# [[Taking visual notes with Obsidian Excalidraw]] ![](https://youtu.be/zmgqMZi6QL8) Related:: "" ## Pre-production ### Thumbnail ![[Taking visual notes with Obsidian Excalidraw.png]] ### Title 1. making visual notes (82) 2. making notes more visual (100) 3. making notes visual (82) 4. taking visual notes (80) 5. ### Hook The concept of making my notes more visual has always appealed to me, but one thing has held me back: in most cases, taking visual notes means not taking textual notes, and if I have to choose one, I'm going to choose to take notes in text. Text is more easily searchable, displayable, and shareable, so I default to text wherever I can. The few times I've done something more visual, I still wanted to write text to go with it. But a few weeks ago, my friend Zsolt Viczián put forward an interesting proposition: what if I could have both? In this video, I'm talking about how to have one note that is both visual and textual using the Obsidian Excalidraw plugin, and how I changed all my note templates to support this. ### Structure - What is Excalidraw? - [[Visual map of content in Obsidian - Obsidian Excalidraw|Visual map of content in Obsidian - Obsidian Excalidraw]] - [[How to make your notes visual in Obsidian]] - The idea: front of the sheet for visual representations/images/diagrams, back of the sheet for text - Clip of [[Patreon - Interview with Zsolt]] where he explains the concept (get the full interview on my Patreon) (*08:39-09:33*, then *10:25-11:56*) - How it works - Show end result - I'm going to show how to create a new hybrid note from scratch by creating a new Excalidraw note template, how to convert existing note templates, and how to convert existing notes. - Creating a new Excalidraw template - Set Excalidraw templates folder in settings - Save as `.md`: - ![[excalidraw-save-as-md.png]] - Auto-export to SVG: - ![[excalidraw-auto-export-svg.png]] - Use `excalidraw-open-md: true` if you want it to always open on the text side - Create new drawing in current active window - Converting existing templates - Zsolt first pitched this idea of a hybrid visual/textual note to me a couple months ago, when we were preparing for our joint talk at the PKM Summit conference last month. I *loved* the idea, and immediately wanted to convert all my notes. While I didn't end up doing that, I DID decide to covnert all my templates. - Converting existing notes - Create an `Existing note` Excalidraw template - Command: `Excalidraw: Convert markdown note to Excalidraw drawing` - Tips - Fade out Excalidraw markup: - ![[excalidraw-fade-out-markup.png]] - Note: Don't have an empty line between the `%%` and `# Text Elements` - Set Excalidraw templates - one for new, one for existing (because of [[Templater plugin]] not being parsed for existing notes) - If you'd prefer to be visual first, text second: embed back of note to front of note instead of/as well as embedding the front of the note to the back of the note - Add hotkeys - Use CTRL + S to save notes when you're testing stuff out - Toggling between Excalidraw and Markdown mode: - ![[excalidraw-hotkey-toggle.png]] - Converting a Markdown note to an Excalidraw drawing ### Outro Having a hybrid textual/visual note is the best of both worlds: now every new note I create has a textual side and a visual side, and flipping back and forth between the two is really easy. And if I have a note that is *only* visual, or *only* textual, that's still fine too-- I don't have to give up either side or choose one or the other. Having a hybrid note by default has really opened up opportunities for me. I've realised I'm *much* more likely to draw a quick diagram or include some sort of spacial element on notes because that's all a hotkey away. It's really encouraged me to create links and visualise my notes in a way I couldn't, when I felt I had to choose. If you'd like to learn more about Excalidraw, check out this video where I go over the basics of Excalidraw and how to use it to create a visual map of content in this video. Thanks for watching. *Köszönöm!* ### Related videos and resources [[How to make your notes visual in Obsidian]] [[Visual map of content in Obsidian - Obsidian Excalidraw]] ### Cards ### Pinned comment ``` The vault I set this up on, plus the full interview with Zsolt, is available on my Patreon: https://patreon.com/nicolevdh PLUGINS MENTIONED: Obsidian Excalidraw, Templater, Templates, ExcaliBrain THEME: Typewriter (dark), AnuPpuccin (light): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-SOwxpZQNI ``` ### Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:51 What is Obsidian Excalidraw? 02:18 Zsolt on back of the sheet visual note taking 05:29 What does a hybrid note look like? 06:40 How to create a new hybrid note from scratch 15:00 How to make existing templates hybrid templates 17:35 How to convert existing notes to hybrid notes ## Post-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/timestamps for YouTube if longer than 5 minutes. - [x] Add mid-roll ads/check monetization settings. - [x] Add pinned comment. - [x] Post video preview on Patreon. - [x] Schedule on YouTube. - [x] Add video to relevant playlist(s), or create a playlist if necessary. - [ ] Schedule on Mastodon. - [ ] Create a blog post on [site](https://nicolevanderhoeven.com). - [x] Change `published` to `true`. - [x] Change `publish` to `true`. - [x] Change `status` to `Done`.