How to use BrainBank
The changes in BrainBench when compared to a default Obsidian vault are as follows:
- Pre-created, Colour-coded Folder Structure: BrainBench provides a ready-to-use folder structure that is already organised and colour-coded. This makes it easier to manage your notes right from the start. In contrast, a default Obsidian vault typically starts with a blank slate, allowing users to create their own folder structure based on their preferences.
- BrainBench enhances note creation by introducing tags, tag notes, MOCs and templates.
- Tags: These allow you to categorise and group related notes efficiently.
- Tag Notes: These are pre-defined notes used in templates to group together all notes of a specific type.
- Templates: Loaded with tag notes, templates provide a consistent format for specific types of content (e.g., meeting notes, action items).
- Customised User Experience with Plugins:
- BrainBench leverages both default and community plugins to enhance the user experience.
- These plugins allow users to tailor their environment, add features, and optimise their workflow.
- Keyboard shortcuts
- BrainBench includes keyboard shortcuts for common actions, making navigation and note creation faster.
- While Obsidian also supports keyboard shortcuts, the default installation may not have as many pre-defined shortcuts as BrainBench.
- Predefined Locations for Saving Notes Automatically:
- BrainBench goes a step further by providing predefined default folders for specific types of notes. When you create a note of a certain category (e.g., meeting minutes, project ideas, personal journal), it automatically gets saved in the appropriate folder.
- In contrast, a default Obsidian vault does not have these predefined locations. Users typically organise their notes manually into folders they create themselves.
- Colour-coded Graph View for Easy Identification
- BrainBench introduces a colour-coded graph view that enhances visual navigation. Notes of different types are represented using distinct colours, making it easier to identify related content.
- Custom Dashboard for Easy Access and Overview
- BrainBench offers a custom dashboard that provides users with a centralised hub for accessing their vault. This dashboard typically includes:
- Quick links to frequently accessed notes or folders.
- Overview of recent activity, such as recently modified notes.
- BrainBench offers a custom dashboard that provides users with a centralised hub for accessing their vault. This dashboard typically includes:
- BrainBench integrates a Kanban board directly within the note-taking environment.
- Notes can be moved between columns, providing a visual representation of progress.
The following would explain them in detail.
The first folder in BrainBank is 01. Kanban. It contains a note - Board - My Tasks and a folder Tasks. The Kanban board contains 5 columns:
- To Do
- In Progress
- On Hold
- Done
- Rejected
Users can add cards to the Kanban board by clicking the +Add a card button at the bottom of each column. Users can apply the task-template to the new note created(Use [[]] to the title and click the link to create the note) with keyboard shortcut - Alt + T
BrainBank includes a dashboard created with the help of the default canvas plugin in Obsidian and another plugin - HTML Tabs.
It acts as a quick reference to the recent notes in various categories offering a
MOC stands for Maps of Content because these notes map the contents of some of your notes. If you are not familiar with Obsidian, and are hearing about MoC for the first time, here - https://obsidian.rocks/maps-of-content-effortless-organization-for-notes/ is a wonderful article to know more about the concept. Another elaborate tutorial is here - https://publish.obsidian.md/aidanhelfant/Spaces/%F0%9F%AA%90Content+Creation/%E2%9C%8D%EF%B8%8FBlog+Posts/5+Simple+Levels+To+Supercharging+Your+Learning+With+MOCs+In+Obsidian. We have a folder 03. MoC to hold all your MoC notes. Feel free to add more and more MoCs and expand your knowledge base.
This is the place where all your notes should go. Articles, Notes, Analysis etc. You can move them from the default location - 10. Workbench once you have completed a note or article.
Chronicle is where all your date based notes and Sprint notes go (If you follow it). You have various ways to create these notes.
Clicking on a date in the calendar will create a daily note in the 01. Daily folder.
Clicking on the Week number in the calendar will create the weekly note in 02. Weekly folder.
Notes created will have preset templates applied for convenience. Daily notes will have it's weekly note, Monthly note and yearly note linked to it. This facilitates easy navigation between notes. If those notes does not exist, they will be created when you click on them in the respective folder with the respective template automatically applied.
Another alternate way of generating these reports is to use options - Open today, Open this week or Open this month from the context menu for Periodic Notes button.
