Note-taking with Obsidian

Exercise 2: Obsidian basics

In this exercise you will create a new Obsidian vault (a notebook) and learn the basics: creating notes, writing in Markdown, and linking notes together.

Part 1: Create your first Obsidian vault

  • Open the Obsidian app
  • Create a new vault
  • Give it a name and browse a location (ideally somewhere that is backed up)
  • Click Create

Your vault should open automatically.

What if I already have an Obsidian vault?

If you already have a vault, you can use it or create a new one just for this workshop. Both work.

Part 2: Add Markdown notes

For the rest of the workshop, imagine you are a chef. You use Obsidian to organize recipes and kitchen work.

Create your first recipe note

  • Create a folder called recipes
  • Create a new note named Lemon tart inside this folder (If you need help: https://help.obsidian.md/create-note)
  • Copy the recipe below into the note
  • Take a moment to look at the formatting (especially if you are new to Markdown)

Use the copy button (top-right corner) to copy the content

Don’t highlight the text and use copy-paste. If you do this, the recipe will appear as a “code block” in your note and you have to delete the first and last line that look like this: ```

# Lemon tart
 
- **Cuisine:** French
- **Course:** Dessert
- **Prep time:** 25 min
- **Cook time:** 20–25 min
- **Source:** https://www.thefrenchcookingacademy.com/recipes/lemon-tart
 
# Ingredients
 
## Filling
- 3 eggs + 1 yolk
- 150 g sugar
- 150 ml heavy cream
- 150 ml lemon juice
 
## Tart base
- 300 g sweet shortcrust pastry
- Plain flour, for dusting
 
# Instructions
 
1. Preheat oven to 200 °C. Butter and flour a 20 cm tart tin.
2. Roll out pastry, line the tin, trim edges, prick base, and chill briefly.
3. Blind-bake with parchment and weights for 12–15 min until lightly golden.
4. Whisk eggs, yolk, and sugar, then add cream and lemon juice.
5. Strain filling, reduce oven to 180 °C.
6. Pour filling into tart shell and bake 20–25 min until just set.
7. Cool, then chill at least 1 hour before serving.

Add 2–3 more recipes

Below are links to more recipes, but this time without Markdown formatting.

  • Add 2–3 of these recipes as new notes in your recipes folder
  • Add basic Markdown formatting like headings, bold text, lists

Your notes don’t need to be perfect, just experiment with basic formatting.

Markdown reference

Use the lemon tart recipe as a reference, or check the “Basics” section of the Markdown cheatsheet.

Pick 2–3 recipes below:

Create an overview note for your recipes and link to your recipe notes:

  • Create a new note (e.g. “Recipe overview” or “My cookbook”)
  • Add a list of links to all your recipe notes:
    • Type [[ and select a recipe from the suggestions
  • Click the links to make sure they work

Try different ways of opening a note

  • Click: open the note
  • Ctrl/Cmd + click: open in a new tab
  • Ctrl/Cmd + hover: open a preview (and you can edit from there)

Try each option once.

Optional tasks (if you finish early)

You can do these in any order or skip them and take a break.

Try more Markdown

  • Experiment with additional formatting from the Markdown cheatsheet
  • For example:
    • Embed a recipe using an embedded link
    • Add external links to similar recipes online
  • You can also check the Advanced section
  • Add tags to your notes (e.g. tag all recipes with #recipe)
  • Click a tag to open search and see all notes with that tag

Add attachments

You can add attachments like images by:

  • drag and drop
  • copy/paste

Add an image or screenshot to one of your notes.

Set up the attachments folder (optional)

  • Create an attachment folder (e.g. attachments or zzz_attachments)
  • Settings → Files and Links
  • Default location for new attachments: “In a folder specified below”
  • Enter the folder name (must match exactly)

Change the editor theme

Obsidian comes with many different editor themes you can choose from. Change the theme like this:

  • Open Settings (gear icon bottom left corner)
  • Go to Appearance
  • Under Themes, click Manage
  • Browse and install a theme (you can always switch back)

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