Markdown
Things you should know about Obsidian Publish — my struggles and how I'm dealing with them.
Obsidian Publish has been a game-changer for my online presence, but like any powerful tool, it comes with its quirks. Here are the hurdles I’ve faced and how I’m overcoming them.
A few days ago, I converted my blog to the Timeline System. If you are interested in more details, there’s a walk-around video that you can watch.
Photos Page
The “Photos page” was inspired by how Micro.blog handles our pictures. When there’s a JPG image in a post, that image will be displayed in a Photos page with a link back to the post.
My solution is more manual, like many other things on the website, but that’s okay. As all this AI buzz grows, I’m trying to find comfort in actually doing things with my type of AI in mind: Attention & Intention.
But don’t get me wrong, I use AI, the other type, all the time. For example, I had this long conversation with Gemini to help me come up with the CSS responsible for the /photos page layout.
Obsidian Publish Limitations
I am delighted with the progress I have made thus far. However, I have also encountered a few bugs and issues during the process.
Since I came back to Obsidian-Publish, I’ve been working hard on creating this mix of a blog and learning center. It has to be something useful for you, but, at the same time, I need a system that will make my life easy. Otherwise, I’ll just stop sharing.
You know that thumbnail when people share posts on social media? There’s a way to set an image to do that on Obsidian Publish. Although it’s a fairly straightforward setting, I never found it to be successful. And because of all the other work going on in the process of building my website, I never took the time to report this and investigate the matter.
Yesterday, I finally reported it on Obsidian’s official forum, which ended up leading me to mxstbr’s post about it.
The problem is some sort of incompatibility with the Permalink setting. I tested it on my website, and he is right. So, let’s hope the Obsidian team comes up with a fix to this.
The other issue is a site behavior that, in my opinion, doesn’t make any sense. As you already know, formatting notes in Obsidian is done with Markdown. But it’s also possible to use regular HTML.
What I found out is that any link that points to an external site will open that site in a new tab. First, I thought that I could solve that using a HTML link, but it keeps opening on another tab even if I use target="_self", which is a way to force the link to open on the same page.
After almost going crazy, I decided to inspect my website code, and, to my amazement, Obsidian Publish replaced the target="_self" with target="_blank", which is how we tell the browser to open the site on a new page.
Why? That doesn’t make any sense. We, the site owners, should be the ones deciding where the page should open.
Anyway, there’s also a complaint about this on the forum. So, let’s hope they fix it. For now, be aware that that’s the reason you’ll be sent to another tab when you click on one of my pictures on the Photos page.
No rel=“me”
This is another HTML attribute that is used by Mastodon and other services to make sure the owner of the website is the same person claiming to be that owner on another site.
It’s such a simple and easy setting, but because of the way Obsidian Publish code works, the rel="me" is not visible, and services cannot use it to verify ownership.
I’ve been complaining about this for a long time, but after being ignored for so long, I decided to come up with a workaround. Because I also needed a Linktree-style page, I created social.vladcampos.com on GitHub and that’s where I included the rel="me code.
Not everyone has time or knowledge to do this, not to mention that it’s not ideal. An official way to solve this would be to provide us with access to the <head> of the site via a file, just like we can do with the publish.css and publish.js files.
That, by the way, would address another issue. The Author Attribution verification. For that, regrettably, I could never come up with a workaround.
The Terrible RSS Feed
Finally, there’s the terrible RSS feed. I can relate to the challenges here, but there is already a feed, which, unfortunately, doesn’t make any sense. For starters, I don’t understand what the criteria used to order the notes are. If they could at least make it ordered by last created note, it would already be at least usable.
The workaround I came up with was to |manually create my feed. Unbelievable, right? It’s 2025! Anyway, I’ll do it again on my GitHub page and share the link on my Obsidian site and on the Linktree-style page.
But, please, don’t get me wrong; I’m thrilled with what Obsidian Publish is enabling me to do. It’s something I have tried and failed on so many other platforms, and it’s now a fascinating work in progress.
Obsidian is great, but learning is inherently hard
If you are looking into switching to Obsidian, maybe my journey can help you.
The very first video about Obsidian was published on my YouTube channel on March 14, 2023. What some of you may not know is that I had been using it for longer than that to help clients here and there.
