# [[Taking visual notes with Obsidian Excalidraw]]
![](https://youtu.be/zmgqMZi6QL8)
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## 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`.
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