How to Make Headings in Obsidian

When writing notes in Obsidian, you might want to organize them through headings. They will help you structure and streamline your writing into relevant chunks. Headings also make your notes readable for future use and help you find relevant information. Fortunately, Obsidian has a specialized tool for making headings and other helpful formatting options.

Read on to learn how to make headings in Obsidian.

How to Make Headings in Obsidian

Headings are specifically helpful for making outlines while using Obsidian. The platform offers five heading levels, each appearing in a slightly different size. Once you make the heading, you can change the font style and customize the size. It’ll still be marked as a heading within your notes.

To make all six levels of headings, type the following text:

• # Heading1
• ## Heading2
• ### Heading3
• #### Heading4
• ##### Heading5

It’s as simple as that. To make different level headings, you only need to press the corresponding number of hash keys before the title itself. Obsidian will automatically switch your text to a larger, bolder version of itself. This process is convenient because it allows you to create headings with just a few keys rather than looking through ribbon options and toolbars.

Don’t forget about adding a space after your final hash key. Leaving the space out will create a tag rather than a heading.

How to Customize Your Heading Font

Let’s say you’ve created a list of headings for your outline and are almost ready to start writing your notes. However, something isn’t quite right. Perhaps your headings aren’t large enough, or you don’t like the font style.

Obsidian is somewhat limited in this regard. It’s a minimalist app to help busy people take effective notes quickly. While this simplifies the user experience, it lacks some bells and whistles other note or word-processing documents typically include.

For example, you can’t change the heading individually without changing the rest of the fonts along the way. But don’t worry; you have some control over your notes once you create them.

Here’s how to change the font size of your headings with the whole document:

1. Navigate and select the “Settings” option on the left-hand toolbar. It’s the icon with a cog on it.
   
2. Select “Appearance” from the open tab.
   
3. Adjust the font size.
   

After you’ve adjusted your appropriate font size, you can continue to change the exact font. However, this will take some snippet coding. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Go to the “Settings” option again.
   
2. Select appearance from the tab.
   
3. Navigate to “CSS Snippets” and select “Open Snippets Folder” option.
   
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to create a blank text file.
   
5. Within the file, type the following lines:
   {
font-family: 'Times New Roman, serif !important;
}
   
6.  Select the save option and select the “Reload Snippets” option within the settings tab.
   

Once complete, the snippet will appear on the list, and you can use it when you want to change your font style. When using the snippet code above, feel free to use any font you prefer.

Obsidian supports standard fonts like Ariel, Calibri, Times New Roman, and Roboto. If you’re using a minimalist theme, try to select fonts that won’t disrupt the overall essentialist flow of your notes. This will ultimately make your documents more readable for later use.

How to Format Using Obsidian

Besides headings, there are other formatting options that you can use in Obsidian. Each requires a specific key instead of navigating to the toolbar, though some are available there too. For example, here’s how to bold text within Obsidian:

• **TheTextYouWantBolded**
• _TheTextYouWantBolded_

As shown above, for bolded text, you can use two asterisks or an underscore on either side of the text you want to bold. Italicizing texts within Obsidian is even simpler; all you need is to enclose it in one asterisk on either side like so:

• *ItalicizeThis*

Next to bold and italic text styles, Obsidian also offers the option to add strike-throughs. This crosses out text without deleting it. It’s an excellent option for marking progression on to-do lists. To add a strikethrough, simply write:

• ~~Crossoffchecklist~~

The cross-off is activated by putting two tildes on either side of your text.

You also might want to underline certain words or sentences to underline them. While Obsidian can do this, the keys are a bit more complicated. To underline words, type in:

• <u>underline</u>

Other Tips for Using the Obsidian Interface

When using Obsidian, you’ll want to look at all the interface and note-making system options and settings. Navigating through the left toolbar will help you further streamline your note-taking process and integrate it with other systems.

For example, Obsidian uses plain text files, making them compatible with other note-taking and word-processing programs. However, you’ll first need to create a vault and a note. Here’s how to do so:

1. Launch Obsidian and select the “Create New Vault” option. Select where you’d like to save your vault on your device, then type in a name.
   
2. Click on the “Create” option.
   
3. Your vault is essentially where you’ll store all your folders and files. Once you make one, you can move on to creating a note. Here’s how to do so:
   
   • On the opening Obsidian page, select the “+” option on the sidebar or use the command “CTRL + N.”
4. On the top of the note, type in the new name instead of “New Note” and press Enter.
   

After you create the note, there’s no need to manually press the save button, as Obsidian will automatically save it to your newly created vault. When editing your note, some valuable features on the interface include:

• Custom CSS – Note-taking in Obsidian is highly customizable because you can introduce elements like font type by adding custom CSS snippets.
• Plugins – Obsidian has a large community, often creating specialized plugins to simplify notes further. These include things like graph formats and tables.
• Theme customization – Obsidian has a few built-in themes to change the overall look of your notes. However, you can also find custom versions created by the community.

Using Obsidian vs. Notion as a Note-Taking Tool

While Obsidian can simplify the note-taking process, it isn’t the best idea for all users. Some might enjoy including HTML and use their custom snippets, while others might prefer the traditional formatting options of Notion. Both tools have their strengths and weaknesses.

Obsidian is beneficial if you prefer:

• Customizing your interface – Obsidian has lively community constantly making plug-ins to further extend the functionality.

• Easy to connect between themes and ideas – Obsidian notes make a type of mind map that mimics thought processes. For many this makes learning it a more intuitive approach. This makes it great for comprehensive study.
• More privacy – Nothing is stored with Obsidian in the program, rather, all the plain text files are on your computer.

On the other hand, you might prefer Notion because it has:

• Intuitive interface –Notion is straightforward to use because it’s closer to other traditional word-processing programs. This can make note-taking easier.
• Good for sharing – Notion is remarkably easy to share and integrate with other people, making it a valuable tool for collaboration.

Ultimately, your choice will depend on your specific needs. The biggest difference between the two is the people involved in the process. Notion is ultimately a tool that helps you make a comprehensive knowledge base while Notion has the advantage of being helpful for teams.

FAQS

Is it better to use Notion or Obsidian?

Notion and Obsidian are excellent note-taking apps that simplify the user experience and make it easy to take highly effective notes. However, notion has more readily available plugins and features. Obsidian is more minimalistic and allows you to add custom snippets. It works as a knowledge graph stricture, connecting notes rather than as a database.

What subjects are best for Obsidian?

Obsidian is exceptionally good for note-taking when it comes to coding. The clean interface makes it easy to learn programming languages, and you can even practice using its CSS snippets.

Streamline Your Note-Taking System with Obsidian

Obsidian is a system that allows you to take minimalist notes effectively. While formatting might be somewhat limited, you can install multiple plugins to customize the interface and options. For headings, you can simply add the hash (#) key and a space before adding your heading text. The program will automatically turn it into a header and make the font larger. You can then format text styles into italics, strikethroughs, and underlines.

Did you find it easy to add headers to your Obsidian? What about other formatting options? Let us know in the comment section below.