Extending Markdown with Obsidian FlavoredSyntax
Templater Syntax
markdown
---
creation date: <% tp.file.creation_date() %>
modification date: <% tp.file.last_modified_date("dddd Do MMMM YYYY HH:mm:ss") %>
---
<< [[<% tp.date.now("YYYY-MM-DD", -1) %>]] | [[<% tp.date.now("YYYY-MM-DD", 1) %>]] >>
# <% tp.file.title %>
<% tp.web.daily_quote() %>
Produces:
markdown
---
creation date: 2021-01-07 17:20
modification date: Thursday 7th January 2021 17:20:43
---
<< [[2021-04-08]] | [[2021-04-10]] >>
# Test Test
> Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
> — <cite>Maya Angelou</cite>
Rules for AI Assistants:
Be very sensitive with YAML.Arrays are not:
tags: ["Git", "Submodules", "Branch-Management", "Development", "Configuration"]
Instead, arrays have no quotes, do not use brackets, and instead use an unordered list syntax with each object being a new line.
yaml
tags:
- Git
- Submodules
- Branch-Management
- Development
- Configuration
Case Handling
Syntax | Purpose | Path |
![[visualFor__LangChain--Model.svg]] | Image Placement | site/src/assets/Visuals |
[[Object Storage]] | ||
[[Tooling/Products/Git#Git Hooks|Git]] | Jump to Header on linked page | Tooling/Products/Git#Git Hooks |
parent_org: "[[Organizations/Microsoft|Microsoft]]" | Backlink in YAML |
Standard Markdown Elements
Line breaks
By default in Obsidian, pressing
Enter
once will create a new line in your note, but this is treated as a continuation of the same paragraph in the rendered output, following typical Markdown behavior. To insert a line break within a paragraph without starting a new paragraph, you can either:- Add two spaces at the end of a line before pressing
Enter
, or - Use the shortcut
Shift + Enter
to directly insert a line break.
Why don't multiple
Enter
presses create more line breaks in reading view?Obsidian includes a Strict Line Breaks setting, which makes Obsidian follow the standard Markdown specification for line breaks.
To enable this feature:
- Open Settings.
- Go to the Editor tab.
- Enable Strict Line Breaks.
When Strict Line Breaks is enabled in Obsidian, line breaks have three distinct behaviors depending on how the lines are separated:
Single return with no spaces: A single
Enter
with no trailing spaces will combine the two separate lines into a single line when rendered. md
line one
line two
Renders as:
line one line two
Single return with two or more trailing spaces: If you add two or more spaces at the end of the first line before pressing
Enter
, the two lines remain part of the same paragraph, but are broken by a line break (HTML <br>
element). We'll use two underscores to stand in for spaces in this example. md
line three__
line four
Renders as:
line three
line four
Double return (with or without trailing spaces): Pressing
Enter
twice (or more) separates the lines into two distinct paragraphs (HTML <p>
elements), regardless of whether you add spaces at the end of the first line. md
line five
line six
Renders as:
line five
line six
Headings
To create a heading, add up to six
#
symbols before your heading text. The number of #
symbols determines the size of the heading. md
# This is a heading 1
## This is a heading 2
### This is a heading 3
#### This is a heading 4
##### This is a heading 5
###### This is a heading 6
Bold, italics, highlights
Style | Syntax | Example | Output |
Bold | ** ** or __ __ | **Bold text** | Bold text |
Italic | * * or _ _ | *Italic text* | Italic text |
Strikethrough | ~~ ~~ | ~~Striked out text~~ | {"type":"delete","children":[{"type":"text","value":"Striked out text","position":{"start":{"line":141,"column":49,"offset":4306},"end":{"line":141,"column":65,"offset":4322}}}],"position":{"start":{"line":141,"column":47,"offset":4304},"end":{"line":141,"column":67,"offset":4324}}} |
Highlight | == == | ==Highlighted text== | ==Highlighted text== |
Bold and nested italic | ** ** and _ _ | **Bold text and _nested italic_ text** | Bold text and nested italic text |
Bold and italic | *** *** or ___ ___ | ***Bold and italic text*** | Bold and italic text |
Formatting can be forced to display in plain text by adding a backslash
\
in front of it.This line will not be bold
markdown
\*\*This line will not be bold\*\*
This line will be italic and show the asterisks
markdown
\**This line will be italic and show the asterisks*\*
Internal links
- Wikilink:
[[Three laws of motion]]
- Markdown:
[Three laws of motion](Three%20laws%20of%20motion.md)
External links
If you want to link to an external URL, you can create an inline link by surrounding the link text in brackets (
[ ]
), and then the URL in parentheses (( )
). md
[Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md)
md
[Note](obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=Note.md)
Escape blank spaces in links
If your URL contains blank spaces, you must escape them by replacing them with
%20
. md
[My Note](obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=My%20Note.md)
You can also escape the URL by wrapping it with angled brackets (
< >
). md
[My Note](<obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=My Note.md>)
External images
md