However, that amount of time is nothing when compared to the muscle memory I have developed from using Evernote for every little thing in my life for 16 years. The problem with the new is that it is always unwelcoming. It’s not only the different way of doing things; it’s also the constant uncertainty about doing anything. And at that point, Obsidian was not only new to me, but there’s also the sheer number of settings and plugins making it feel so overwhelming.
To make matters worse, I decided to bring my YouTube audience along with me on that new journey. For a long time, I have had the idea of creating a vlog-style productivity series on my channel that would show how I organize life and work. I thought that learning Obsidian would be a great opportunity to try that, but it ended up creating unnecessary confusion, as it is challenging to film myself figuring out things happening in real time.
Back to my point. After so many trials and errors, I’m now much more comfortable with how Obsidian works. Some of the setups I came up with, like the homepage demonstrated in the video below, are now running for a considerable amount of time and working so well. Furthermore, my Timeline System has matured to the point where it allows me to seamlessly navigate my daily activities.
Don’t tell anyone, but because of all of that, I feel like recording many of my past videos again. Anyway, you are not here for this. Let’s go through my tips for switching to a new app.
Before that, a disclaimer is needed, right? The following is how I did things. It’s also based on the strategy I use to help my clients, but it may not be suitable for you. So think of the suggestions below as just that, suggestions.
From Evernote to Obsidian
First, I didn’t abandon Evernote. I knew how things worked there, which mad it my safe haven during the transition period.
With that in mind, the first actual homework was to learn the basics about the mysterious Obsidian. Because of my clients, I had already done part of that before. But now I needed to move a step further and see how things would work in real life. To accomplish that, I created the first of many local vaults on my Mac to work as a sandbox.
Once that was done, I copied, I repeat, copied, not moved, parts of my notes. In some ways, Obsidian is so similar to Evernote, but in others, like how files are stored, it’s an entirely different approach. However, it works in such a way that you can have as many vaults as you wish and easily delete the ones that didn’t work. As long as you are coping your files, you can consider the multiple vaults to be a process of prototyping and iterating.
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the article, there’s a universe of settings and plugins. I suggest avowing all plugins as you are getting to know your way around. As for the settings, try to look for the answers as you need them. For example, when you feel like you have to learn how to format text, go look for tutorials on how to do that.
As you get used to it, move some more parts of your system, but I would still think of what you are doing on the new app as in experimental mode. It will take a while for you to get used to the numerous new things that are still making you uneasy.
If you followed my progress on YouTube, you know that I was constantly changing my setup and being frustrated by all the new ways of doing things. And let’s not forget that I was doing all the above while still using Evernote. So much so that at a certain point, I had a good portion of my activities being managed with the help of both apps, and that was driving me crazy.
To make things even more miserable, Evernote decided to redesign its mobile app. Now, on top of learning a new system, I had to adapt to a new way of doing things on the app I was so familiar with.
It was a lot, but it was worth it. It felt like a final partnership with my old friend, Evernote. The new design and new ways to do things helped me eventually find a way to implement the Timeline System that had been brewing in my head for so many years. Yes, the Timeline System I use in Obsidian and in the Supernote came to be because of my struggles with Evernote.
With that settled, the next step was to replicate the system in Obsidian and start moving all my files. But I did it one notebook at a time. I would export an Evernote notebook, import it to Obsidian, organize all the mess, and, just as a last resort, keep the exported notebook as a backup. In case you are wondering, yes, I still have them in a backup drive.
Plugins
But we are not done just yet. As I have already mentioned several times, Obsidian is full of settings and plugins. My strategy here is the same as at the beginning of this process. Whenever I need something that Obsidian cannot do, I start looking for a plugin.
I try to stick with the ones that do one of a few things, but every so often that’s not possible. For example, the Tasks plugin is too much for my needs, but I couldn’t find a lighter alternative that would work for me. Templater and all its features is one that I’m avoiding, as the Auto Template Trigger does almost everything I require. But when it comes to having fun, it looks like that rule doesn’t apply. I love using and tweaking every detail possible on the Map plugin.
Which brings us to one of the reasons I switched to Obsidian. Evernote has been on a downward trend of removing features since version 10 was released. I thought for a moment that Bending Spoons was going to bring old features back, but they kept removing them.
