nicolevdh

Hybrid textual/visual notes with Obsidian Excalidraw (Patreon)

Published:

2024-04-19 04:50:26

Imported:

2026-06

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Content

I just released a new video about hybrid notes with Excalidraw, and I'm quite eager to share it with you all because it's about the biggest recent change in the way I take notes.

I now use Obsidian Excalidraw to create notes that are a hybrid between text and visuals by default, using a feature that its developer calls "back of the sheet drawings". It's a way to have a text note that is simultaneously an Excalidraw drawing, blurring the lines between the two quite nicely.

The thumbnail isn't clickbait; I really did change all my templates to this new model, and I've been using them for a couple of months now.

Updated Patreon vault

And I updated the templates in the Patreon vault, too-- at least, all of them except for the writing ones. Since I used that vault while making the video, here are the things I changed:

Updated many templates to include Excalidraw-specific frontmatter, an Excalidraw SVG embed, and Excalidraw text elements and drawing information to make notes more visual.
Updated Obsidian Excalidraw plugin configuration settings to make it more in line with how I use it in my personal vault
Added hotkeys specific to Excalidraw
Added a "Fourth Font" option for Excalidraw: Lato Regular. Also added the `.tff` file to the vault and updated all Excalidraw templates to use it by default.

You can re-download the Patreon vault, as well as other perks, on this page. Sorry not to link to it directly-- I sometimes change the link, so it's easier to change it on the one perks page rather than in every post I've mentioned it in!

Patreon-exclusive video: Interview with Zsolt Viczián

Zsolt Viczián is the developer of the Obsidian Excalidraw and ExcaliBrain plugins, and I did a whole 30-minute interview with him when we met at the PKM Summit conference recently, only about 3 minutes of which actually made it into this video. 😅 There was so much more that we discussed there, including:

Our experience at the PKM Summit, and trending topics during the conference
What Zsolt was trying to do by creating a "back of the sheet" drawing feature in Obsidian Excalidraw
The importance of multi-sensory input for notes
How visual my vault is, and what types of things I usually make visual
Enjoy! Have a great weekend! And thanks for supporting the work I do. I appreciate you all.

Files

Previews only

Interview with Zsolt at PKM Summit

This is a live interview that I did with Zsolt Viczián, developer of the Obsidian Excalidraw and ExcaliBrain plugins, when we were both at the PKM Summit 2024 conference in Utrecht, the Netherlands. We talked about hot topics at the conference, the concept of turning the sheet around with Excalidraw, how visual our notes are, and how using multi-sensory input can enhance our note-taking. // TIMESTAMPS 00:00:00 What the PKM Summit was like 00:06:19 Our talks at the PKM Summit 00:08:36 Turning the sheet around with Excalidraw 00:13:36 Multi-sensory input for notes 00:20:04 Separating work and personal PKM systems 00:24:48 How visual is my vault? 00:30:49 Next year's PKM Summit // RESOURCES Zsolt Viczián - Visual PKM: https://www.youtube.com/@VisualPKM Christian van Henten - Boost Your Productivity (French) https://www.youtube.com/@Boostezvotreproductivite PKM Beth: https://www.youtube.com/@PKM_Beth Nick Milo - Linking Your Thinking with Nick Milo: https://www.youtube.com/@linkingyourthinking The next PKM Summit in the EU will be on March 14th and 15th, 2025, in Utrecht, the Netherlands: https://pkmsummit.com/ The US version of the PKM Summit will be sometime in April, but that has yet to be finalized! --- // ABOUT ME Site: https://nicolevanderhoeven.com Mastodon: https://pkm.social/@nicole Videos for my work at Grafana Labs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-1Nqb2waX4WfNnD52U1Spo2z47yrIjwo Adobo & Avocados (with Marie Drake), a channel about intersectionality in tech: https://www.youtube.com/@adoboandavocados Beyond the Character Sheet (with Leah Ferguson), a channel about TTRPGs: https://www.youtube.com/@beyondthecharactersheet // APPS I USE - Obsidian: https://obsidian.md - Readwise: https://readwise.io/nicole - Shortform: https://shortform.com/nicole - Reclaim: https://go.reclaim.ai/eg0tgbamp7cb - Snipd: https://link.snipd.com/Cx7S/nicole - Napkin: https://napkin.one/?via=nicole // GEAR https://nicolevanderhoeven.com/gear/ // WANT TO SUPPORT ME? ❤️ Join my Patreon and get my sample vault with templates: https://patreon.com/nicolevdh ☕ Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/nicolevdh Note: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means I may get a small percentage when you sign up using those links. To see how I decide what to promote in this way, check out my Ethics Statement: https://nicolevanderhoeven.com/ethics/