Way to go, man!
My solution is to not use the iPad for this sort of thing. Not helpful, I know. Doesn’t Text Expander work on iOS? Maybe it could help.
It does but I had cancelled my subscription. I’ll to see if I can find a text replacement program for iPad that can execute %ICUDateTime%yyyMMddHHmm%
I have no idea what they may be or even exactly what to look for regarding that ability. It is too bad that Apple text replacement function can’t implement this.
This is embarrassing to admit, but I keep forgetting about Shortcuts because I seldom use it. It seems to me that I need to devote an hour or two a week for a month or two to learn at least the basics of Shortcuts and KM. Though, with Shortcuts coming to the Mac that may be sufficient for my use cases making learning KM less needed.
Thanks a million for taking the time to create the shortcut. That was kind and thoughtful!
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Wow @celler! Great job on this.
I’m glad Roam is working out for you. One of my favorite Roam features is the way everything is just an outline. That can be really useful for some folks.
I spent several months looking at Roam but jumped into Obsidian full time last September and that remains the app for me. I’ve rambled about it so much on the show.
As to Task Management, I continue to be unimpressed with Obsidian or Roam as a “do everything” app. I keep my Calendar in a fancy calendar app. I keep my task list in a fancy task list app. Obsidian lets me create URL links so I can easily jump between apps. I’d encourage folks to not try and turn these apps into all-in-ones but instead focus on their strengths.
There is an Obsidian Field Guide in the works. Although the app is moving so fast right now that I’m waiting 2-4 more months before producing it. They aren’t even at 1.0 yet and the mobile app still definitely need more work. Also, @mikeschmitz is already working on a course for Sweet Setup up that will come out before mine does if that helps.
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For future reference: it’s not quite a straight replacement for TextExpander, but LazyBoard keeps me pretty happy on iOS for things I would have turned to TextExpander for in a past life. In this instance, it does date expansion from templates…
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Thanks, I’ll check it out!
Celler,
Thank you for you thoughts. I think you’ve provided a good counterpoint to what I see as the current obsession with the “new and shiny” Obsidian. I think in the rush to jump on the bandwagon, many have minimized the problems with the program.
I think your point about the “future-proof” of Obsidian is an excellent one. If the links can’t transfer, then what I see as the main value in Obsidian isn’t really future-proof at all. While some may be able to “write a script” to enable a transfer of links, I doubt that most users have the skills to do so.
The discussions about whether Obsidian or Roam is more likely to “stay around” for a longer period of time to me overlooks a very real possibility that makes that speculation moot. People seem to forget that both of these programs are first-generation pieces of software in the class of PKM managers that focus on linked texts. I think it’s highly likely that newer software platforms will come along that build on the base of these early efforts and greatly improve upon them. They’re “new and shiny” now, but they won’t be sometime in the future.
I can imagine a program that has been built for the Mac and looks and acts like a Mac program. One that also considers aesthetics (anyone else think Obsidian is ugly?) and doesn’t come across as a DOS program that only cares about function.
JIm
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I tend to agree with your assessment of Obsidian and similar programs. That said, if Apple would add a few key features to Apple Notes in addition to what they just announced I believe Notes would be a great contender per my prior post, here.
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Yup, back linking like Craft is the bare minimum and I’m in Apple Notes.
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Obsidian courses I’m aware of: (1) Obsidian Made Simple (by Justin DiRose) and (2) Obsidian (by Santi Younger).
The Zero to Obsidian course that Ryan mentioned—you can pay $79 for the July 13th workshop that’s designed to get you up and running with Obsidian, and then when the course itself comes out (early August), you get the course for free (that is, as part of having paid the $79 for the workshop). Course will otherwise cost $149, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a discount when it first comes out. To register for the workshop, go here (it says at the top of that page that the next workshop is on June 13, but that appears to be a typo).
Lastly, Curtis McHale says he’s working on an Obsidian course that will be available via Skillshare. Don’t know when that’ll be done, though.
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Thanks for the mention @f-dawg 
The course is almost 1 year old now 
hard to believe it.
While some of the exact UI elements have changed in look over the last year, the general principles and features have stayed the same. That being said, we’re still regularly adding modules and making improvements, especially if there are requests!
Future-preparing via Obsidian’s Outliner plug-in?
Although I’ve been all in with Obsidian for many months now, after having been all in with Roam for many months prior to that, I keep on thinking that in the future I’ll want certain features that accompany the block-level granularity that outliners like Roam have. Therefore, I’ve installed in Obsidian the Outliner plug-in and have been taking lots of my recent notes in outline mode.
Being no computer whiz, I don’t know whether that’s sufficient for significantly increasing the likelihood that my Obsidian files could be read by an outlining app. It seems it is if the outlining app is Logseq, which replicates a lot of Roam’s functionality and can read the same folder of Markdown files that constitutes my Obsidian vault.
But, alas, the block-level links (and transclusions) I create in Obsidian don’t port over when I open my files in Logseq. I’m hoping the Logseq and Obsidian developers could settle on some sort of universal code for transclusions that would make the portability of block-level links/transclusions just as standard as the portability of page links. But again, not being a computer whiz, I have to ask: would making this a reality be just a matter of the developers making certain decisions or are their hands tied because of the different code they’re using?
Btw, I started learning to code a couple of weeks ago. At the rate I’m going, I should be able to answer my own question in about a decade. But I’d rather not wait that long.
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How does Logseq deal with blocks at the moment? I.e., what does a “blocked” piece of text look like?
Not so sure this will answer your question, but blocks in Logseq look the way they do in Roam. Here’s a quick video on Loom of me clicking on a block in Logseq (accidentally recorded some Yo La Tengo when making it). I guess I’ll just add that when you create a Logseq vault or graph or whatever they call it, you have the option of using either Markdown or Org mode files. I use the former.
But I’m not answering your question, am I?
Ha, you’re trying, so that counts for something.
When you create a block link in Logseq, does it do anything to the line you’re linking to?
That’s the only way it would be cross-compatible with Obsidian. Otherwise there must be some database backend keeping track of Logseq links—making it harder for Obsidian to use them.
Oh, what’s a block link in Logseq look like. As you can see below, it’s a wee bit longer than the ones used in Obsidian.
Now get to work creating a plug-in that will fix everything, Ryan! I have all or most of your Obsidian plug-ins installed. Just waiting for you to create this one.
UPDATE: Oops. Forgot to point out that no, nothing is added to the block that is linked to in Logseq. That long string seen above is no where to be found when I go to the block it links to.
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Resurrecting an old thread to ask, do you still need to do the Edit/Preview dance in Obsidian or have they fixed it yet? Also is paying $10 a month the only way to sync across devices? seem to recall an alternative way where the vault was in the cloud…
Thanks for any info
As noted in other threads here:
- Obsidian last month introduced an early beta version of “live preview” to its supporter customers. I think the beta is going well – the feature should be generally available soon if it isn’t already.
- iCloud Drive sync is an optional method of syncing with mobile, if you do not want to use Obsidian sync.
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