# Obsidian Tips A living collection of practical [[Obsidian]] tips and tricks. Most of them take less than a minute to apply, and many are hidden in plain sight. Having used Obsidian extensively for years, I keep discovering small things that remove friction. This note is where I collect them. Some tips have their own dedicated note, linked below. ## Make your favorite commands one click away **Pin any command to the Editing Toolbar.** The [[Editing toolbar plugin for Obsidian]] isn't just for bold and italic. You can add ANY Obsidian command to it (core, plugins, templates...), give it a custom icon, rename it, group commands in submenus, and reorder everything with drag and drop. It's a very useful way to turn the commands you use every day into buttons, right where you write. A few more ways to reduce hunting for commands: - **Pin commands in the command palette**: Settings > Command palette > Pinned commands. They always show at the top of the [[Obsidian Command Palette]] - **Put commands anywhere else** with the [[Commander plugin for Obsidian]]: ribbon, title bar, status bar, file menus, editor context menu - **Clean up the ribbon**: right-click the [[Obsidian Ribbon]] to hide the icons you never use, and drag the others to reorder them - **Rebind hotkeys to match muscle memory** (see [[Obsidian Keyboard Shortcuts]]). For example, `Cmd/Ctrl + [` and `Cmd/Ctrl + ]` for navigate back/forward, and `Alt/Option + Up/Down` to move lines, like in VS Code - **Double-tap Shift** to open search, like in JetBrains IDEs, with [[Doubleshift plugin for Obsidian|Doubleshift]] ## Get more out of the sidebars and tabs - **Attach any note to a sidebar**: drag a tab into the left or right sidebar. Perfect for a dashboard, a to-do list, or a reference note you always want visible - **Pin the local graph to the sidebar**: run "Open local graph", then drag the tab to a sidebar. It follows the active note. Set its depth to 2 to also see neighbors of neighbors (see [[Obsidian Graph view]]) - **Pin tabs** you don't want to close by accident (right-click a tab > Pin) - **Stack tabs**: right-click a tab group > Stack tabs. Great on wide screens when you juggle many notes - **Open links in a new tab** with `Cmd/Ctrl + click`, and preview them without opening by hovering while holding `Cmd/Ctrl` - **Reveal the active file** in the file explorer with a single click, with the [[Reveal Active File Button plugin for Obsidian]] ## Search like a pro [[Obsidian Search]] supports operators that most people never use: - `path:"Resources/Books"`, `file:.canvas`, `tag:#project` - `line:(term1 term2)` to find terms on the same line, `section:(...)` for the same section, `block:(...)` for the same block - `task-todo:` to find open tasks - Combine them with `OR`, `-` (exclude), and parentheses Then: - **Bookmark your searches**. You can bookmark searches and graph views (with their filters), not just notes - **Embed live search results** in a note with a `query` code block: ````markdown ```query tag:#project -path:Archives ``` ```` ## Link and embed more precisely - **Link to a heading or a block**: `[[Note#Heading]]`, `[[Note#^block-id]]` - **Search headings across the whole vault** by typing `[[##`, and blocks with `[[^^` - **Embed only part of a note**: `![[Note#Heading]]` (see [[Obsidian Embeds]]) - **Resize images**: `![[image.png|300]]` - **Put images side by side**: see [[Obsidian Tip - Put images side by side]] - **Use the unlinked mentions** in the backlinks pane. Obsidian shows where a note's name appears without a link, and you can turn each one into a link in one click - **Paste a URL onto selected text** to create a Markdown link instantly (see [[Paste URL into selection plugin for Obsidian]]) - **Use [[Obsidian Aliases]]** so a note can be found and linked under different names ## Write faster and cleaner - **Foldable callouts**: `> [!tip]-` starts collapsed, `> [!tip]+` starts expanded (see [[Obsidian Callouts]]) - **Hidden comments**: `%%only visible in editing mode%%` - **Highlights**: `==highlighted text==` - **Add a property** quickly with `Cmd/Ctrl + ;` (see [[Obsidian Properties]]) - **Footnotes** keep the main text readable (see [[Obsidian Footnotes]]) - **Focus on one pane** with the [[Focus Mode plugin for Obsidian]] ## Safety nets and power features - **File recovery saves your bacon**. Obsidian takes regular snapshots of your notes, even without Git or Sync. When you break or lose something, check [[Obsidian File Recovery]] first - **Open web pages inside Obsidian** with the [[Obsidian Web Viewer]] - **Turn notes into dynamic tables and cards** with [[Obsidian Bases]] - **Automate Obsidian** from outside with [[Obsidian URI]], the [[AdvancedURI plugin for Obsidian]], or the [[Obsidian CLI]] - **Start where you want**: open a specific note or workspace at launch with the [[Homepage plugin for Obsidian]] - **Syncing through iCloud?** See [[Obsidian Tip - iCloud Keep Downloaded for faster startup]] ## Video tips I recorded short videos for some of these: - [[YouTube - 2026-06-09 - Obsidian Tips - Sidebars]] - [[YouTube - 2026-06-09 - Obsidian Tips - Attach notes to sidebars]] - [[YouTube - 2026-06-09 - Obsidian Tips - Pin to top left menu]] - [[YouTube - 2026-06-09 - Obsidian Tips - Quick Opener]] - [[YouTube - 2026-06-09 - Obsidian Tips - Doubleshift Plugin]] - [[YouTube - 2026-06-09 - Obsidian Tips - Focus Mode Plugin]] - [[YouTube - 2026-06-09 - Obsidian Tips - Reveal Active File Plugin]] If you're getting started with Obsidian, the [[Obsidian Starter Course]] covers the fundamentals step by step. ## References - Obsidian Help: https://help.obsidian.md/ - Search operators: https://help.obsidian.md/plugins/search - Editing Toolbar plugin: https://github.com/PKM-er/obsidian-editing-toolbar - Oliver Falvai's Obsidian tips and tricks: https://oliverfalvai.com/evergreen/obsidian-tips-and-tricks ## Related - [[Obsidian]] - [[Obsidian Keyboard Shortcuts]] - [[Obsidian Command Palette]] - [[Obsidian Core Plugins]] - [[Obsidian Plugins]] - [[Editing toolbar plugin for Obsidian]] - [[Commander plugin for Obsidian]] - [[Obsidian Tip - Put images side by side]] - [[Obsidian Tip - iCloud Keep Downloaded for faster startup]]