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How to Make a Template in Obsidian Notes App

Obsidian is a popular free note-taking app that runs on all major platforms. It allows you to take notes, organize them, and link ideas together to build a second brain.

One of Obsidian’s most useful features is templates – predefined note formats that you can quickly insert to create new notes efficiently. Templates help ensure consistency in your notes and save you time.

In this article, I will provide a step-by-step guide on how to make use of templates based on my experience as an Obsidian power user.

Why Use Templates

Here are some key benefits of using templates in Obsidian:

  • Save time – Instead of formatting a note from scratch every time, insert a template with predefined structure and formatting
  • Ensure consistency – Templates enable you to standardize note formats across your vault
  • Enforce structure – Create templates that contain headings, checklist items, tags etc. to enforce a desired structure
  • Bootstrap note-taking – Prepopulate templates with prompts, questions, resources etc. to give your notes a head start
  • Create standards – Maintain editorial standards by creating templates for different content types (articles, reviews, meeting notes etc.)

Creating Templates

Creating your first template is simple:

  • Open Obsidian and create a new blank note
  • Format this note exactly how you want your template to be structured and styled
  • Add any content you want to be part of your template – headings, text, links, images etc.
  • Save this note with the .template extension in your designated Templates folder

You can now insert this template when creating any new note!

Recommended Practices

Here are some best practices to create effective templates:

  • Keep it simple – Avoid cluttering your templates. Add only essential elements.
  • Use variables – Leverage template variables like {{date}} and {{title}} to auto-populate context-specific content
  • Modularize templates – Break down into multiple targeted templates instead of one giant template
  • Standardize formats – Use templates to standardize formats for different types of notes
  • Create scaffolding – Use templates as scaffolding to speed up content creation

Accessing Templates

There are several quick ways to access your template library and insert a template:

Ribbon Icons

Click the template icon in the left ribbon to open the template picker. Select the template you want to insert.

Command Palette

Use the Obsidian command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P) and choose “Insert template” to open the template picker.

Quick Add Template

Obsidian quick switcher (Ctrl/Cmd+N) lets you instantly create a new note from any template.

Template Pane

The Templates plugin adds a templates pane to instantly see and insert templates.

Hotkeys

Use hotkeys like Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+T to instantly insert a specific template.

Examples

Here are some examples of templates you can create:

Meeting Notes

# {{title}} 
Meeting Date: {{date}}
Location:  
Attendees:
## Agenda
1. 
2. 

## Notes & Action Items 
- [ ]

Video Review

# {{title}} Review
Watched on: {{date}}
Rating: 

### Overview
{{ overview }}

### Key Takeaways
- 

### Recommend?
{{ynRecommend}}

Blog Article

---
title: "{{replace this}}"
excerpt: "Briefly explain what this article is about"
date: {{date}}
tags:
---

# {{replace this with your H1}}
Intro paragraph...

## Heading 2
Your content here...

### Heading 3 
More content here...

## Conclusion
Concluding remarks...

These are just a few starter ideas, but the possibilities are endless when creating custom templates tailored to your workflows and needs.

Tips & Tricks

Here are some additional tips to level up your template game:

  • Use template folders to organize templates by type or topic
  • Create a quick template picker note to easily browse and choose templates
  • Set up hotkeys to quickly insert specific high-use templates
  • Use custom CSS to visually distinguish between template blocks
  • Create templates for specific file types like meeting notes, project plans etc.
  • Standardize templates across your organization for alignment

Conclusion

Templates are an invaluable aspect of Obsidian to automate consistent note-taking, enforce structures and speed up your workflow.

With this comprehensive guide, you should now be able to:

  • Create efficient templates for different purposes
  • Insert and utilize templates through various methods
  • Optimize and build on templates to suit your needs

The key is to start simple, then progressively develop templates tailored for your knowledge management system.

So go ahead, leverage templates and take your Obsidian note-taking to the next level!

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