Obsidian Markdown Formatting

But Markdown Is Scary

Something I hear a lot from new users to Obsidian is that they don’t know Markdown and they are afraid they wont be able to learn how to use it.

Let me just start with this… Markdown is very easy to both use and learn

Markdown Basics

If you have come from a tool like Word or OneNote, you are probably used to seeing a toolbar that has all your options for changing the Font, Bold, Underline, Italics, etc.

Obsidian does not have this bar which sometimes creates panic in new users. People are naturally afraid of change. Obsidian does not have this bar though… because you don’t need it.

What Is Markdown

The non-technical way to explain Markdown… It’s basically a way to take plain-text and make it look pretty. It lets you apply Themes on your plain text notes!

If you still need a format bar

Then you can install them via the community plugins. Editing Toolbar or Markdown Formatting Assistant will add some toolbar options. They might help you learn Markdown initially while you find you need them less and less and you gain confidence.

Headings

Headings are very easy to do. Simply type “# space heading name`. You can add more #‘s to change the size of the Heading. Headings can also fold under each other. That means you can expand/fold a heading and all content under that heading leaver will be impacted. If you fold a level 1 heading that has level 2 and 3 headings/content under it, then all of the level 1, 23 and 3 content will fold with it.

Example

Try by copying the following into a note.

# This is a heading 1
You can type your content under the headings
 
## This is a heading 2
### This is a heading 3 
#### This is a heading 4
##### This is a heading 5
###### This is a heading 6

Basic Text Formatting

Bold

You can BOLD text simply by highlighting it and pressing Ctrl+B. Alternatively you can make text BOLD by typing ** at the start and the end of the text you wish to BOLD.

**This text will be bold**
__This will also be bold__

Italics

You can ITALICS text simply by highlighting it and pressing Ctrl+I. Alternatively you can make text ITALICS by typing * at the start and the end of the text you wish to ITALICS.

*This text will be italic*
_This will also be italic_

Underline

Underline is not supported by Markdown. Sorry to be the one to tell you this. I know it hurts.

HTML Underline

If you absolutely can’t live without Underline, then Obsidian also supports HTML so you can do this: Example: This is some <u>underlined</u> text. Anything between the and will be underlined.

Strike Through

Any word wrapped with two tildes (like ~~this~~) will appear crossed out.

Any word wrapped with two tildes (like this) will appear crossed out.

Highlights

Use two equal signs to ==highlight text==.

Use two equal signs to highlight text.

Links

Linking to other notes can be done very easily. Example: [[NoteName]]

If you want to show a custom name for the link you can add a pipe | after the NoteName and type the new name for the link. Example: [[NoteName|NewLinkName]]

You can also link to a sub-section of a note. Sections are created using # Headings. Example: [[NoteName#headingname|HeadingName]]

External links

Markdown style links can be used to refer to either external objects, such as web pages, or an internal page or image.

http://obsidian.md - automatic!
[Obsidian](http://obsidian.md)

http://obsidian.md - automatic! Obsidian

You can link to YouTube videos like this also. This will render the YouTube video in side your note.

![](Youtube.com)

Embeds

Instead of having just a link to a note; you can embed it in your note. Example: ![[NoteName]]

This works with sub-sections too. Example: ![[NoteName#headingname|HeadingName]]

Obsidian recognizes the following file formats right now:

1. Markdown files: md;
2. Image files: png, jpg, jpeg, gif, bmp, svg;
3. Audio files: mp3, webm, wav, m4a, ogg, 3gp, flac;
4. Video files: mp4, webm, ogv;
5. PDF files: pdf.

All these types of files can be embedded in a note.

Images

See How To - Add Images

Lists

- Item 1
- Item 2
  - Item 2a
  - Item 2b
 
1. Item 1
1. Item 2
1. Item 3
   1. Item 3a
   1. Item 3b

• Item 1
• Item 2
  • Item 2a
  • Item 2b

1. Item 1
2. Item 2
3. Item 3
   1. Item 3a
   2. Item 3b

Block Quotes

> Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.
 
\- Doug Engelbart, 1961
 

Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.

- Doug Engelbart, 1961

Task List

- [x] #tags, [links](), **formatting** supported
- [x] list syntax required (any unordered or ordered list supported)
- [x] this is a complete item
- [?] this is also a complete item (works with every character)
- [ ] this is an incomplete item
- [ ] tasks can be clicked in Preview to be checked off

• tags, links, formatting supported
• list syntax required (any unordered or ordered list supported)
• this is a complete item
• [?] this is also a complete item (works with every character)
• this is an incomplete item
• tasks can be clicked in Preview to be checked off

Tables

Tables in Markdown are not fantastic. This is the honest truth. They work but please go and install the Advanced Tables plugin to make your life easier.

This is an example table.

Column 1	Column 2
Cell 1	Cell 2
Cell 3	Cell 4

Which is written in Markdown like this.

| Column 1 | Column 2 | | -------- | -------- | | Cell 1 | Cell 2 | | Cell 3 | Cell 4 |

Comments

Use %% to enclose comments, which will be parsed as Markdown, but will not show up in the preview. This can be handy for leaving yourself notes. I use these to comment on how or why I did something.

Here is some inline comments:  (Can't see it)
 
Here is a block comment:
 

Here is some inline comments: (Can’t see it)

Here is a block comment: