Obsidian Beginner Vault Template

A minimal template for your first Obsidian vault aimed at setting good defaults.

This template is intended for first time users of Obsidian.

Getting Started

• Download and install Obsidian
• Use this template and clone the repo
• Open Obsidian
• Click "Open" next to the "Open folder as vault" label
• Select the folder you cloned the repo to
• open _START HERE.md and follow the instructions

Folder Structure

• _assets: project specific files and folders
  • attachments: this is where attachment files, like images, are stored
  • templates: this is where template files are stored
• daily: Daily Note storage

Settings

These are the settings that have been modified from the defaults.

Editor

Setting	Value
Show frontmatter	Enabled
Fold heading	Enabled
Fold indent	Enabled
Use tabs	Enabled
Tab size	2

Files & Links

Setting	Value
Confirm file deletion	Disabled
Automatically update internal links	Enabled
Detect all file extensions	Enabled
Default location for new attachments	In the folder specified below
Attachment folder path	_assets/attachments

Appearance

Setting	Value
Translucent window	Enabled
Font size	15

Hotkeys

I have modified some of the important hotkeys to better match VS Code's defaults since that is the text editor that I am most familiar with. Click the Restore default icon if you'd like to revert a specific hotkey to Obsidian's default hotkeys.

Description	Shortcut
Command palette: Open command palette	⌘⇧P
Delete current file	⌘⇧Backspace
Delete paragraph	⌘⇧D
Edit file title	⇧⌥T
Focus on editor	⌘1
Quick switcher: Open quick switcher	⌘P
Split horizontally	⌘\
Split vertically	⌘⇧\
Swap line down	⇧⌥↑
Swap line up	⇧⌥↓

Core plugins

Plugin	Value
Outgoing Links	Enabled
Tag pane	Enabled
Daily notes	Enabled
Templates	Enabled
Slash commands	Enabled
Starred	Enabled
Markdown format importer	Disabled
Outline	Enabled
Audio recorder	Enabled
Workspaces	Enabled

Community Plugins

This vault does not come with any community plugins by default.

Setting	Value
Safe mode	Disabled

Core Plugin Options

Templates

Setting	Value
Template folder location	_assets/templates

Daily notes

Setting	Value
New file location	daily
Template file location	_assets/templates/t_daily
Open daily note on startup	Enabled

Hotkeys

Description	Shortcut
Templates: Insert template	⌘⌥I