Guess what, many of the removed features I used to love in Evernote exist on Obsidian as a setting or are available as a plugin. And in most cases, these are better variations of what existed on Evernote. And that makes me so full of joy! It’s like being in a parallel universe, where Evernote evolved to what Obsidian is today. Back to reality, I’m definitely happy. So happy!
In summary, what I’m trying to say is first, have a safe haven. Second, take your time. Really, take your time. This will be a long project. Third, you already have a lot on your plate, don’t create more problems for yourself. Go look for settings and plugins only when you genuinely need to fulfill a specific requirement.
Obsidian as a writing hub
Scrivener and LanguageTool are remarkable tools that I use all the time, but they don’t have an Android App. Luckily, Obsidian works as an elegant bridge that has clients for multiple platforms.
Please allow me to begin by explaining the situation. I’m a Mac user who switched from the iPhone to Android many years ago and have no intention or desire to go back.
That said, I sometimes come across great writing tools like Scrivener and LanguageTool that don’t have an Android App. Thankfully, Obsidian is an important part of my writing kit and has clients for multiple platform. This is the story of how I use it as my writing hub.
Scrivener is where I’ve been writing my books since 2012. I don’t know how others create, but in my case, I usually start by writing down ideas as they come to mind. When there’s enough content and a lot of mess, it’s time to organize the text, and that’s probably my favorite thing about Scrivener. Coping and pasting is harmless, since the draft file has no formatted text, and it is also extremely easy to rearrange chapters by simply dragging them around.
Another crucial aspect of writing is grammar. For a non-native speaker like myself, a little help with synonyms and sentence construction is very welcome. That’s where LanguageTool shines. It feels as if I have an English teacher constantly suggesting changes to improve the text.
Don’t ask me why, but Scrivener never added support to LanguageTool, despite the existence of an API. So, even when using my Mac to write, I can’t benefit from both of them working together. And when I’m away from my computer, things become even harder because none of them have an Android App. That even affects the Supernote, as it is also an Android under the hood.
Thankfully, there is a way to connect all of these seemingly incompatible pieces. Several months ago, I shared a workaround for using Scrivener’s sync feature to have access to your book’s draft as Markdown files in Obsidian. You can learn ho to do it, by watching the video below.
Yesterday, you learned about another part of the puzzle. There is a LanguageTool plugin for Obsidian that uses the same API Scrivener could be using to make writers' lives more comfortable.
By combining both methods — synchronizing the book with Obsidian and using the LanguageTool plugin — we can create the perfect solution to use the spell checker when writing on a Mac or using an Android phone. Which also includes the Supernote. Isn’t that cool?
However, that is not all the writing I do in Obsidian. This article, for example, started as an idea in my Creator Action Container. The note was born there when I was riding the subway and wanted to write some ideas and drafts of a few paragraphs.
I kept working on it the next day, but this time I used Obsidian on my computer. In both cases, LanguageTool was there helping me. When it was finished, I moved it from the Action Container to the website folder to then make it available online, where you are reading it now.
If you’d like to learn more about all of these interconnected folders, please watch the video below.
The new Obsidian Canvas is another step in the right direction.
A couple of years ago, I tried Obsidian Canvas and was drawn to its simplicity and potential. Nonetheless, it had never been incorporated into my workflows. Until now.
Obsidian is not for everyone, but if you prefer to write as close to simple text as possible and to keep your notes in an open format on your computer, you may fall in love with it.
It was designed to give users control over their files, but that almost changed with the introduction of Canvas in December 2022. At least, that was my sentiment at that time.
Obsidian notes are formatted in Markdown, meaning that I can open them anywhere, even if the app ceases to exist tomorrow. Unfortunately, the same was not true for the Canvas feature. It had its own format, which is why I was always reluctant to use it to create content. If you don’t know what Canvas is or how to use it, you can learn all about it in the first part of the video below.
Fortunately, that recently changed with the announcement that the Canvas file format is now called JSON Canvas, which, in turn, became an open file format. That’s a huge step in the right direction. It means that other people and companies can create compatible apps. And as you can see in the second half of the video below, there are already some compatible apps available.
In other words, we no longer have to worry about our Canvas files becoming locked inside an app. Thank you, Obsidian!