Obsidian notes review 2021

I’m reviewing Obsidian, a note-taking application I have used to take notes during the last few months. You can read my latest Obsidian review here.

Obsidian is a fantastic note-taking application for anyone who wants to keep in-depth notes about subjects of interest. I wouldn’t recommend it as a light note application if that is what you are looking for you might want to read my review of Notion and my review for OneNote

Obsidian notes features

Each note you take is saved using the marked down file format, saved as a text file. The marked down file format is used or can be imported into other productivity or note-taking applications such as Notion. I was able to transfer notes between Obsidian and Notion. Obsidian notes are stored at a location specified by the user.

A note in Obsidian can have links to other notes allowing a relationship to be defined between various notes. Obsidian can display a map showing the relationship between the very notes. Obsidian ability to link notes enables it to create a second brain or a digital Zettelkasten note-taking system.

The biggest weakness for Obsidian is its steep learning curve, as you need to learn some of the codes used by marked down format. The marked down format will define the structure of your files. However, I have picked up the ones I commonly use quickly. I have also found that some of these codes are used in other similar applications such as Notion. It isn’t unusual for note management and productive applications to have a steep learning curve

Obsidian has two distinct views. The first view is an edit view in which you can edit your notes. The second view is a display view in which the note cannot be edited, but in which the formatting is applied to the note so headings are displayed as headings

My other concern is that the Obsidian development team is a team of two. However, that concern hasn’t put me off from using the application.