I recently started learning Obsidian. I learn best by tying my learning to a particular project. One of the first things I started tackling in Obsidian was my Digital Smart Notes or Zettelkasten system. This article series will take a similar path for those familiar with my Digital Smart Notes Series for Roam Research.
I'm not looking to replicate the exact methodology I used in Roam because Obsidian is a different tool. However, many of the workflows, concepts, and collection methodologies will apply. This article will assume familiarity with various tools available for digital highlight collecting and Readwise for highlight aggregation. If you want to learn more about how I will be using it in this series, please read part 1 of the original Digital Smart Notes series.
UPDATE [[2021-05-25]]- I have started using native Obsidian {{ title }} template variable in the template instead of the Templater <% tp.file.title %> as it works a little more reliably when a new page is created from the Readwise import. This change is reflected in the template sections.
A note on plugins
The work that you will produce by using this methodology can be accomplished with or without plugins. I will be utilizing community plugins in this series as a way to augment the workflows. They add tremendous value, but they aren't required to do the work. Here are the plugins that we will use in this series:
This Article
- Readwise Community
- Dataview
- Templater- Make sure to turn on "Trigger Templater on New File Creation" as this will allow Templater to fill in Readwise header details when a new file is created or moved into the vault.
Future Articles
Installing a Community Plugin
All the plugins that I will be using are in the community plugin repository. That means that we can install them within the Obsidian UI. Open Settings -> Community Plugins . Then Turn off Safe Mode to enable plugins. You can now browse the Community Plugins Repository by clicking on Browse.
Importing From Readwise
To start using our Readwise highlights, we need to import them into Obsidian. While I will be utilizing the Readwise Community plugin, I feel that it works best when you manually import all your highlights first. Then, you can use the Readwise Community plugin to import new highlights. New highlights to existing sources will append to a source that you have imported manually as long as the source name remains the same.
To get started, follow these steps:
- Log into your Readwise account.
- On the top menu click Connect & Sync -> Export Highlights
- Choose Export on the Markdown Export option.
There are a few options here that you can turn on:
- Include Highlight Location- This option allows you to include your highlight locations as part of your highlight. The highlight location works for sources that have location information, such as a Kindle book. If you click the location link, it will open kindle on your device and go right to the highlight.
- Use Custom Formatting- This option allows you to adjust the template used for the incoming highlights. We will use this to add text to the Readwise export template.
After you have adjusted the options, you can download the highlights.
Here is what the Page Metadata template should look like to get you started:
#refnote
***
{% if image_url -%}
{% endif -%}
### Metadata
- Author: [[{{author}}]]
- Full Title: {{full_title}}
- Category: #{{category}}
{% if url %}- URL: {{url}}{% endif %}
### Literature Notes
```dataview
TABLE rows.file.link AS "Literature Note", rows.file.cday AS "Date"
FROM #litnote AND [[{{ title }}]]
GROUP BY file.link
sort date ASCENDING
```
The part that I added was at the bottom starting with ### Literature Notes
The dataview code fence combines the Dataview plugin with the Templater plugin to display any notes tagged with #litnote and the reference note title (imported Readwise note). We will explore this functionality in a future article. We are adding it here so that we can use it when we start to process Literature Notes.
After your zip file downloads, you can extract the files, separated by category (book, article, podcast, etc.). One of the things I like best about Obsidian is that it stores the notes as markdown files. Once your Readwise files download, you can place them in a folder of your choosing inside your Obsidian vault. I have chosen to keep my Readwise highlights in 3.Resources/Zettelkasten/Reference Notes/.
If you want to continue manually importing your Readwise highlights, you can stop here and periodically import them using the method outlined here. If you're going to automate the addition of new highlights more, there is more work to do.
Automating Import with the Readwise Community Plugin
Once you install the Readwise Community Plugin, there is a setup that you need to do. Follow these steps.
- Install the Readwise Community Plugin
- Click on the Readwise Community Plugin Settings under Plugin Options
- Paste your Readwise API token from the link provided in the settings
- Select sync on startup if you'd like
- Set sync on interval (this is in hours)
- Set your highlight storage path to be the same path as your initial import from Readwise. In my case, I used
3.Resources/Zettelkasten/Reference Notes/ - Set your custom header template path (this is a note that we will use as a custom header template for the import). Here I used
!System/Tempalate-Snippets/Readwise.Import.Header - Set your custom highlight template path (this is a note that we will use as a custom highlight template for the import). Here I used
!System/Template-Snippets/Readwise.Import.Highlights - Disable notifications if you'd like.
You can take a look at the Readwise Community Plugin GitHub page to learn more about template options. Here are the templates that I use.
Readwise Community Header Template
# {{ title }}
#refnote
***
### Metadata
- Author: [[{{ author }}]]
- Full Title: {{ title }}
- Category: #{{ category }}
- URL: {{ source_url }}
### Literature Notes
```dataview
TABLE rows.file.link AS "Literature Note", rows.file.cday AS "Date"
FROM #litnote AND [[{{ title }}]]
GROUP BY file.link
sort date ASCENDING
```
### Highlights
Readwise Community Import Template
- {{ text }} %% highlight_id: {{ id }} %%
- {%- if note %}
- Note: {{ note }}
- {%- endif %}
When you add new highlights to Readwise from your collection sources, they will match the existing highlights you have imported.
Conclusion
This article is the first in a series of articles that I plan on doing for taking Digital Smart Notes in Obsidian. With your Reference Notes importing to your Obsidian vault from Readwise, you are all set to start creating Literature Notes. I will cover this and my use of Templater to create those notes in more detail in the next article.
