Obsidian Template README

Welcome to a simple and efficient template for Obsidian! This template is designed to help you get started quickly with a structured and efficient note-taking system. Below you will find detailed instructions on how to use and customize this template.

The template is based on this Video from Odysseas

Installation

Download the Template: click me to download repo
Rename folder: Rename the folder that was downloaded according to your needs e.g.

obsidian_template_en -> My Vault

Move folder: Move the downloaded folder into your desired location on your file system e.g.

Downloads -> Documents

Open in Obsidian: Open the Obsidian program on your desktop and select open vault and there you navigate to the place where you moved the downloaded folder and select open e.g. open

Documents/My Vault

Core Plugins: In Settings navigate to "Core Plugins" and disable "Templates" and enable "Unique Note creator"
Enable Community Plugin: Activate "Dataview", "Templater", "Media Extended" and "Breadcrumbs" Plugin in the settings under section "Community Plugins"

Folder Structure

┌— [Your Vault Name]
 ├── 1 - Rough Notes
 ├── 2 - Source Material
 ├── 3 - My Tags
 ├── 4 - Indexes
 ├── 5 - Templates and Scripts
 ├── 6 - Wiki
 ├── 7 - Work
 ├── 8 - Planing

Rough Notes: For unstructured notes can serve as content to create notes for the Wiki folder
Source Material: All external resources like: slides, papers, images, videos etc.
My Tags: Notes that serve as overview of overarching topics/themes (is a best pratice - closer described in section 'Design Choses')
Indexes: Notes like My Tags that where linked by a lot of notes (is a best pratice - closer described in section 'Design Choses')
Templates and Scripts:
- Templates: For common structures for Notes like Definitions, Experiments etc.
- Scripts: Functions that can be executed in the folder/vault to do certain actions like deleting the occurrence of a specific word in all files
Wiki: For Notes that contain the actual content and optimally are split in very small pieces (atomic way)
Work: Content created by yourself that is not directly a definition out of a source
Planing: Scheduling and Planing

Getting Started

Hint: If any of the following commands do not work try Command + P instead and look for a function that makes sense in the context

1. Create a new Note

press Command + N
Write " - {random name}"

2. Insert template

press Command + Q
Chose Template - Atomic Notes
Hint: See that in the metadata aliases the name without the timestamp is written

3. Add some source material to your vault

go to your file system and select some pdf document
drag this file into the best fitting subfolder under the "2 - Source Material" folder

4. Use the newly added resource

now tip in ![[--And here the comes the name of the resource file--]]

5. Add footnote for source

a best practice is to always cite your sources as a footnote
Put the cursor beneath the added resource from 3.
Press Command + D
tip in url where the pdf came from

Dive in deeper

Configure Your Templates

Navigate to the Templates folder.
Edit the .md files to customize them to your workflow.

Use existing plugins

Dataview: Is used to query notes with specific metadata or name
Templater: Add complex templates to notes or execute scripts
Breadcrumbs: Is used to create hierarchical structure with metadata tags like: up, down, parent etc.
Media Extended: Manage material like videos or pdfs to make timestamps or give them metadata

Explore more plugins

Leverage plugins for advanced functionality:

Recommanded: Latex Suite, Copilot, Excel, QuickAdd, Spaced Repetition, Zotero Integration, Code Emitter

Structure Notes

To a structure of types of relation between notes, there needs to be different metadata fields, because just having a backlink will not tell you if the topic is the subtop or a overarching topic or something else. For that we use Breadcrumbs metadata fields:

Group / Relation Type	Field	Definition & Use Case
Hierarchical (Ontological)	`up`	Defines the physical or structural container (e.g., the index note, MOC, or overarching folder/unit note).
	`down`	Points to internal subdivisions, specific sections, or child indices directly contained within the current note.
Sequential (Horizontal)	`prev`	Links to the directly preceding note in an ordered sequence, chapter flow, lecture list, or timeline.
	`next`	Links to the directly succeeding note in an ordered sequence, tutorial step, or timeline.
Peer / Associative	`same`	Connects non-sequential notes sharing the same hierarchical level or parent topic (e.g., related algorithms or peer concepts).
Dependency / Prerequisite	`requires`	Identifies prerequisite notes, concepts, or modules that must be learned or completed before understanding the current note.
	`required_by`	Identifies notes, advanced topics, or courses that depend on the mastery or completion of the current note.

Utilize Metadata

Add metadata to your notes using YAML front matter, for example:

---
grade: 1.3
status: in-progress
---

Customization

Feel free to customize the folder structure, templates, or metadata to suit your workflow. Here are a few ideas:

Add more folders, such as Work or Planning, based on your needs.
Create additional templates for recurring note types.
Adjust metadata fields to better align with your projects.

Design Choses

New Notes (connected with Links) for tags focusing on content -> These Notes can later be used as an index (or a MoC) to structure your Notes
The actual Tags from Obsidian are used for status, types (book, paper, website, etc.) here is a video about it

Support

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvement, feel free to open an issue or contribute to the repository.

Thank you for using my obsidian template! I hope it helps streamline your Obsidian workflow.

Obsidian_template_en