Alternatively, you can use the day planner timeline or week view to create periodic notes.
This folder is a place where all your reference articles or material could reside. Be it PDF files or other articles writne by someone else which you plan to refer in your notes. It could also hold any reference material thay you have created as well. e.g. Tailored email responses.
The system folder contains 3 subfolders.
You can find plenty of pre-configured templates for various purpose under this folder. Any note added to this folder will be listed when you click Alt + T to apply a template to a newly created note. You can customise the existing templates to your likings and can add more as you need. A common naming convention followed is to add -template suffix to the templates.
Following is an outline of a sample template.
You can see predefined tags, links to dates, mention of the type, status, priority, responsible person (with the help of Tag notes) and a Table of Contents in this template. It makes it very easy when you need to apply a template to a document.
Any images that you copy and paste into your notes get automatically saved in the 07. System\02. Artefacts folder.
The file changelog in the logs folder will have the Date, time and link to the last 10 files you edited. Helps in getting back to where you stopped very easy or to review a previous operation. You can change the number of entries here in the Recent Files plugin settings.
Tags folder contains tag notes created for easy mapping of notes under varioys categories. A $ sign is used as a prefix for a lot of the tag notes. These depict a type of note which will help you in identifying all the notes of similar type easily. You can also see various other prefix like rating-, state-, status- etc which you can use in various places as deemed.
The canvas folder is where you can create all your canvases. Here - https://obsidian.rocks/getting-started-with-canvas-in-obsidian/ is an article that will help you use the canvas more effectively.
The 10. Workbench folder is where a note will be created if you press Ctrl + N or Ctrl + O and provide a file name. It is your virtual work area where the notes you are actively working on could reside until they are finalised.
This is a place to dump all your archived notes.
Right now, BrainBench supports 3 types of entities.
- People
- Teams
- Organisations
@myself is a default entity pre-created for ease of use. Please create a new entity by adding a link to a name and clicking on it. You can then apply any of the entity template. It is recommended to prefix entities with an @ sign to keep up with the naming convention.
This plugin helps to count the words of a selected text in the editor. Please refer to https://github.com/lukeleppan/better-word-count for more details.
This Plugin adds a Dictionary to the Obsidian. Please refer to https://github.com/phibr0/obsidian-dictionary for more details.
This plugin Create a table of contents for a note. Please refer to https://github.com/hipstersmoothie/obsidian-plugin-toc for more details.
Automatically fetches metadata from an URL and makes it as a card-styled link. Please refer to https://github.com/nekoshita/obsidian-auto-card-link for more details. By default, links are automatically enhanced. Use keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + E to enhance if auto enhance is off.
Better Export PDF is an Obsidian PDF export enhancement plugin that adds the ability to export bookmarks outline, export preview and add page numbers to PDF compared to the official PDF export function. Please refer to https://github.com/l1xnan/obsidian-better-export-pdf for more details.
Right click on any note and choose Better Export PDF to export.
This plugin helps you to enter Zen more to focus on writing. It provides you with a full screen mode providing a distraction free writing more. Please refer to https://github.com/cmoskvitin/obsidian-prozen for more details.
Use Keyboard shortcut F11 to enter Zen mode and Esc to close Zen mode.
This plugin helps you view the differences between two files with merge options. Please refer to https://github.com/friebetill/obsidian-file-diff for more details.
This plugin allows you to highlight specific keywords in your notes, making it easier to locate and organise important information. Please refer to https://github.com/marcel-goldammer/obsidian-keyword-highlighter for more details.
This is a plugin for Obsidian that allows you to merge notes selected in the context menu into a single note. Please refer to https://github.com/fnya/merge-notes for more details.
I am a developer and I often find the need to include UML diagrams in my notes or documents. O havbe been using PlantUML for ages now and this list would not be complete withouut the PlantUML plugin. Please refer to https://github.com/joethei/obsidian-plantuml for details on the plugin and https://plantuml.com/ to know more about PlantUML.
I have added 2 custom CSS classes in the vault. It could be found in Brain Bank\.obsidian\snippets path. One is used to widen the note in reading view and the other one is used to change the Header colour in the notes. Disabling it will remove the colours from the headers. If you plan to install any themes, disable the header color css.
Please visit the Hotkeys section in the settings to see the complete list of keyboard shortcuts.