Dataview made easy.
You can increase your organization in as little as 5 minutes.
Dataview is a way to turn your Obsidian vault into a database of pages and files. Its strength is in queries to embed onto your notes. You use metadata on your pages to create the query.
Setup
Go to the plugin page and install dataview.
Or just use Obsidian to install. Settings > Community Plugins > Browse > Search dataview.
Install should take moments.
Metadata and Properties
Metadata is data about other data.
In dataview, metadata is a set of tags or links that you setup at the top of each page which you can then query using dataview. This metadata is known as properties.
Properties can be added by typing three dashes ‘-’ at the top of a page. These dashes must be the very first line of the page.
---Dataview/Obsidian will auto fill a properties section. These are completely customizable and created by the user.
There is no reason to make this portion complicated. Only use what you need. Scale later if you need it.
I use 2 properties for most pages.
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You don’t want to spend a ton of time setting up to be productive. Make it simple. Then be productive.
Querying can be simple.
This is the query I use to track all of my MOCs (Map of Content) on a dashboard.
```dataview
LIST
FROM #MOC
```This will pull all pages with the tag #MOC into a list. This is all I need on my dashboard. My MOCs then link to my pages relevant to that MOC.
Upgrades
I could save a ton of work if my pages would link using a similar format.
An upgrade for the above would be:
'''dataview
LIST
FROM #Writing
'''And then just add the property #Writing to everything that is relevant to writing itself.
Now any new writing page I create can have the properties and be automatically listed.
The 2 that I did not include will have different properties, they are a little different from the other pages.
This upgrade took less than 5 minutes. Now I can continue to be productive, and focus on my tasks.
We can upgrade further by making our searches a table instead of a list. My next move will be to add another property to describe each page.
But I am not doing that today. New pages will have this description. Old pages will be updated in the future.
Make Obsidian work for you.
It is very easy to get distracted with the act of becoming more productive.
Avoid that trap.
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