Where can I find overall concepts for Obsidian?
Sorry, I wanted to provide more detail but the UI here kept hiding the text area so I couldn’t see what I was doing. And I see there doesn’t seem to be any way to go back and edit the posting I just created – which seems odd…
I’m trying to use Obsidian to create a text database for various thing I’m working on. What I keep running into, when I look for help, is not so much “how to” as “what to”. I don’t understand how it works and what it does – what these various terms mean. What the structure is. Vaults vs files vs notes, etc. Tags, headings, I don’t know.
I see docs on how to do stuff I don’t want to do, or why I would even want to do that. Is there a basic intro on the structure of Obsidian, and what the terms mean?
All I know now is that I don’t even know how to structure my notes, see the structure, reorganize it etc. If I want to add new info, where, and how can I structure the directory?
Any orientation help much appreciated!
This is to prevent spammers from inserting links into existing posts, which can be harder to detect. When your account has more trust, more editing features open up.
If you just need a starting guide, have you been to the help docs, first and foremost? Basic formatting syntax - Obsidian Help
Also, for definitions of terms there is Glossary - Obsidian Help.
Thank you, that helps muchly.
IMHO the Obsidian Help needs a basic orientation section right at the beginning. This may seem trivial and obvious to experienced users, but someone who had never used it needs an overview of what Obsidian is and how it works at a fundamental level. What is a vault? What is a file? What is a note? How do they interact? I know they are described separately. You need to start with the structure. I still have no idea what a canvas or graph view are, or why they are so prominent in the toolbar or whatever you call the left window. They just confuse me while I’m looking for something useful.
Don’t start using Obsidian-specific terms before you have described them in context. When using them in the Help documentation, they should be used as links to relevant clarification.
Developers should not write the documentation. They can’t “see it from the outside”. Give it to newbies and see what confuses them.
When you click the Official help site button, that’s the first thing I think you should see: “What is Obsidian?” It should start by describing the structure and components, before talking about how it uses them.
Anyway that’s my two cents. Thanks again for the help.
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Obsidian doesn’t offer a premade point and click experience: Obsidian gives you tools to help you develop a new way of thinking, based around concepts of pkm, or: personal knowledge management.
If I’d in you, try to familiarize with:
- markdown format
- download some “starter kits”. To find them, please use the search mask of this forum.
Play around with these “starter kits” and get an understanding how others organize and structure thoughts to do much more than just to collect data.
To get a pragmatic, actionable vault (basically an open database accessible to any other app able to read markdown) try to study the blog of Tiago Forte
You’ll find a ton of fascinating information around pkm online, I would suggest books rather videos. Take your time with Obsidian: this app will become your journey, not just yet another notepad app.
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