Obsidian and Upgrading to Sync

For just over a year I've been using Obsidian. I used to use Notion for some of my personal/research note taking, but increasingly found it clunky (especially once the word count creeps up) and also wasn't keen on AI being increasingly crammed in. I had tried Obsidian in the past after a former colleague enthusiastically espoused its benefits, but, at that point I didn't have the time or the mindset to properly use it. On the surface it might seem like Notion, but in practice it is very different. This is neither a good thing or a bad thing, rather a case of personal preference. But, it is something to be aware of if you are moving from Notion.

It wasn't until a couple of years later when a fellow researcher happened to mention how they were using it to aid their research that I decided to look back into it. Two of the seemingly new features that caught my attention was the canvas feature (essentially mind mapping) and the other was the ability to see a graph of how different notes can be linked together to provide a handy visual overview.

At the time the research paper I was about to start working on was trying to synthesise what on the surface was three rather different topics. Therefore, being able to not only map out but also see where exactly connections were taking place greatly aided my planning and research. What's more, having most things in one place (even if technically they are separate Markdown files) also helped make things more manageable.

I'm currently working on my next larger piece of research writing, so I'm trying to replicate that process, although this time even more of the early writing notes are also being written inside of Obsidian. As a "blank canvas" Obsidian is a very good place to just write. I had previously tried iA Writer but ultimately didn't find it overtly helpful. It's not a bad application, but I've found LanguageTool's integration into Obsidian (via one of the community plugins) to be very helpful at pointing out the key grammar issues as well as instances where my sentences are too long.

Because of how well I've been getting on with Obsidian, I want to be able to use it in more places, but because it's not web based a suitable syncing solution is needed. Originally I had my "vault" stored in one of my cloud folders. This did exactly what I wanted it to do, as in practice it was no different to working on a Word doc. The issue I was having though was that I was constrained to just Windows, and in practice just my personal Windows device. Yes, there are work arounds. I could move to my works (individual) cloud folder, but I make a point of not keeping my research work on there[^1]. I also could use other providers so that I could continue working on my Linux devices or even my android phone. Except, none of these solutions are quite as neat as the built-in solution that Obsidian provide; for a fee.

I'm not adverse to paying for a service that works. I've been thinking about paying for Obsidian's Sync plan, but was still debating how much I would actually use it. Then last week it suddenly occurred to me to check whether they offered an educational discount. Turns out they do! Plus, it's a true educational discount, as in not just for students but also staff. Considering I am using it for research work means I am using it as intended in this regard.

The initial setup for Sync was a bit more involved than I had expected, in part because of my previous setup. However, Obsidian had clear guides, including for the exact way I had my vault setup. After following everything I was good to go and it is working exactly as I wanted it to. Furthermore, Obsidian make a good distinction between sync and "backup". In short, they argue not to think of how the sync works as being the same as a backup. In part this is because the syncs main goal is to match the different devices together. As crucially, if you make big changes or accidentally delete something (or lots of things) then you could be in for some trouble. Yes, on the default plan there is 1 month of version history, but this is not the same as a long term backup. What was good was that Obsidian already had a solution identified via one of the community plugins that can be set to automatically create zipped backup saved in a folder of your choice. This can be in a cloud storage folder for example. So I now have mine backed up to where I used to store it. Only my main laptop is generating these backups to keep things manageable, and this works great.

As it happens, Olly (creator of Pagecord - which this blog uses) is also an Obsidian user and is teasing a plugin that would allow users to create a post within Obsidian and then upload it directly to Pagecord, this would also allow for further edits as well. As a result, in readiness I have also written this (rather long) post in Obsidian. Usually it's just my research blog that I do so, but considering I can now easily sync my notes across devices I may as well do the same.#technology

For just over a year I've been using Obsidian. I used to use Notion for some of my personal/research note taking, but increasingly found it clunky (especially once the word count creeps up) and also wasn't keen on AI being increasingly crammed in. I had tried Obsidian in the past after a former colleague enthusiastically espoused its benefits, but, at that point I didn't have the time or the mindset to properly use it. On the surface it might seem like Notion, but in practice it is very different. This is neither a good thing or a bad thing, rather a case of personal preference. But, it is something to be aware of if you are moving from Notion.

