# Markdown is SCARY! ![[images/Markdown-is-SCARY.webp]] [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4UfkTnVEVA) · 2:00 · Josh Plunkett · 2023-06-29 > [!info] YouTube Short (2:00), uploaded June 29, 2023. Written from the video's full English automatic captions (en-orig track via yt-dlp) plus video frames. The video has no description or chapters. It's a vertical phone recording of his monitor with a TikTok watermark (@obsidian.md.ttrpg) and a "Markdown is SCARY!" caption, so on-screen text is only partly legible; the 0:50-0:58 stretch (installing the plugin) has no speech and is described from frames. ## Outline - **0:00 - The problem.** A common reaction from people discovering Obsidian.md: "Wow, this tool is really cool, but I don't know how to do Markdown." Just looking at it scares them away. ![[images/Markdown-is-SCARY-t0003.webp]] *Josh on camera with the "Markdown is SCARY!" caption.* - **0:17 - Head to the tutorial site.** Go to **ObsidianTTRPGTutorials.com** and open **Getting Started**. Further down there's a section on how to learn Markdown, including a whole article called **"But Markdown Is Scary"**. Click it for a guide on how to do this. ![[images/Markdown-is-SCARY-t0028.webp]] *The "But Markdown Is Scary" page: "Something I hear a lot from new users to Obsidian is that they don't know Markdown... Markdown is very easy to both use and learn", followed by Markdown Basics.* - **0:35 - What the guide covers.** The page (titled *Obsidian Markdown Formatting* in his vault) explains that Word or OneNote users are used to a toolbar with all their font, bold, underline and italics options, that Obsidian doesn't have that bar "because you don't need it", and gives a plain-language "What Is Markdown" callout plus a **Headings** section with a copy-and-paste example (`# This is a heading 1` down to heading 6). - **0:40 - "If you still need a format bar."** He calls out a callout near the bottom: if you're still nervous, install a toolbar from the community plugins, either **Editing Toolbar** or **Markdown Formatting Assistant**. "Just click one of these." ![[images/Markdown-is-SCARY-t0045.webp]] *The "If you still need a format bar" callout linking Editing Toolbar and Markdown Formatting Assistant, above the Headings section.* - **0:50 - Install it.** (No speech.) Clicking the link opens the **Editing Toolbar** plugin page in Obsidian's community plugin browser: by Cuman, modified from cMenu, with many built-in editing commands "to be a MS Word-like toolbar editing experience." He clicks Install and enables it. ![[images/Markdown-is-SCARY-t0053.webp]] *Editing Toolbar's community plugin page (about 72,880 downloads, repository github.com/cumany/obsidian-editing-toolbar) with its Install button.* - **0:58 - A familiar bar.** With the plugin on, clicking edit on a page now shows a toolbar (headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, underline, highlight and more) across the top of the note, which looks familiar to anyone coming from Microsoft Word. ![[images/Markdown-is-SCARY-t0114.webp]] *The Editing Toolbar (H3, H4, B, I, S, U and other buttons) across the top of his Obsidian Markdown Formatting note.* - **1:13 - It's as easy as it sounds.** Double-click a word and click the **Bold** icon, or select another word and make it **italics**. The toolbar applies all the Markdown for you. He also opens a dropdown of extra formatting options. - **1:27 - Who it's for.** If you're coming from OneNote, Google Sheets or Docs or similar and are afraid of Obsidian because of Markdown, install one of these toolbars and you're back "to pretty much the same place." - **1:44 - Why it's worth it.** The functionality the community has added to Obsidian.md is "amazing" and "far exceeds anything those tools can do", and it's designed for TTRPG stuff. - **1:54 - Sign-off.** "Come check it out, guys: Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials. We can help you out." ## Things mentioned ### Obsidian plugins - **Editing Toolbar** (community plugin, free) by Cuman (GitHub cumany/obsidian-editing-toolbar): a Microsoft Word-style formatting toolbar for Obsidian, built on the earlier cMenu plugin. The one he installs and demos. - **Markdown Formatting Assistant** (community plugin, free): the alternative toolbar/formatting helper his guide recommends. - **cMenu** (community plugin, free): the older floating formatting menu that Editing Toolbar was modified from, named on the plugin page. ### Tools and websites - [ObsidianTTRPGTutorials.com](https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com) (free): Josh's tutorial site. Getting Started includes the "But Markdown Is Scary" Markdown guide. - **Obsidian** (free app): the Markdown note-taking app all of this runs in; community plugins are installed from Settings, Community plugins. - **Markdown**: the plain-text formatting syntax Obsidian notes use (for example `#` headings, `**bold**`, `*italics*`). - **Microsoft Word**, **Microsoft OneNote**, **Google Docs / Google Sheets**: the tools newcomers are used to, with their always-visible formatting bars. - **TikTok**: the clip is a repost of his TikTok upload (@obsidian.md.ttrpg watermark). ### TTRPG systems and content - No specific game system is discussed; the pitch is that Obsidian's community plugins are built for TTRPG game masters in general. ## Bios - **Josh Plunkett**: Australian game master and YouTuber who makes Obsidian TTRPG tutorials, runs ObsidianTTRPGTutorials.com and offers a ready-made Obsidian TTRPG vault through Patreon. - **Cuman (cumany)**: Obsidian community developer behind the Editing Toolbar plugin, which adds a Word-like formatting toolbar to Obsidian.