# Obsidian Basics and Glossary Obsidian is pretty straight forward in its structure and its language but it can take some time to get used to. Below is a collection of term definitions and adventure/TTRPG use cases for a lot of the really straightforward stuff so you can get started with the native functionality of Obsidian. Any term listed on this page is defined on this page but let me know if I missed something. For information about the plugins used in my toolkit, check out the [[Plugins]] page. ## Aliases Aliases are names for notes that are different from the actual title of the note for use in backlinks. This can be defined in the backlink syntax itself or in the of the note for easier use when typing those backlinks. **This is most useful for PCs and NPCs so you don't have to have their full name listed every time you're mentioning them.** ###### Backlink Aliases >[!info] Backlink Syntax > >**Backlink without Alias:** >```bash >[[example]] >``` >**Backlink with Alias:** >```bash >[[example|alias]] ###### Frontmatter Aliases In the frontmatter, "aliases" is listed as a property so you can put in as many aliases as you want. ![[lermis aliases.png]] > [!example]- gif of a backlink with aliases from frontmatter ![[lermis alias ex.gif|745]] ## Backlinks This is the #1 tool for writing adventures and taking session notes in Obsidian. Put double brackets around any word to link to the note with that name. Obsidian makes this relatively non-intrusive by auto-completing any brackets you type. >[!info] backlink syntax >``` >[[linked page name]] > [!example]- gif of a backlink > ![[existing backlink.gif|745]] If the note *doesn't* exists yet, you can still put the brackets around it and, when you're ready, click on it to create a note with that title. >[!example]- gif of an empty backlink >![[nonexisting backlink.gif|745]] You can also easily add a link to a word you've already typed by highlighting the word and typing two front brackets. > [!example]- gif of a backlink on existing text > ![[backlink on words.gif|745]] ## Callouts Callouts are a useful tool to highlight certain text or to hide large blocks of stuff you maybe don't need to look at the whole time. All the blue and purple boxes on this page are callouts in obsidian. Here's an example... >[!info] callout syntax > >``` > >[!info]title > > whatever you want to type or display goes here > > after a blank line, hitting enter will end the callout Obsidian has several different callouts with different colors you can use by using a particular word after the ! in the brackets. If you want greater control, you could use a plugin like [Callout Manager](https://github.com/eth-p/obsidian-callout-manager). ## Command Palette Ctrl-P or Cmd-P opens the command palette where you can search for and run any command for Obsidian or commands allowed by the plugins you install. It just makes things easy. ## Frontmatter Frontmatter is the metadata of a note. These are properties that live at the top of each note that are helpful in sorting, creating lists or tables, and providing reference data for all sorts of code. The frontmatter is written in YAML and probably best utilized by the [Dataview](https://blacksmithgu.github.io/obsidian-dataview/) plugin Frontmatter is great for tracking stats and info for player characters and NPCs. Putting it all in the note just means it will be there if and when you need it. It doesn't mess up the note because you can just hide it by clicking "Properties"! >[!example]- gif of lots of properties you can hide >![[frontmatter hiding.gif|745]] Frontmatter isn't inherent to the note. You need to add it. >[!info] frontmatter syntax >``` >--- >aliases: son_of_pizza, vvunderlore, slamwise0001, foug dunny >name: sam >cool: true >--- >[!example]- gif of frontmatter ui >![[frontmatter creation.gif|745]] As you can see in the gif, the ui will bring up any fields that have already been used in your vault as well as any values that have already been used in any field. Handy! ## Graph View Graph view is a built in feature of Obsidian that lets you visualize the backlinks between all your different notes in your vault. There are options to filter out certain folders or files with specific frontmatter properties. ![[graph view.gif]] Personally, I don't really use it because I was writing things before I put it all in obsidian and I haven't gone back to link every single proper noun in everything I've ever written. But it's cool and I could see how might use it to find themes or missed connections between NPCs or different parts of the world. Bottom line: it's a cool visualizer and I can see it being useful for adventure writing, but maybe not as much for gameplay. ## JSON JavaScript Object Notation is a syntax language to efficiently store big amounts of information in libraries that a lot of simple programs and codes can access without doing a lot of work. This won't come up a lot in your day-to-day use of obsidian but if you're looking to expand your compendium, the raw data you get offline might be in a JSON format (such as from 5e.tools). For exactly