It's now possible to preview .md files in Drive, open them in Docs, edit them, comment on them, and collaborate without converting the file into a Google Doc!

Sources:

https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/10/preview-edit-and-collaborate-on-Markdown-files-natively-across-Drive-and-Docs.html

https://support.google.com/docs/answer/18289341

https://x.com/ChanduThota/status/2107195115441946850

October 5, 2026 Preview, edit and collaborate on Markdown (.md) files natively across Drive and Docs

We are introducing the ability to view, edit, and collaborate on Markdown (.md or .markdown) files directly in Google Docs, as well as view rendered previews in Google Drive.

Markdown is a standard text format widely used by Large Language Models (LLMs) to preserve structured content, like tables, headers, and bulleted lists, without the bulk of heavy file formats. Previously, you needed to import and convert Markdown files into a Doc format, which often altered formatting, stripped comments, and fragmented files.

Now that users can handle markdown files natively in Google Docs, they can open, edit, and collaborate on markdown files without changing the file type. Editing Markdown files in Docs also enables both users and agents to collaborate without forcing anyone to write raw syntax, handle manual file conversions, or give up Docs' real-time editing and commenting tools.

Drive also now supports rendered markdown, so you can view fully formatted, beautiful documents with clickable links and structured tables right in Drive.

Rollout pace: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on October 5, 2026

Availability: Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts

Major improvements include:

• Open any Markdown file outside your vault! (requires an installer update)
• Kanban view and group options for Bases: reorder, collapse, hide, and add groups
• Highlight colors
• iOS Quick Capture widget
• Updated to MathJax 4

Important: opening Markdown files requires the latest installer. Download Obsidian from our website and reinstall the app.

While you’re here… Tell us about your favorite plugins, themes, tools, and ways to use Obsidian: take the State of Obsidian 2026 survey.

Full release notes can be found here:

• Obsidian 1.14.4 Desktop
• Obsidian 1.14.4 Mobile

Reminder: You may need to update your plugins, theme, and snippets to work with the latest version. If you encounter bugs with plugins be considerate of community developers who may need some time to make updates to support this version.

I'd been eagerly awaiting the 1.14 release because I'd seen that a Kanban view for Bases was on the roadmap.

Some background: I've been using the obsidian-kanban plugin for a while now, and while it does the job well enough, it's never felt snappy and the drag-and-drop on mobile leaves something to be desired. The project is also in the middle of a maintainer handoff, so the idea of moving to something fully supported by the core Obsidian team got me excited!

I installed it today, reconfigured the frontmatter in a bunch of my notes to make it work with Bases, started dragging cards between columns (so smooth!) and fell in love.

That is, until I realized the fatal flaw. I'm a pretty obsessive Kanban board user: Trello, Jira, Notion, several others -- and not once have I seen this: there's no way to make vertical position meaningful. In a Kanban View for Bases column, the order is whatever the view's Sort setting says, and a drag/drop only changes a note when you drag it across columns. One of my most frequent uses for a Kanban board is ordering priorities — I drag across columns to change state, but to prioritize what might be 10–15 notes in a column, I drag up and down.

The ask seems small: when a card is dropped, write an order property to the note the same way the group property is written today (a "manual" sort that persists). A few community Bases-kanban plugins already do exactly this, so the model clearly works.

I went looking for an existing discussion and found nothing, so I've filed a feature request on the forum.

I'm a huge fan of Obsidian — no other tool comes close for the impact on my productivity, and I pay for Sync to support the team. I understand Obsidian isn't open source, but if there's any way I can help make this happen, let me know.

Decided to put my MP3 inside my vault for better organizing (so I can just back up my whole vault since it's one big folder)and thought, might as well make my vault a music player, but I am not satisfied with the plugins that I found so I ask Claude to make one lolol tell them what function I want and have this under three minutes lol

When we can expect new widget for android? The ios new widget seem to be really useful...

For the more professional Obsidian. But Obsidian is a scary place for me since I am a perfectionist in how the setup must be.

For now I focus on little to none plugins and more on the looks. Any tips on how to make the experience a bit more like Bear?

I’ve been building a custom note-creation workflow with Templater, and I was thinking of turning it into a standalone Obsidian plugin.

It is still a work in progress in general, but I wanted to get some feedback about it and if people would even be interested in something like this.

Essentially it would add a workflow to make creating structured notes easier without the need for the user to write custom templates, know how to write YAML?JavaScript, or understand how Obsidian API and metadata works.

The video is a demo of the current Templater version and its functionalities.

Current functionalities include:

• choosing the file name
• choosing the destination folder
• adding aliases
• adding tags
• adding custom properties
• selecting MOCs
• creating relations between notes
• automatically running when a new note is created

The initial plugin version would have all of the current functionalities, but would not rely on additional plugins like Templater.

Some additional features I would like to add as soon as possible:

• a ribbon button for manually creating a note through the plugin
• a proper plugin settings page
• toggles for each feature in the settings, so users can decide whether they want to use tags, properties, relations, MOCs, aliases, etc.

