So. I use Obsidian to take notes, store clippings of webpages, summaries of YT vids, PDFs, etc. I recently downloaded the JD QuickStart package (11-15) and have the Index (1 note for each ID) in Obsidian, in its own folder JDex, and I’m building my system, 16 and onwards.
So, I’m in my JDex on Obsidian, adding new categories to my Index and having fun inserting emojis in the names. Multi-tasking, I recall an interesting article on health that I have not yet clipped. I find the article online and clip it using the Obsidian Web Clipper. Back in Obsidian, I go to the clipped note and move it to my Health folder.
Wait. I’m in my JD Index. This isn’t the place to store a content note…Where’s my content folders? I can foresee me getting mixed up again in the future. Any suggestions, JD-ers?
I created a new Obsidian vault just for my JD stuff and at the moment it only contains my Index. My content, which I’d started collecting before I came across the JD system, is back in my main vault.
I’ve organized my media and published works area by:
Type of creator (writer, musician, etc.)
Type of reader (acrobat, plexamp, etc.)
Type of future me that will want to read it (nostalgic, escapist, etc.)
Considered that way, a whole area was required to have the correct hierarchy. A bonus of this, is that all references to area 4x.xx from anywhere else in my obsidian makes it clear that I’m talking about someone else’s thoughts or production.
I haven’t started building my index yet, but I am an Obsidian user and have thought about this exact question!
My plan is to use the same folder-structure for my index and my “content”. I found a community plugin to Obsidian that opens the file with the same name as the folder when you click the folder (as Notion does, if you’re familiar to that system). So I am going to try this as a first plan.
The thing is that it is easy to move all index files to a separate structure using PowerShell, so I’m not worried that it’s going to be messy - in that case I’ll just move the index out.
This was my two cents….
:: David
Oh, and I don’t recall the name of the plugin right now, I can check later tonight!
I’ll note that this approach has been variously tried, including by me, and the broad consensus seems to be that mixing JDex & file system content is restrictive and confusing. Most people try it for a while but end up rolling back.
One of the issues I ran in to was that I use Syncthing to partially synchronise my file system to this laptop. (Ref. the ongoing series of blog posts.) So I don’t synchronise, say, the entire part of my system that is the Workshop.[1]
But when your JDex is your file system, excluding something from sync excludes those JDex entries. Now you might say that I’m not working on it, so I don’t need them, but this isn’t acceptable. I need to be able to reference them and link to them and check old notes and what have you.
So YMMV, and give it a try – but I’d perhaps go lightly, kick the tyres, really be sure you like it before you commit.
Because of the massive video files that I don’t need on this laptop. ↩︎
I feel ya, bro! My plan was keeping the JDex and the Obsidian content folders (matching the index structure of course) in separate folders in the same vault, or even, as they are now, in separate vaults.