that purpose, I've built some python scripts you can run from your terminal that will convert json files to specific formats for use in your compendium, ## Markdown Markdown (.md) is just the kind of files Obsidian is built on. Similar to other note apps like Bear or Supernotes or Noteplan, it uses a specific kind of syntax to make formatting and basic bits of code very cross-platformy. >[!info] markdown formatting examples >Here are some of the simplest examples of markdown. >``` >**bold text** >*italic text* >~~strikethrough~~ >==highlight== ># Headers >## Smaller Headers > >This is a table: >| column 1 | column 2 | | --- | --- | | | | Why this is also nice is because everything you put into Obsidian is organized the same way on your computer. You could go to your obsidian folder and open a markdown note in textedit and use (most of) it the same way you would in obsidian. Very good for backing up, syncing, or sharing. ## Note A note is just what one of the "pages" in obsidian is called. Each note has the potential to do anything any other note can do and all the notes are .md (markdown) files on your computer. ## Publish [Obsidian Publish](https://obsidian.md/publish) is a tool to push an entire vault to a neat webpage. Hey, just like the one you're looking at now! A lot of plugins unfortunately don't work in Publish and also it does cost some money (there are free ones out there that are slightly to definitely less easy to use) so it's not extremely useful for running TTRPGs. However, if your compendium is something you want to share with players or other, especially if it goes beyond containing just monsters and spells (like stories, maps, NPC profiles, etc.), it would be a great and easy tool to get your amazing work out in the world. ## Source Mode vs Live Preview There are two modes to viewing all your notes in obsidian. You can easily set a hotkey to switch between the two which is most useful when you're doing any sort of minor or major code in your notes. ![[live preview to source mode.gif]] ###### Live Preview This is a nice, clean view of all of your notes. Any code you have on your note will render and you can view it like you want to. Clicking on rendered blocks will turn them into their code so you can still edit that in live preview mode. It's the way I have my notes about 95% of the time. ###### Source Mode This takes everything in your note, from markdown formatting to code to backlinks, and puts them in their raw format. This is useful when things are maybe getting a bit mixed up and you need to manually format or separate code, among other things. ## Syncing Obsidian offers it's own syncing feature that you have to pay some bucks for ([Obsidian Sync](https://obsidian.md/sync)) but also hey you can use any other cloud sync platform to do this because it's just files on your computer. They're in the computer. I use iCloud so that I can write notes on my phone or take my laptop to a session elsewhere and have all my stuff ready to go. It's syncing. You know what syncing is. ## Templates Templates are just notes that you can recreate over and over from a template. It's fine. But install the [Templater](https://silentvoid13.github.io/Templater/introduction.html) plugin and then your templates can do a lot more, allowing you to run javascript in your templates to make your new notes much more functional. I use this to create new pages for my compendium as well as create new session notes every time I finish a session. You can find templates I made in Worldbuilding Templates and Gameplay tools folders on this site. ## Transclusion Transclusion just means embedding files or other notes (or parts of other notes) inside a note. This is useful for adding character pictures, maps, or whatever else to you session notes or adventure. ## Triple Backticks Triple backticks make the container where many plugins insert their code into notes. Backticks are the little backwards apostrophe underneath the tilde next to the 1 on your keyboard. >[!info] triple backtick examples >![[triple backtick example.png]] ## Vault The vault is where all of your Obsidian files are kept. Its that long list on the left side of the window. You can create multiple vaults if you have a lot of subjects, but that would make it really hard to connect all that together. I have one vault for dungeons and dragons where all my player information, adventures, session notes, gameplay tools, and my compendium of information live. ## YAML YAML or "Yet Another Markup Language" is a sort of syntactically-simplified version of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) to store data. I'm not going to go deeper than that because I learned about it to build this so my understanding is definitely limited. YAML is used a lot in Obsidian to do simple info storage, creating sort of libraries of information to be recalled. The most obvious example of this is frontmatter, but YAML is also used in plugins like [MetaBind](https://www.moritzjung.dev/obsidian-meta-bind-plugin-docs/) and [Fantasy Statblocks](https://plugins.javalent.com/statblocks).