#1

Using Pandoc to keep your worklfow inside Obsidian

This talk happened on 2021-06-13T16:00:00Z.

You can find the recording here:

The slides, as well as some example reference documents (templates), can be found in the community talks Google Drive folder.

Info about the talk

Type: Talk/Presentation
Expected Duration (min): 60
Presenter: @SkepticMystic
Longer Description by presenter:

I will give a basic introduction to using Pandoc. This will include converting from Markdown (.md) notes to various other formats, including Word (.docx ), PDF, Powerpoint (.pptx ), and Revealjs slideshows.
I will also show how Pandoc can be used with a reference manager to cite sources in your Markdown notes, and have Pandoc build a reference list for you in your chosen reference style. Templates will also be discussed so that you can format your notes as desired.
Lastly, I show an integration with the Snippets plugin, so that you donā€™t even have to leave Obsidian to run the Pandoc command!

Technical Requirements: Try to install Pandoc before the talk, but that is only necessary if you want to follow along with me during the live presentation. No experience with Pandoc is required.

You can find the voting poll here. Please feel free to ask any questions related to this talk, or share any thoughts/comments! :smile:

23 Likes
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#2

Really interested but not sure to be available.
Any chance that the talk is recorded ?
Have nice day.

2 Likes
#3

Any chance you can cover how to use pandoc templates? Iā€™m specifically trying to figure out how to set up a bunch of templates for various short story markets so I can just easily export my markdown story into the right format and itā€™s honestly exhausting.

3 Likes
#4

Looking forward to this. Where is the stream-link posted?

#5

Is there any chance this could be recorded so we can watch later?

Iā€™d love to join in, but itā€™s at 4 am in my timezoneā€¦

#6

@Laurent @ewestra the talk will definitely be recorded :slightly_smiling_face:

4 Likes
#7

I havenā€™t set up the link yet, but I will post it here and on the Discord announcements closer to the time :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
#8

Which format do you generally have to export to? If itā€™s a Word docx, then Iā€™ve already got some content on templates for that! :grin: if itā€™s another format, Iā€™ll have to do some reading, but I can definitely talk about as much as I manage to learn.

(This is because pandoc templates work for most formats except for Word :roll_eyes: so you actually have to use a different method for Word ā€œtemplatesā€, but they are still super useful)

#9

Usually Word, yeah. One day Iā€™ll care about epub and pdf but today is not that day.

#10

I have a few (3?) pandoc reference.docx files for formatting docx files if that might be useful for you. More than happy to share.

1 Like
#11

Awesome, Iā€™ll definitely have some content on templates for Word :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

1 Like
#12

It would actually be really helpful to put a few reference docs all in one placeā€¦ Iā€™m going to make a folder for this talk on the public Community Talks Google Drive folder. Do you mind uploading yours there too? :slightly_smiling_face:

Edit: Using Pandoc to keep your workflow inside Obsidian - Google Drive

3 Likes
#13

Sure thing. Have uploaded. They are kind of ā€˜designedā€™ (one for a journal, another for an edited volume, and another is my standard reference.docx. hope they are useful to people. cheers, Simon

1 Like
#14

Where can I find the zoom link?

#15

Hey, where to find the recording?

#16

Do you have any advice for converting epub into markdown? Recently it is an issue for me.
Also I would like to watch it if you share the link

#17

@lmonson @ViaAhmed @Archie the recording has just gone live, you can find it on the community talks YouTube channel :slight_smile:

6 Likes
#18

Thanks :slightly_smiling_face:

#19

I have not used pandoc to go from epub to other formats, so I donā€™t immediately have any advice

#20

I really must be missing something in this reveal.js workflow. I keep getting resource not found errors for CSS, or else I successfully output to HTML and there are no references to the js or css files. @SkepticMystic Are you storing the full Reveal.js library somewhere in your vault? Iā€™ve even used the --css= to reference a custom stylesheet, but it still errors out and says itā€™s missing reveal.js/css/reveal.css.

To be fair, I am just working from command line, rather than trying the Snippets/Templater shortcuts you demoā€™ed in the video. But I donā€™t see why that would change things, since at the end of the day everything is happening at the Terminal level anyway.

Is there some key setup/config we have to do to get pandoc to convert to reveal.js and include all the proper CSS and JS files?

UPDATE: I managed to get it working, but only after manually updating all the CSS/JS references in the outputted file. Confused about how to get pandoc set up properly so that it just inserts the desired tags automatically, but Iā€™m guessing I just have to figure out how to create a template?

UPDATE #2: Just for anyone else who may run into this rather specific issue, I had two versions of pandoc on my Mac. On the command line, I first checked the version with pandoc --version (it was 2.0 something) and then which pandoc to see where it was installed. Then I ran brew uninstall pandoc since I remembered installing it that way at some point previously. Then I ran which pandoc again, and it turned up another pandoc at another location on my machine. So then I successfully wiped any other versions using the perl script you can find on the MacOS installation instructions here. With a clean slate, I ran brew install pandoc again, and then did a quick pandoc --version and saw that I was now running 2.14 something. That did the trick!

2 Likes