My Obsidian Setup

A list of extensions I use to make Obsidian work well as a long-form writing app. See My digital toolkit for an overview of how I use Obsidian for my work.

Working with Citations

I've created a separate page for instructions on how to insert citations in Obsidian that can then be exported to a Word file. The setup allows you to enter citations in Obsidian with Zotero and continue to edit those citations using the Zotero plugin in Word after export. As well as a page for more advanced customizations when exporting.

Long Form Writing

• Commentator
  • Supports CriticMarkup syntax for tracking changes, as well as adding comments and viewing them in the sidebar
• Continuous Mode
  • An Obsidian plugin that displays all open notes in a tab group as if they were a single continuous document (sometimes called "Scrivenings mode").
• Obsidian Footnote Shortcut
  • Not sure this is useful for academic writing? But it is great for writing blog posts if you want markdown styled footnotes in your post.

Productivity

• Tasks
  • View all tasks in vault, grouped by file
• Toggl Track
  • Can keep track of how much time you spend writing
• Writing Goals
  • Similar to what Ulysses offers. Useful if you want to reach a particular word count each day.
• Focus Mode
  • Quickly toggle focus mode to hide distractions
• Typewriter Mode
  • Keep text in center and fade other paragraphs

Styling and UX

• iA Writer theme
  • some conflicts with the task checkbox styling so I had to add some custom CSS snippets, see below.
• MySnippits
  • Add and manage css snippits. Currently using for snippet that formats task checkboxes.
• Zoom
  • Zoom in on header like an outliner
• Filename Heading Sync
  • Makes the first heading match the file name. Can be useful for finding things later on if you change the title of the document. (I only use this one for my blog, otherwise it isn't needed.)
• Home tab
  • Gives you a start page, a bit like a web browser.
• Recent Files
  • Adds a tab to show recent files
• File Tree Alternative
  • Gives you separate views for folders and files, and allows you to zoom in on a folder.

Export

• Obsidian Markdown Export
  • One click export file to the Blot drafts folder
• Send to Ghost
  • I use this for writing my newsletter, which is hosted on Ghost.

Misc.

• BRAT
  • To install Commentator, which is in beta

Custom CSS sippets

Added this to the alternative checkbox css because the iA Writer theme tries to force its own plain text checkboxes.

/* Custom styles for checkboxes */
body input[type="checkbox"].task-list-item-checkbox {
  /* Reset default checkbox appearance */
  appearance: none;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  background: transparent;
  width: 15px; /* Custom width */
  height: 15px; /* Custom height */
  border: 2px solid var(--checkbox); /* Custom border */
  cursor: pointer; /* Hand cursor on hover */
  position: relative; /* To position pseudo-elements */
}

/* Override the ::after pseudo-element for unchecked tasks */
body input[type="checkbox"].task-list-item-checkbox:not(:checked)::after {
  content: none;
}

/* Custom styling for checked state */
body input[type="checkbox"].task-list-item-checkbox:checked {
  background-color: var(--checkbox-done); /* Example checked color */
  /* Add other styles for checked state if needed */
}

I also like high contrast orange text:

body, p {
  color: #f6ad55 !important; /* Bright orange color, with !important to ensure it overrides other styles */
}