cmenu can make a customizable button bar for bold and other markdown syntax
yeah, this is the first PKM software i’ve actually spent time in. i tried evernote a while back and hated it. since finding Obsidian i’ve become aware of a handful of other programs and there’s always 1 big deal breaker. the best example is Roam being SAS thus online only.
someone mentioned in that thread about making Obsidian open source, a program called Zettlr, as being an open source alternative. i decided to give it a try and realized IMMEDIATELY why they weren’t using it, despite it being more in-line with their philosophy.
using Obsidian has become almost half the fun of studying. and at this point i use it for much more than just studying. its given me an excuse to write down all the random/weird/crazy thoughts i have throughout the day in stead of just letting them fade away like smoke from a chimney. “i should write that down, maybe there’s a connection i can make”
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Obsidian makes me happier than any software has in a long time. It comes closer to doing everything I want than any text editor I’ve ever used (and since learning about acme, I’ve wanted a lot). I disregarded it because it’s an Electron app, but a review convinced me to look again, and wow. It’s so much faster than I expected! (I’m also using faster computers than I used to, but it’s still one of the faster apps on them.)
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Really agree with all the points! I tried Evernote, not great at interlinking notes, moved to ClickUp, awesome for task and project management, not great at interlinking notes. Now I can see all the connections and that inspires me to make more connections and combinations of knowledge. Huge security plus the local storage of notes and huge psychological plus the future proofing with markdown style (I want to give my brain to my kids!)
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Dear Obsidian developers,
I want to thank you all for your work in creating this fantastic tool and releasing this into the world for free! It is really useful and has helped me.
I am using Obsidian to house all my notes, every morning I write “morning pages” on this. Professionally, I use this to organise my research.
Like many others, I have used Evernote and Notions… I like Obsidian because the notes are “free” and not locked in by a subscription model.
Anyway, I Just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH
Moses
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hello Obsidian dev team,
I must give you praises today !!
Yesterday I imported my Evernote archives into my vault. Approx 15 000 notes converted into MD and … 70 000 files (images, PDF, videos…). It worked but Obsidian became quite sluggish, most likely because every time I am creating a new link, the app has to sort 82 000 files and notes (the total size of my vault). I was worried that it won’t be usable and I would have to reverse my data integration.
And this morning, I see the new insider release : “Files matched by this filter will be down-ranked when using Quick Switcher and link suggestions” !!!
YOU ARE AMAZING !!
The fact that Obsidian can manage significant volume of INFORMATION, not just text notes, is the main reason I will never go back to Roam or other “notes apps”. My knowledge is not made of just text notes. PDF, images, videos, DOCS, PPT, etc… CONNECTED to my text notes are fundamental. Obsidian is the only true PKM system out there.
Yannick
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Hey there!
Just wanted to say that I’ve been using Obsidian for a while now. And what can I say, I absolutely love it! Great UX and really sweet, but simple design.
I registered an account, because my strikethrough command rather toggled a highlight, but then saw there’s a new update I haven’t installed yet. Installed it, solved. So I thought I’d send this celebration and note of gratitude instead 
Thanks for all and keep it up!
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8 posts were merged into an existing topic: Obsidian has entered my dreams after <1 month
MacStories Selects 2021: Obsidian is App of the Year.
“There’s a good reason why Obsidian has taken the note-taking world by storm and has fostered a highly engaged community of users and developers: it’s an incredibly powerful, customizable piece of software that makes no assumptions about you or your workflow, and instead rewards you for shaping your own experience in the app.”
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Thank you, we’re so honored!
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I’m new to Obsidian and currently hyper-motivated to write notes. I even converted my highlights from my Kindle to markdown files to import them to Obsidian.
The first highlight that caught my attention was from this blog post I read in 2019: Everything is Amazing, But Nothing is Ours
Then I realized that the quotes I highlighted back then apply perfectly to Obsidian:
Product teams who go out of their way to give us real, tangible objects we feel that we can own will find a great deal of success.
and:
But I’d love to see more teams embrace the idea that less friction isn’t always best. If the current trend of technology is sweeping us in a direction of “everything is amazing, but nothing is ours”, Technology that’s Actually Yours could be the next great counter-trend.
Yes, there was some friction to set up Obsidian and to sync on two Linux desktops and two Android devices. It also took a while to get to know Obsidian and to choose the plugins I need. But it was worth it. I cannot remember the last time that a software gave me this feeling that it’s all mine. It’s a virtous cycle: I love using it because I feel a strong sense of ownership. Then it grows and becomes even more “mine”. Then I’ll use it even more.
I don’t know if the developers of Obsidian ever read this article. But they certainly built a software that makes you feel in control - instead of the software controlling you.
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I agree wholeheartedly. You’ve phrased my thoughts in words that I couldn’t come up with myself.
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Hear, hear.
Since I started using Obsidian I went from vague curiosity, to excitation, to passion, to sophisticated procrastination, to absolute awe and actually achieving a state where it does help me work better and live a better life, which is something that had always been out of reach despite being the promise of many apps and environments and frameworks.
Using Obsidian is like watching the result of a piece of work where the authors just made nearly all the right choices.
Sometimes I just stare at the screen and mutter “it’s amazing… it’s amazing…”
Now I’m kinda scared it could end someday, so I’m committed to making the most of it while it lasts. 
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TLDR; really glad I cancelled Spotify and subscribed to Publish
I’m very much a newbie with Obsidian but I’m already very impressed with Publish. Everything has worked smoothly from the get-go.
As someone who has worked in SEO/Content Marketing but also created stuff on the side, I felt burned by the enshittification of social media and online life. Obsidian and its Publish option feels like a breath of fresh air and has allowed me to regain a semblance of agency as a user.
I also appreciate the effort and intention that goes into making Obsidian and the fine design line between streamlining and catering to a whole of constellation of feature requests. Thank you Obsidian Team!
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This app is just awesomeness on all levels.
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A little over a year ago, I took up my iPad again to continue with my research and was facing whether to use MS Word or Pages to edit my existing files while reading and researching as a hobby. I went with Pages because it was integrated into the OS more. But when I found that in the newer versions you had to press or touch three times to get to the search function, at the point I stopped short and said, that’s it, no more.
I don’t remember how I stumbled on this application because I wasn’t involved in any coding/note-taking community. It was probably one of the YouTubers’ vids.
But what I do know is that for the last year, my problem-solving skills have improved: thanks to Obsidian, I am able to customize the workspace any way I like and even run some rudimentary scripts to effect changes. My still rather basic regular expressions expertise would never have been needed without wanting to convert my files to the new environment.
And with all that I am able to accomplish with it now – thanks also to the fantastic developer and user community – I wonder what Obsidian 3.6.4 or 4.1.1 will be like…?
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I appreciate that they made use in educational institutions free without a commercial license. Didn’t have to go through university IT to ensure doing research on Obsidian complies with employer policies.
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The only thing I worry about is if some company that didn’t care about Obsidian’s user base was able to purchase it and destroy it similar to Microsoft acquiring Atom and then abandoning with their “Embrace, extend, and extinguish" methodology”.
Love the new table functionality, this is one of the features that was keeping me in one note for so long, now I can finally switch.