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2021-07-03: Sync Updates, URI improvements, & workflows

Lots of new ways to access the APIs of other tools, like Amazing Marvin, Pocket, & Twitter. Also: a neat trick to get the same vault working on two monitors.

Eleanor Konik
Written by Eleanor Konik

I write stories & articles inspired by all eras of history & science... so I wind up putting notetaking software like Obsidian & Readwise thru their paces.

3 min read.

In The Community

Note: For the links that go to the community Discord links, like the one above, you need to join the server before they will work.

Obsidian Updates

  • The Insider Build (12.9) lets Obsidian Sync be used to synchronize your settings, appearance tweaks, custom CSS, and installed plugins. It can now sync any file type using the “Sync all other types” option.

Plugin News

New

Note: Some of these are pending code review and are not yet available in the community store. They may require manual installation.

  • Map View looks incredible for trip planning & taking notes about places you’ve been.
  • You can now query the Amazing Marvin API for a list of tasks.
  • the Obsidian & reMarkable plugin is looking for Windows testers.
  • the Obsidian Initiative Tracker should make things easier for people who are using Obsidian to run tabletop RPGs.
  • @death_au created a new command URI plugin that should allow for the creation of a system-wide hotkey to create new notes from anywhere. It opens up uri schemes to plugins that haven't necessarily defined them. I think it’s intended for things like this method to use ULauncher, an alternative to Alfred for Linux, to help with quick capture of thoughts into a daily note.
  • Obsidian Pocket allows you to sync your Pocket reading list into Obsidian, so that you can easily create Obsidian notes directly from your Pocket reading list.

Updates

  • You can now schedule tweets with NoteTweet. For what it’s worth, NoteTweet is the absolute best (& cheapest) way to write Twitter threads that I’ve found anywhere. We also recently discussed how tweets can be used as a type of atomic note conversation.
  • QuickAdd can now detect the end of sections, and the format syntax suggester will now help you write formats easier. There were also some updates to the documentation and some bugfixes. Date offset functionality was added, and there’s a new API feature for variables. It’s up to 3.0 now.
  • obsidian smart typography has been updated to support customizing the open/closing quote characters.
  • The Dictionary plugin (which has been way more useful for me personally than I thought it would be) now supports caching, which helps with offline / slow internet usage.

Under The Radar

For Developers

  • This shell script via @koala will make it easier to beta test plugins; it facilitates updating plugins which are not in the Obsidian community plugin store. This discord post has more details.
  • Obsidian’s config file has been split up into 4 different files.
  • registerMarkdownPostProcessor and registerMarkdownCodeBlockProcessor will now return the MarkdownPostProcessor callback function to facilitate manual un-registration.

Workflow Stuff

Feature Requests

Appearance

Knowledge Management

Ancillary Tools

  • Scholarcy, an online summarizing tool & flashcard generator, added Markdown export to their Chrome Extension, so it's easier to get full text research papers, including key findings and references, into Obsidian.
  • After some discussion of tab organizers, Session Buddy was shared as a nice way to keep browser tabs organized by source in an outline format.
  • ActivityWatch is a free and open source device tracker that can be used to keep track of your productivity, time spent on different projects, bad screen habits, or just to understand how you spend your time.

Note: There are a couple of affiliate links & codes scattered around, but these always come from links I was already recommending and usually I share them because they benefit you too (i.e. getting you extra time on trials).

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