It wasn't until a couple of years later when a fellow researcher happened to mention how they were using it to aid their research that I decided to look back into it. Two of the seemingly new features that caught my attention was the canvas feature (essentially mind mapping) and the other was the ability to see a graph of how different notes can be linked together to provide a handy visual overview.
At the time the research paper I was about to start working on was trying to synthesise what on the surface was three rather different topics. Therefore, being able to not only map out but also see where exactly connections were taking place greatly aided my planning and research. What's more, having most things in one place (even if technically they are separate Markdown files) also helped make things more manageable.

I'm currently working on my next larger piece of research writing, so I'm trying to replicate that process, although this time even more of the early writing notes are also being written inside of Obsidian. As a "blank canvas" Obsidian is a very good place to just write. I had previously tried iA Writer but ultimately didn't find it overtly helpful. It's not a bad application, but I've found LanguageTool's integration into Obsidian (via one of the community plugins) to be very helpful at pointing out the key grammar issues as well as instances where my sentences are too long.

Because of how well I've been getting on with Obsidian, I want to be able to use it in more places, but because it's not web based a suitable syncing solution is needed. Originally I had my "vault" stored in one of my cloud folders. This did exactly what I wanted it to do, as in practice it was no different to working on a Word doc. The issue I was having though was that I was constrained to just Windows, and in practice just my personal Windows device. Yes, there are work arounds. I could move to my works (individual) cloud folder, but I make a point of not keeping my research work on there [I've been burnt before years ago. Plus, this is my work. So, by storing it on my work account takes away some of the ownership in my mind.]. I also could use other providers so that I could continue working on my Linux devices or even my android phone. Except, none of these solutions are quite as neat as the built-in solution that Obsidian provide; for a fee. I'm not adverse to paying for a service that works. I've been thinking about paying for Obsidian's Sync plan, but was still debating how much I would actually use it. Then last week it suddenly occurred to me to check whether they offered an educational discount. Turns out they do! Plus, it's a true educational discount, as in not just for students but also staff. Considering I am using it for research work means I am using it as intended in this regard. I've been burnt before years ago. Plus, this is my work. So, by storing it on my work account takes away some of the ownership in my mind.]. I also could use other providers so that I could continue working on my Linux devices or even my android phone. Except, none of these solutions are quite as neat as the built-in solution that Obsidian provide; for a fee.
I'm not adverse to paying for a service that works. I've been thinking about paying for Obsidian's Sync plan, but was still debating how much I would actually use it. Then last week it suddenly occurred to me to check whether they offered an educational discount. Turns out they do! Plus, it's a true educational discount, as in not just for students but also staff. Considering I am using it for research work means I am using it as intended in this regard.

The initial setup for Sync was a bit more involved than I had expected, in part because of my previous setup. However, Obsidian had clear guides, including for the exact way I had my vault setup. After following everything I was good to go and it is working exactly as I wanted it to. Furthermore, Obsidian make a good distinction between sync and "backup". In short, they argue not to think of how the sync works as being the same as a backup. In part this is because the syncs main goal is to match the different devices together. As crucially, if you make big changes or accidentally delete something (or lots of things) then you could be in for some trouble. Yes, on the default plan there is 1 month of version history, but this is not the same as a long term backup. What was good was that Obsidian already had a solution identified via one of the community plugins that can be set to automatically create zipped backup saved in a folder of your choice. This can be in a cloud storage folder for example. So I now have mine backed up to where I used to store it. Only my main laptop is generating these backups to keep things manageable, and this works great.

As it happens, Olly (creator of Pagecord - which this blog uses) is also an Obsidian user and is teasing a plugin that would allow users to create a post within Obsidian and then upload it directly to Pagecord, this would also allow for further edits as well. As a result, in readiness I have also written this (rather long) post in Obsidian. Usually it's just my research blog that I do so, but considering I can now easily sync my notes across devices I may as well do the same.