Beginner's Guide to Mastering Obsidian

What Obsidian is, how the interface works, links and graph, tags, canvas, plugins, templates, sync, shortcuts, and the mistakes beginners make. Read it if Obsidian is new to you.

What it is

A free guide for people who just installed Obsidian, or are about to. Vaults and the .obsidian folder, Markdown, the interface, Quick Switcher and Command Palette, links and backlinks, the Graph view, tags, Canvas, core vs community plugins, templates, sync and backup options, keyboard shortcuts, common beginner mistakes.

Where to find it

Anyone: read it online, no account needed. That’s the fastest route.

Newsletter subscriber: the download link was in the welcome email.

Got it on Gumroad or the store: in your purchase email and in your Gumroad library.

Bundled with something else (a Knowii tier, the Everything Knowledge Bundle, the Knowledge Worker Kit): not delivered automatically. Ask me: sebastien@developassion.be.

Do this first

Read the interface and links sections with Obsidian open. Create two notes and link them. Open the Graph view. You now understand the one thing that makes Obsidian different from every other note app.

Then

Read the “common beginner mistakes” section before you install a single community plugin. Then the Starter Kit, which has the plugins already chosen for you.

Skip it if

You’ve used Obsidian for more than a few weeks. You know this.

What it leads to

The Obsidian Starter Kit.