Obsidian Search: Five hidden features that change everything
Hello, welcome, and happy Friday!
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about search. How important is search to you? To me, search is everything.
Just think of all the times you search for something throughout the day. Even if you don’t think about it, you’re searching when you’re:
- Looking up a celebrity on IMDB
- Finding a movie or show on Netflix
- Purchasing an item on Amazon
- Fixing a leaky faucet after finding a YouTube video
- Researching anything that interests you
Without a doubt, it’s one of the most commonly used tools of the modern era. We couldn’t get far without search.
Many of the biggest tech giants are all essentially search engines. Google, Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, IMDB: all search engines.
Search is one of the reasons I like Obsidian so much. The search plugin is fast, powerful, and flexible. Rarely have I needed a search function that Obsidian doesn’t have built-in.
Also, did you know you can embed search queries in Obsidian? It’s a handy feature, and one I relied upon until I discovered Dataview. An embedded search in Obsidian looks something like this:
Pretty nice. If that's new to you, you should see our new article on five hidden features of Obsidian Search. You may not need the advanced features that Obsidian Search offers, but you never know what you don't know!
Daily Notes
Speaking of built-in plugins, Daily Notes is another built-in plugin that I use daily. I love using Obsidian for journals, due to all the extra bells and whistles I can add to my notes. If you’re interested in journaling in Obsidian, you can learn how to start here.
Community Plugins
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of community plugins. Over the last couple of years, I’ve collected numerous tools for finding, managing, and maintaining community plugins. Here are some of my favorites:
- Obsidian Plugin Stats - I love that this site keeps track of updates, so you can see update notes all in one place.
- Obsidian Plugin Search -The Obsidian team created this page to help us search (there’s that word again) for community plugins. Quite helpful.
- State of Obsidian Plugins - This one is fun, but less useful. A graph that shows how often plugins are maintained vs how often they’re downloaded.
- Marcus Olsson’s guide to creating plugins - If you’re interested in developing plugins, this is an invaluable resource. Liam Cain also has a helpful FAQ.
That’s all for now! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reply to this email.
Ciao~
Tim
Hi! I'm Tim.
I'm a web developer, an avid note taker, and I run a website called Obsidian.Rocks.
For the last few years I’ve been dabbling in woodworking. Woodworking is a challenge. I have a dedicated space for my woodwork (a garage), and I’ve discovered that one of the hardest things about woodworking is optimizing your space. If your space is set up properly—all your tools are easily findable and within reach, your workbench is clear, and you have all the materials and tools that you need—then work is easy. All you have to do is find the time. Keeping the space optimized is the trick,...
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