You can change the image dimensions, by adding
|640x480
to the link destination, where 640 is the width and 480 is the height. md

If you only specify the width, the image scales according to its original aspect ratio. For example:
md

Tip
Quotes
You can quote text by adding a
>
symbols before the text. md
> Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.
\- Doug Engelbart, 1961
Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.
- Doug Engelbart, 1961
Tip
Lists
You can create an unordered list by adding a
-
, *
, or +
before the text. md
- First list item
- Second list item
- Third list item
- First list item
- Second list item
- Third list item
To create an ordered list, start each line with a number followed by a
.
symbol. md
1. First list item
2. Second list item
3. Third list item
- First list item
- Second list item
- Third list item
You can use
shift + enter
to insert a line break within an ordered list without altering the numbering. md
1. First list item
2. Second list item
3. Third list item
4. Fourth list item
5. Fifth list item
6. Sixth list item
Task lists
To create a task list, start each list item with a hyphen and space followed by
[ ]
. md
- [x] This is a completed task.
- [ ] This is an incomplete task.
- This is a completed task.
- This is an incomplete task.
You can toggle a task in Reading view by selecting the checkbox.
Tip
You can use any character inside the brackets to mark it as complete.
md
- [x] Milk
- [?] Eggs
- [-] Eggs
- Milk
- Eggs
- Eggs
Nesting lists
You can nest any type of list—ordered, unordered, or task lists—under any other type of list.
To create a nested list, indent one or more list items. You can mix list types within a nested structure:
md
1. First list item
2. 1. Ordered nested list item
3. Second list item
- Unordered nested list item
- First list item
- Ordered nested list item
- Second list item
- Unordered nested list item
Similarly, you can create a nested task list by indenting one or more list items:
md
- [ ] Task item 1
- [ ] Subtask 1
- [ ] Task item 2
- [ ] Subtask 1
- Task item 1
- Subtask 1
- Task item 2
- Subtask 1
Use
Tab
or Shift+Tab
to indent or unindent selected list items to easily organize them.Horizontal rule
You can use three or more stars
***
, hyphens ---
, or underscore ___
on its own line to add a horizontal bar. You can also separate symbols using spaces. md
***
****
* * *
---
----
- - -
___
____
_ _ _
Code
You can format code both inline within a sentence, or in its own block.
Inline code
You can format code within a sentence using single backticks.
md
Text inside `backticks` on a line will be formatted like code.
Text inside
backticks
on a line will be formatted like code.If you want to put backticks in an inline code block, surround it with double backticks like so: inline
code with a backtick ` inside
.Code blocks
To format a block of code, surround the code with triple backticks.
text
```
cd ~/Desktop
```
md
cd ~/Desktop
You can also create a code block by indenting the text using
Tab
or 4 blank spaces. md
cd ~/Desktop
You can add syntax highlighting to a code block, by adding a language code after the first set of backticks.
md
```js
function fancyAlert(arg) {
if(arg) {
$.facebox({div:'#foo'})
}
}
```
js
function fancyAlert(arg) {
if(arg) {
$.facebox({div:'#foo'})
}
}
Note
Source mode and Live Preview do not support PrismJS, and may render syntax highlighting differently.