# [[How to use the ExcaliBrain Obsidian plugin]] <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gqEtn3gCZF0 " title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> ## Thumbnail ![[2022-003 Better than graph view.png]] ### Inspiration ![[zsolt-excalibrain-is-transforming-how-i-use-obsidian.png]] ## Title 1. How to use ExcaliBrain for Obsidian (45) 2. Obsidian Excalibrain plugin tutorial (21) 3. How to use the ExcaliBrain Obsidian plugin (47) 4. visual notetaking with Obsidian Excalidraw (46) ## Hook If taking notes is so important and valuable, why do so many of us stop taking notes when we leave school? The answer is that those notes are often no longer relevant outside of traditional schooling. In short, many notes, when not put in the right context, become less useful. In this video, I'm going to talk to you about an Obsidian plugin called ExcaliBrain that may help you put notes in their context. ## Structure - What is Excalibrain? - Way to explore your Obsidian vault visually - What do you need for Excalibrain? - Dependencies: Excalidraw, Dataview - Used to be needed, but not anymore: Breadcrumbs - Works well with Hover Editor, but it's not required - What is it for? - What it's not for - Adding visual flair into your notes - you want Excalidraw for that - Capture, explain, track - What it's for - Aggregating and contextualizing your notes - How to install - Excalibrain settings - relationships you use. - Hide folders and tags? - Hide siblings? - Maximum number of notes to display - Style for nodes and background - Show an icon before the node based on tags - How do you use it? - LEVEL 1: Let it infer relationships - No changes to how you're taking notes now; just explore. - Basics of using it - CMD P, Excalibrain in popout window is the best - You can also navigate to pages using the search bar within Excalibrain - What does it look like? It's a Markdown file, but the file itself changes depending on which note is selected in the linked window. - You can lock which window Excalibrain uses by selecting it, and then selecting PIN icon in Excalibrain - Best use case: whenever you want to explore a topic. - LEVEL 2: Be aware of relationships - Add `parents:` and `children:` parameters when you're creating notes - Best use case: When you get to aggregation and contextualisation, open up Excalibrain to explore what you already have on this topic, and how it fits into the rest of your vault. Use Excalibrain to force you to aggregate/contextualize. - LEVEL 3: Create your own relationships - Add parameters you use in your own vault, like `date`, `author`, `speaker`, `attendees`. - Best use case: Organize your vault and let you jump quickly between related notes instead of relying on folders or your memory. - LEVEL 4: Add semantic relationships - Instead of just thinking in terms of hierarchies, think in terms of semantics. Saying nodes are sibling nodes is one thing, but saying that one contradicts the other adds more context and forces you to think more critically. - Best use case: Continually maintaining and gardening your vault. ### Part to refilm: Excalibrain hinges upon relationships, and in Excalibrain there are four different ways that two notes can be related: - Parent - Child - Sibling - Friends A parent is a high-level note. You can think of it as a folder or overarching topic. It could be more general than the other notes, or broader in scope. An example of a parent note could be "Roleplaying Games". A child is a note that sits under the parent note. You could think of it as a note that is on the same topic as the parent, but is more specific, or perhaps it's an implementation of the parent. An example of a child note could be "Dungeons & Dragons". The third relationship is friendship. I play D&D twice a week, and I also have a note called "Character Creation" which is related to my D&D page. But that note is about characters in fictional novels and not necessarily just about D&D. It's not a parent of my D&D page, and it's not a child, either. It's a friend. You can think of a friend as a note that is related to a note, on roughly the same level, but maybe it's not about exactly the same topic, even if there is some overlap. Let's contrast that to the fourth relationship: siblings. Say I have another note, called "Pathfinder". Pathfinder is another type of roleplaying game (which I also play once a week). It's on the same level as D&D-- so you could make the argument that it's a friend. Here's the thing though: If two friends share the same parent, then they are siblings, not friends. You may be confused that in Excalidraw, only three different relationships can be set: parents, children, and friends. This is because the sibling relationship is, by default, entirely INFERRED. That means that ExcaliBrain automatically determines that friends with the same parent are siblings. However, in practice, the difference between siblings and friends is one that I haven't found a great deal of use for, so I treat them interchangably. ![[How to use the ExcaliBrain Obsidian plugin 2022-09-03.png]] %%[[How to use the ExcaliBrain Obsidian plugin 2022-09-03|🖋 Edit in Excalidraw]], and the [[How to use the ExcaliBrain Obsidian plugin 2022-09-03.dark.png|dark exported image]]%% ## Outro ExcaliBrain is one of those plugins that you have to stew on. Like Dataview, understanding how it works happens faster than understanding how to use it most effectively. But when it clicks, just like Dataview, ExcaliBrain can change the way you take notes and the way you make connections between them. If you'd like to learn more about Excalidraw, the first plugin by the same author, check out this video on what that is and how to use it to add visuals to your notes. Viszontlátásra! Thanks for watching. ## Related videos and resources Obsidian ExcaliBrain: https://github.com/zsviczian/excalibrain ## Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:30 Excalidraw vs ExcaliBrain 02:12 Installing ExcaliBrain 03:43 Level 1 - Letting ExcaliBrain infer relationships 11:30 The ExcaliBrain interface 16:37 Level 2 - Setting explicit relationships 19:03 Level 3 - Creating custom relationships 21:28 Level 4 - Creating semantic relationships ## Pinned comment ``` Theme in the beginning: Sanctum (light mode). Later on: Minimal (dark). Plugins I mentioned: Excalidraw, Dataview, ExcaliBrain, ``` ## Pre-production - [x] Create captions using Rev, then edit them. - [x] Take a thumbnail photo and create one for YouTube (1280 x 720). - [x] Add description. - [x] Include the title and any keywords in the first few sentences, but in a natural way. - [x] Add related videos and resources as links. - [x] Add end screen. - [x] Add cards if necessary. - [x] Add chapters for YouTube if longer than 5 minutes. - [x] Add mid-roll ads/check monetization settings. - [x] Post video preview on Patreon. - [x] Post video preview for YouTube channel members. - [ ] Schedule on YouTube. - [ ] Add video to relevant playlist(s), or create a playlist if necessary. - [ ] Promote on personal social media. - [ ] Twitter - [ ] Create a blog post on [site](https://nicolevanderhoeven.com). - [ ] Add to weekly newsletter. ## Post-production - [ ] Add to video-database. - [ ] Add to other notes in my vault as appropriate.