Artwork by Andreas Rocha
Editing the Obsidian Wiki¶
If you have talked with J.P. about joining the offline Obsidian wiki, this guide will cover everything you need to get started; whether you're familiar with Obsidian or entirely new to it.
I would recommend setting aside at least 45 minutes to complete the setup process. This will only need to be done once. I would also recommend having me (J.P.) on the phone with you during setup to avoid any confusion.
To accommodate the wiki, please have at least 900 MB of free storage space on your computer. If you do not have enough space to accommodate the wiki, do not sync the Attachments, Images, or Maps folders.
What is Obsidian?¶
Obsidian, which can be downloaded here, is a powerful note taking application ideal for a wiki-sized project like Ilhdeinia.
Obsidian is generally considered "future proof" because it reads from a local folder of markdown files, so if Obsidian were to go out of business tomorrow, all of our data would still be ours.
If you need help finding your way around Obsidian, you can learn how to use it from:
- Their official documentation
- This really long video
- Or plan a call with me! I love showing people why Obsidian is awesome.
If you find yourself in need of a cheat sheet for markdown, I recommend this one, though the template you're about to download will include the Editing Toolbar plugin, which makes the writing experience in Obsidian closer to other word processors.
Speaking of that template...
Templates¶
You will not need to start from scratch in a new vault. A template vault can be downloaded from Codeberg here. This template vault is empty, save for a pre-built file structure, modified settings, and a host of pre-installed plugins all contributors should have.
On the same line where "HTTPS" is found (top left of the screen), click on the 3 Dots and download your template as a .zip file.
After downloading and unzipping the folder, I would recommend changing the name to "Ilhdeinia" or something similar.
Place it on your computer where you're unlikely to move it or delete it by accident. Once you've got it in place, open Obsidian, select "Open Folder as Vault" and open the template folder. It will ask you to "Trust Author and Enable Plugins" and you should do so.
Once this is complete, we can get started with screen.garden.
screen.garden¶
To sync our notes we use screen.garden, which you will need to sign up for. After signup, you will likely hit a screen prompting you to join a Free Trial Period. DO NOT sign up for this. I am already paying for the team.
I am aware their entire site is in light mode, this is awful, but thankfully we will have little to do with their web client.
After account creation, double check your email and confirm your account. If you don't see the email, there's a chance it wound up in Spam, so that should be double checked.
Send the email you used during signup to me, and in turn I will send an invite email your way to join the Ilhdeinia team. After accepting that invite, you can return to Obsidian.
The vault template includes the screen.garden plugin. It can be found by going to Settings and then scrolling down. Inside the plugin click "Log into screen.garden", which will open a new tab in your browser. This will ask you to "Approve Obsidian", after which you can return to Obsidian where you should be signed in.
From the screen.garden settings click the "Show Home Tab" button, which is where you can manage all "Collections" (folders from the wiki) that have been made available to you. You can also open this tab by clicking on the leaf icon in the left sidebar.
Click "Add Collection", and then select "Connect to Existing". Choose the first folder you want to link, click "Next", and then select "a Folder". NEVER SELECT THE "ENTIRE VAULT" OPTION, as this can cause sync issues on everyone else's side. If you accidentally selected this, please delete the entirety of the vault and redownload a new one from Codeberg.
While a bit tedious, what we now have left to do is connect Collections to the folders from the provided template as follows:
- About This Wiki --> About This Wiki
- Afflictions --> Afflictions
- Attach (All Variations) --> Attachments/Variation (Lorekeepers Only)
- Beasts (All Variations) --> Beasts & Entities/Variation
- Beliefs --> Beliefs
- Foliage & Ingredients --> Foliage & Ingredients
- Folk --> Folk
- Folk Under Development --> Folk Under Development (Lorekeepers Only)
- Images (All Variations) --> Attachments/Images
- Maps (All Variations) --> Attachments/Maps
- Reference --> Reference
- Sjōvneva --> Sjōvneva
- Timeline (All Variations) --> Timeline/Variation
Once this has been completed, 99% of the wiki should be synced with your local vault. Large images and maps may take longer to synchronize.
Misc.¶
Now that there are files in the wiki, I would recommend changing one thing in Settings. Within "Files and Links" under "Default File to Open" the option "Specific File" will already be selected, but the box below will be empty. Click into it, and search for "README" under About This Wiki. This is the homepage to both the site and wiki, and will open immediately upon loading the vault after doing this.
There are also a few Hotkeys that I would like to make you aware of (as they are not standard, and are specific to this vault):
- Ctrl+P will enable you to quickly switch between notes
- Ctrl+Shift+P will open the Command Prompt, which can also be accessed within a note by typing
/
The vault is by default set to Dark Mode with Ilhdeinian Gold as the default color scheme. If you would like to change these, or even install custom themes, this can be accomplished via Appearance tab in Settings.
For those who would like to further complete the Ilhdeinian look of the vault, this font can be installed.
Closing and opening the vault should automatically set the right font for the Interface. The Font Size and Zoom Level can also be Increased/ Decreased from the Appearance tab.