![[obsidian-ui.png]] ## Side pane/sidebar The panes on the left and right are called sidebars or side panes. You can collapse or expand them at any time by clicking on this icon: ![[ui-collapse.png]] Click it again to expand the pane. ### Left sidebar ![[ui-left-sidebar.png]] #### [[Files]] This core plugin is your File Explorer. When you select this, you can create, rename, manage, move, sort, and collapse or expand files and folders within your Obsidian vault. #### [[Search]] ![[Search]] #### [[Starred]] ![[Starred]] ## The toolbar The toolbar contains icons that give you quick access to other Obsidian features. They include: - [[Quick Switcher]], a way to navigate to different notes - [[Graph view]], for visualizing your notes and the connections between them - Create new [[Canvas]], to visually lay out your notes on an infinite scroll window - Open today's [[Daily notes|daily note]], for journalling and rapid logging - Insert [[Templates|template]], to standardize the format and content of a note - Open [[Command palette|command palette]], to search for and execute actions in Obsidian - [[Opening a folder as a vault|Open another vault]], to create, modify, or view another folder of notes in Obsidian - [[Settings]], for modifying and customizing your Obsidian experience ### Settings #### Editor settings The Editor is the central pane in Obsidian where you can open and type in notes. #### Files and links settings The Files & Links section holds options for how to create a link and also where things are stored when you, for example, add in an image. #### Appearance settings Here, you can control how things look especially including changing the theme. #### Hotkeys Hotkeys are keyboard shortcuts for doing things in Obsidian. There are some default ones, but you can also create custom ones that make sense for your own use cases. #### About About contains the versions of the Obsidian installer *and* the Obsidian app. I recommend that you turn on automatic updates because it's a good idea to stay current with the releases unless you have a very good reason of wanting to not update whenever something comes out. #### Plugins Obsidian also has two types of plugins: [[Core plugins]] and [[Community plugins]]. Core plugins are ones that actually come with Obsidian but they're not all enabled by default. Even though they're called "plugins", they're really more like modular features that can be enabled or disabled without affecting the rest of the app. Community plugins, on the other hand, are not maintained by the Obsidian team, but they *are* vetted by the Obsidian team before they're included in the available list. Community plugins are no less feature-rich than core plugins, and sometimes they are even more so!