Let's enter in two opening square  

[07:33] brackets. And right over here, let's go with  the marketing campaign, press Enter, and let's   do it again. And this time, let's go with the  product launch meeting. Then let's press Enter.  Now, instead of searching through a long  document, here I could click on any one  

[07:46] of these links. I'll click on this one, and that  brings me to that specific note. And here, I could   get the information I need. Up above, I could  click on the back icon, and that brings me back   to the cookie launch note. You can also create  links while you're writing. Right down below,  

[07:59] let's click into the marketing campaign. And  here we say, announce the cookie on social media,   but let's actually refer to it by name. So over  here, I'll remove the cookie, and let's enter in   those two opening square brackets, and here we see  all the different notes. Let's click on the double  

[08:14] chocolate chip cookie. And here, that inserts a  link directly in line. These connections are one   of the many reasons so many people love Obsidian.  Instead of storing isolated notes, you start to  

[08:26] build a network of related information that's easy  to explore. Now, over on the left-hand side, where   we have all of our different tools, let's click on  the one that says open graph view. This opens up   the graph view. As we connect all of our different  notes, each connection appears in the graph. That  

[08:41] way we have a visual overview of how everything  is organized. And in fact, one neat thing,   I could click on any one of these notes. So, let's  go back to the cookie launch main page. I'll click   here, and that opens up the note. As your vault  grows, scrolling through a long list of notes  

[08:56] isn't always the fastest way to find what you  need. To search across your entire vault, click   on the search icon in the left sidebar. You can  also use the keyboard shortcut, control, shift,   and F. Now, let's say I want to find everything  related to our marketing campaign. Right up here,  

[09:11] I'll type in marketing. Now, Obsidian searches  across all my notes and shows me every place   where that word appears. Now, here's a neat thing.  I can click on any one of these, and then I can   expand to see the surrounding text. And there, I  see more of the details. Now, if I click on this,  

[09:27] that'll bring me to that specific point in  the note where that word appears. Search also   works for more specific information. For example,  right up here, I'll search for chocolate chunks,   and Obsidian immediately finds the ingredient  inside the product note. So right over here,  

[09:41] click on chocolate chunks, and there we see that  reference. Now, this becomes especially useful as   your vault grows from just a few notes like we  have now to hundreds or perhaps even thousands.   You don't have to remember exactly where you wrote  something. You just need to remember part of what  

[09:54] you wrote. Searching is great when you're looking  for something specific, but what if you want AI to   answer questions across all of your notes or maybe  even create new ones? One of the things I really  

[10:06] like about Obsidian is that your notes are stored  as standard markdown files on your computer. That   means AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT can work  directly with your vault. Here I am in the Claude   desktop app, and I'm currently in the Cowork view.  Right down here, I'm going to point Claude to my  

[10:23] Obsidian vault location on my PC. I'll select this  and then click on allow. It'll now have access to   all of my notes. Now, I can ask questions about  the information I've already collected. So as  

[10:35] an example, what cookie are we launching? And  then let's send that. Claude searches my vault,   and here it tells me that we're launching the  double chocolate chip cookie. Now, of course,   that's just a simple example, but it shows you how  Claude can retrieve information from your notes.  

[10:50] Claude can also help me add new information to  my knowledge base. For example, right down below,   I'll ask it to create a new note in this folder  called customer feedback with three suggestions   for improving our cookie. Over here, let's  start the task. Over on the right-hand side,  

[11:05] we can see the markdown file that Claude created,  but let's go to Obsidian to make sure the file   shows up there too. Back within Obsidian, over on  the left-hand side, we now have a new note titled   customer feedback, and when I click into that,  here we see everything that Claude generated,  

[11:19] automatically added to my vault. To make Obsidian  even more powerful, you can connect Claude to   Zapier, the sponsor of today's video. Zapier  lets you securely connect AI tools like Claude  

[11:31] or ChatGPT to over 9,000 apps so your AI can  work with the tools you already use every day.   Let's make this real. I'll ask Claude to search  my Gmail for the latest feedback about the double   chocolate chip cookie, summarize it, and add  it to my customer feedback note in Obsidian.  

[11:48] Claude searches my Gmail, summarizes the  feedback, and updates my Obsidian note,   all from a single prompt. Instead of manually  copying information into Obsidian, Zapier lets   Claude bring it in for you, helping keep your  knowledge base up to date automatically. If  

[12:04] you'd like to connect your favorite AI tools  to thousands of apps, check out Zapier using   the link in the description right down below.  One of the biggest strengths of Obsidian is how   customizable it is through plugins. To access  plugins, down in the bottom left-hand corner,  

[12:19] click on the settings gear. There are two types of  plugins. Right up here, we have core plugins, and   these are built into Obsidian. Then over on the  left-hand side, you also have community plugins,   which are created by developers around the world.  Before installing community plugins for the first  

[12:34] time, right down here, we'll need to turn them on.  I'll click here, and then let's click on browse.   There are thousands of plugins available that add  new features and customize the way Obsidian works.   So, if you're looking for something to do this  weekend, here you'll find plugins for things like  

[12:49] task management, databases, calendars, AI,  diagrams, and much more. I encourage you to   browse through the directory and install plugins  that best fit your workflow. In the top right,   let's close out of this view. By default,  Obsidian stores all your notes locally on  

[13:03] your computer. If you'd like to access your notes  across multiple devices, Obsidian offers a service   called Obsidian Sync. Within settings, over on the  left-hand side, let's click into sync. Right here,   you could sign up for a new account. And once you  sign up, you could choose what vaults you'd like  

[13:17] to synchronize. Once everything is configured, any  changes you make on one device are automatically   synced to your other devices. Now, one thing  to call out, Obsidian Sync is a paid service,   and you could find the latest pricing on the  Obsidian website. If you prefer, you can also  

[13:31] synchronize your vault using third-party services  like iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox,   although those require a little more setup.  And that's how to use Obsidian. Of course,   there's a lot more to Obsidian, but this gives  you everything you need to get started. If  

[13:47] let me know in the comments below. Thanks so much  for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.