#1

How would Obsidian files look outside obsidian? This is very important to me. For example, if I created a markdown file called “myfile” would I be able to a file named 'myfile.md` on my file system? Or does Obsidian give files some hashed name? Would I be able to edit that file with the vim editor like any other text file? Or does Obsidian do some special formatting so that the file only looks normal inside Obsidian?

#2

You will be happy to hear that the file is plaintext and can be opened and then edited and saved with pretty much anything. This is a strength of Obsidian.

Good luck.

Thanks.

#3

You can open these files with any text editor. They will look exactly the same as they look in Obsidian.

Obsidian doesn’t do anything strange to your files. If you want to keep things highly compatible you can do so without any problems.

Like you said:

myfile

would just look like

myfile.md in your files

Just give it a try and you will see.

Create a new vault, add some files and wherever you store them in your file system you’ll have access to them and you are free to open them with whatever text editor you like.

Let us know if your question is solved, to mark it as resolved help!

#4

Thank you for your reply. Will the file have the name I gave it, if I look at the file on the file system? For example, if I looked at a file listing from the command line, would the file be called “myfile.md” or would it have a hashed file name?
I tried an note taking app called “Joplin” once. One thing I did not like about Joplin was that the files were given these hashed file names like: “aklsjfalsfjalfkjas;fldasjalvnergt.” Outside the Joplin app itself, I really could not work with my files.

#5

Hi @walterbyrd , I also come from Joplin!. To migrate from Joplin to Obsidian you can use the function ‘export as markdown files’ that will generate a directory. Then you can open the directory directly with Obsidian.

Obsidian currently honors names and directories. You can go to the directory where the notes are saved and look at them, so it’s more clear,…