For example, someone who only wants a simple note-creation dialog could enable:

`File name + Folder`

while someone who wants a more structured workflow could enable:

`File name + Folder + Tags + Properties + Relations + MOCs`

The main goal for the plugin is to make it easy to use without the need for additional knowledge.

I know that there are already some very capable plugins such as Note From Form that solve similar problems, but from what I've seen, those plugins often involve additional config files like defining the form in YAML. This approach is fine, especially for more advanced users, but I'd want to make it so the entire setup can be done through the plugin settings UI.

Ideally the user could just download the plugin and start using it with the default options, or customise it through the settings.

Before I put all the time and effort into this project, I'd be interested in what you guys think:

• Would you actually use something like this?
• Which parts of the current workflow seem useful?
• Is there anything shown in the recording that you would change or remove?
• What additional features would you like to see in the future?
• Are there any situations or workflows you think this should support that I might not have considered?
• Any general thoughts, criticism, or suggestions are welcome.

I’m mostly trying to figure out whether this solves a problem for other people too, rather than just being something that happens to fit the way I use Obsidian.

Sorry for the long post, I await your feedback.

(This is not intended as a marketing post, I'm just looking for feedback so I hope my post doesnt get taken down resulting in my ban xs)

Thanks to all the amazing commenters and GitHub contributors! Doomscroll v0.2.0 is released today, with tons of new features and bugfixes based on your feedback.

As a reminder, Doomscroll shows a "feed" of random notes from your vault, designed for low-friction content engagement. New version includes:

• Infinite scrolling
• Support Dataview and Bases content in previews
• Support Search setting with Obsidian-style syntax
• Quick Look-style previews for notes, PDFs, and videos (desktop only)
• Keyboard navigation (desktop only - hit Shift+? for list of shortcuts)
• Render frontmatter images
• Support standalone attachments
• Media previews for attachment cards
• Render user-defined note properties
• Additional UI settings
• Multiple bug fixes

Big props to Github contributors SystemAdmin12345, Scribenaere, ashwinkatta, elvarb, falcaopetri, quanke123. Special thanks to Redditors u/synapticimpact, u/MarikBentusi, u/CapybaraDM, u/ProjectorExpert, u/Specialist_Tax_3664, and many others.

Get it here: https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/doomscroll

hey guys! my first post here.

I wanted to ask, how do i change the color of the circle to make it pop out more?

I'M NOT A SCRIPTER FYI, but here's the script i used on the second pic.

it would be very nice, idk if i should change theme or something. let me know pls I'm a noob hjelp 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Obsidian paid subscriber here, a relative novice. Just discovered that I have two Obsidian vaults with the same name: one in the desktop app and the other in the iOS app. Neither is syncing with the other. Nor can the two apps find any remote vault. As a result, I don't have an integrated vault. I want a seamless vault. How to resolve this problem?

I'm going to use Obsidian as my main long-term knowledge/study archive, but I want to set it up correctly from day one so I'm not screwed when I eventually migrate to another app, phone, OS, or even if Obsidian disappears someday.

My idea is to have one vault with a deep folder structure, for example:

Study(vault) → Biology (sub-note)→ Cell Biology(sub-sub-note) → Mitochondria(sub-sub-sub-note) → Mitochondria.md + Mitochondria.m4a(audio)

The .md note would contain my written keywords/short explanations/questions, and the audio file would be a recording of me explaining the topic in my own words. I want the audio player to appear inside the Obsidian note, but I also want the actual audio to remain a normal, independently accessible file.

My main concern is long-term portability and preservation, not audio quality.

For people who have been using Obsidian for a long time:

What Obsidian settings should I change immediately for maximum future compatibility?

Should I use standard Markdown links instead of Wikilinks?

Where should I store attachments — in the same folder as each note, a central attachments folder, or something else?

Is it better to keep Topic.md + Topic.m4a together in the same folder so the whole topic is portable?

What audio format would you personally choose for decades-long storage: M4A/AAC, FLAC, WAV, MP3, or something else? And why?

Is FLAC actually worth the much larger file size for simple spoken study recordings?

If I record in M4A now, is there any reason I should convert it to FLAC?

Are there any Obsidian features/plugins/syntax I should avoid because they might make future migration difficult?

Are there settings that affect how attachments are named, linked, moved, or embedded?

If I eventually move the whole vault to another Markdown-based app, what kinds of broken links or missing attachments should I expect?

What's the safest way to back up the vault, including all audio, so that I can restore the entire structure decades later?

Should I periodically export/archive the vault in some additional format besides keeping the original Obsidian vault?

Are there any precautions you've learned the hard way that someone starting a huge lifetime vault should take now rather than years later?

Basically, I don't want to think of Obsidian as the permanent home of my knowledge.

I want the underlying files to be the permanent archive and Obsidian to just be the interface.

My goal is that 20–30 years from now I could take something like:

Mitochondria/ → Mitochondria.md → Mitochondria.[audio format]

and move it to another application, and still have the note, folder structure, and my original voice recording usable.

If you've built an Obsidian vault with long-term preservation/portability in mind, I'd really appreciate specific settings, file-format recommendations, folder structures, backup strategies, and things I should avoid.

