Obsidian - A powerful personal knowledge and note-taking application.
What is obsidian?
Obsidian is both a Markdown editor and a powerful personal knowledge management application. In its most basic mode, you can edit and preview Markdown files. But its true power lies in managing a densely networked knowledge base.
Free, with some additional features requiring a fee.
Obsidian is free for both personal and commercial use. For personal use, you can pay a one-time fee of $25 for early access to beta versions. Obsidian encourages, but does not require, commercial customers to pay $50 per person per year as a way to support development. The free version stores your notes locally (the only limitation being hard drive space) and does not offer synchronization, but you can still manually sync your notes via cloud storage .
The free version of Obsidian is a great option if you plan to work primarily on one device and sync files manually, but OneNote is a better choice if you want seamless note syncing without any cost.
Supports all major platforms.
Obsidian offers desktop applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux. There are no official system requirements for Obsidian, but a company representative stated that Obsidian's requirements will be similar to Chrome's, as Obsidian is built on similar software. Obsidian will run on Windows 10 and later, macOS 12 (Monterey) and later, and Linux distributions including Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 10, and openSUSE 15.5 and later. Obsidian also offers mobile applications for Android (version 5.1 and later) and iOS (version 14.5 and later).
You don't need an account or credit card to start using Obsidian. Just download the app. Next, you create a new Vault, which is essentially just a folder on your device. After creating the Vault, you can start writing notes; these are just text documents. You can drag and drop attachments, and even embed videos and PDFs .
Format: Markdown or no formatting
Obsidian relies on the Markdown language for formatting. It's a lightweight set of code for modifying text and is an alternative to rich-text formatting options in most word processors. Markdown is commonly used in messaging applications as well as text editing applications. If you're new to Markdown, it might take some time to get used to it.
Multiple note sorting options
Obsidian offers many ways to organize notes. A left-hand panel displays your files and folders. You can also navigate and organize your archives using macOS Finder, Windows File Explorer, or any other file browser you prefer. The Obsidian application reflects every change you make in real time. But the real magic comes from the links.
Obsidian also lets you sort notes alphabetically, by creation date, and by update date. You can add tags to notes by placing a hash symbol (#) before any word you want to be a tag. You can even view multiple notes at once in a split-screen view.
The great thing about Obsidian is that you don't have to use all of its features if you don't want to. Also, if these options aren't enough, you can add even more functionality through extensions.
Working with notes: From plain text documents to any other format
The Obsidian Vault is essentially just a folder filled with text documents, meaning you can browse and even edit your documents without using Obsidian. The ".md" file extension, which all notes use, refers to Markdown. Any text editor or Markdown editor can open this file type. All changes you make with another editor will immediately show up in Obsidian. This means your Vault won't become unreadable in the future, even if Obsidian ceases to exist. This also means transferring your notes to any other note-taking application will be relatively easy. Most note-taking applications offer some export feature, but with Obsidian, you don't need that. Everything is already in an open format, which gives you peace of mind.
Another advantage of this setup, as mentioned, is that you can store and sync your Obsidian Vault using any cloud storage service, instead of paying for the Sync service.
Thousands of extension options
One of Obsidian's biggest strengths is its plugin ecosystem. To date, there are nearly 2,700 plugins, which can be found in the settings or on the Obsidian website.
Plugins add all sorts of functionality. One Kanban extension transforms a simple text document into a complete Trello alternative. Another adds a calendar, perfect for creating note-taking journals. Some plugins add mind mapping or task management capabilities. Others let you embed tweets and YouTube videos.
Advantage
- Free to use (paid options available)
- Store all notes locally as text documents.
- Multiple sorting options
- Fully customizable.
- Rich ecosystem of plugins and themes
Disadvantages
- Difficulties when starting to use
- No collaboration features.
