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Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

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Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#41

Post by helloguillecl »

kepano wrote: post #34

Obsidian Canvas uses a new JSON-based file format that we have open-sourced under MIT license. You can see the spec here: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-api/blob/master/canva... Just like all other files in Obsidian, canvas files are your own and local to your device. You're still linking to your own Markdown files which are just as future-proof as ever. We decided to create the .canvas format because there w…

Great! I love the philosophy around open and clear formats. Like I have said before, a second brain should be as open and reliable as possible.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#42

Post by jghn »

With the caveat that I'm very far from a power user, I'm struggling to picture how I'd use this. Not as in I think it's a bad idea, but rather it looks cool but I believe I don't quite understand it.

I think the following is an example of an intended use case? Can anyone confirm/deny?

For my work related notes, there's some hierarchical structure to them even though it's hard to see that at the note level. There's all the projects for my work, and then for each project there are notes, and sometimes those notes have notes, etc. I think what Canvas would do here is let me create a visual board for all of the notes related to my work that'd make it easier for me to visualize the whole, drill in/out in particular areas, etc? Does that sound right?

Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#43

Post by garganzol »

One thing that bugs me with Obsidian: I cannot create a link to a specific obsidian vault on desktop (Windows). The thing is I often take small notes and opening an Obsidian (or any other app) is usually too much work for me. Instead, I prefer to create file shortcuts on desktop to just double-click them later when I want to access the data.

The thing is Obsidian vault is not represented by a recognizable file; it's a folder. So there is nothing to click at to automatically open it in Obsidian and consequently there is no way to create a shortcut on desktop that would open the specific Obsidian vault.

Yes, I know, I can launch Obsidian app and start from there but it is too much hustle when you have several frequently used vaults.

Also, the standard F2 shortcut for the usual item renaming does not work and it adds friction.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#44

Post by ethanbond »

dotBen wrote: post #22
weego wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in a completely different product space, so there's that to differentiate them as a start.

Are you familiar with FigJams?

Still very different. Obsidian Canvas is about spatially organizing your already-existing knowledge base in Obsidian. Figjam is more like virtual whiteboarding. Big big fan of both Obsidian and Figma/Figjam, they don't really compete here though.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#46

Post by tianqi »

While the feature itself was interesting, adding such a feature made alarm in my head. I don't think this is necessarily a good trend. Please Obsidian needs to be very, very cautious about adding such large features.

I won't forget why I, and many others, gave up Evernote. It did too much, not too little.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#47

Post by kepano »

tianqi wrote: post #46

While the feature itself was interesting, adding such a feature made alarm in my head. I don't think this is necessarily a good trend. Please Obsidian needs to be very, very cautious about adding such large features. I won't forget why I, and many others, gave up Evernote. It did too much, not too little.

Obsidian is built on a modular architecture. Canvas view is a plugin so you can turn it off if you don't want to use it. Not much is changing with the core. You can still run Obsidian as a very lightweight app with most plugins disabled.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#48

Post by kepano »

garganzol wrote: post #43

One thing that bugs me with Obsidian: I cannot create a link to a specific obsidian vault on desktop (Windows). The thing is I often take small notes and opening an Obsidian (or any other app) is usually too much work for me. Instead, I prefer to create file shortcuts on desktop to just double-click them later when I want to access the data. The thing is Obsidian vault is not represented by a recognizable file; it's…

Have you looked at Obsidian URIs? It has a vault parameter:

https://help.obsidian.md/Advanced+topics/Using+obsidian+URI

Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#49

Post by xyos »

garganzol wrote: post #43

One thing that bugs me with Obsidian: I cannot create a link to a specific obsidian vault on desktop (Windows). The thing is I often take small notes and opening an Obsidian (or any other app) is usually too much work for me. Instead, I prefer to create file shortcuts on desktop to just double-click them later when I want to access the data. The thing is Obsidian vault is not represented by a recognizable file; it's…

you can do that using uris:

https://help.obsidian.md/Advanced+topics/Using+obsidian+URI

there is also a plugin for having advanced uris if you want to be more specific:

https://github.com/Vinzent03/obsidian-advanced-uri

Re: Show HN: Obsidian Canvas – An infinite space for your ideas

#50

Post by input_sh »

tianqi wrote: post #46

While the feature itself was interesting, adding such a feature made alarm in my head. I don't think this is necessarily a good trend. Please Obsidian needs to be very, very cautious about adding such large features. I won't forget why I, and many others, gave up Evernote. It did too much, not too little.

Like any core plugin, you can just disable it if you don't need it.
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