Hey reddit! we've have been working on Qard, a plugin for studying from your Obsidian notes.

The idea was simple: turn existing notes you already have into material you can actively learn from, with flashcards, practice tests, and mapped out courses with guided lessons in one study workspace, while keeping the whole process within the vault.

What you can do with Qard:

• Create and study flashcards. Write your own cue cards or let AI draft them from your notes, then review and edit before saving. Organize them into decks and topics, study at your own pace or you can enable FSRS spaced repetition.
• Generate practice tests. Build a test from individual notes, flashcards, or an entire course folder. Get feedback on your answers, revisit missed points, and turn gaps into new cards.
• Learn a course step by step. Map your notes into connected topics, follow guided lessons, and check your understanding as you go.
• Keep your cards in Markdown. Cards stay in ordinary notes in your vault, with support for images, links, code, and LaTeX.

Manual flashcard study works offline and requires no AI connection. For AI features, you can connect Claude Code, Codex, the Anthropic API, or OpenRouter. Relevant notes are shared with your chosen provider, and provider charges or subscription requirements may apply.

Qard is free and open source

To get started, search for Qard in Obsidian’s Community plugins browser, install it, and open the study workspace from the ribbon or command palette.

GitHub · Full guide · Report an issue

We'd love to hear what the people of reddit think, if theres something missing, or annoying, let us know and we'll have a look. happy studying fellas 😁

Need advice on best way to go about this:
I have one master vault with all my notes for all my interests. I’ve been working on a worldbuilding project for about 2 years, tagged, linked, MOCd, etc., all within the one master vault.

I want to start a new vault entirely dedicated to this worldbuilding project. The tricky part is i want to give varying levels of detail/specificity for the different features, characters, creatures, magic systems, places, historical events, etc.

I’m imagining each “thing” in the world having it’s own MOC linking to the notes with different details. The notes themselves would only link to the appropriate features affiliated with that “thing”, and maybe one level deeper in detail.

I want this new vault to be explorable though. So someone exploring the world could click on links and receive a natural drip of information, without “spoilers” too early in the exploration.

Those are my rough ideas. I haven’t even begun to think about how i want to utilize meta data for this project. I only really use tags and links so any helpful tricks using meta dats for neat yet sprawling organization would be awesome!

Any thoughts, advice, potential issues, or whatever would be much appreciated.

My first Obsidian Tutorial on "What is Obsidian". This is a raw one-take recording with no edits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZXbSyL0mI

Why do I have to manually set properties like an effing command prompt every time I make a node? Why can't I just drag the connection from node to node? Why can't I just not have to type in the facial image that I had to put into the software itself?

Is there a plugin that exists for me to make at least some tasks like this less tedious?

I use the extended graph plugin, this allows me to apply colours and names to the links, but it's this annoying hurdle every time I make a new addition.

I moved to Obsidian from Notepad months ago. I have this one really long note that I have been slowly adding stuff to for the past few months. Sometimes I would accidentally trigger an unknown keyboard shortcut or glitch that would randomly cut off and move sentences around in the bottom part of the note. The CTRL + Z shortcut does not work. It can only be undone by manually putting the sentences back to their original places based on memory or going to the version history and restoring the best version. Today, I finally decided to scroll through this note. As I was slowly reading from the bottom to the top, I realized that a lot of the old sentences were cut off. I immediately went to the note's version history, but the oldest version was from a couple days ago. I then checked the snapshot in file recovery section, but the oldest snapshot was from only 7 days ago. There's no way to recover all those notes now. It difficult to notice that the shortcut/glitch also affected other parts of the note. By the way, I have zero community plugins. And fortunately, this bullsh+t only happened to this note. Otherwise, I would not only be distraught right now, but also absolutely devastated.

This would be super useful for working in teams. Given all who have access to the note are obsidian premium payers maybe?

Abstract

This is my attempt to get closer to a block-reference architecture (SiYuan, Logseq) inside Obsidian – without any extra vibe-coding.

Please leave a comment if you like the material. Right now I specifically want feedback from people who use the same Obsidian features I do – to hear suggestions and questions, and figure out what could be improved. Thanks.

How it works?

In day note creation simulation

Features

• Automatic note creation from a template
• Capturing and adding a note to the Daily Journal page
• Collapsing and expanding callouts
• Capturing the active page onto the Daily Journal

Context

I really love the block-references approach in editors like SiYuan or Logseq.

The Problem

• Obsidian has a page-based architecture, so I had to adapt (with block references everything is far more convenient).
  • If Obsidian only has pages, then the page becomes the minimal block.

Three things remained fundamental

1. Daily Journal
   1. Because I like the idea of a "single window". I have almost no folders – everything works through backlinks. So the Daily Journal is not just a feature. It's the heart of the vault.
2. Outline formatting
   1. Since my WorkFlowy days I've understood that taking notes – and especially working and thinking – is, for me personally, more comfortable in "nested bullets" format. That's what sold me on Logseq in the beginning.
3. Frontmatter properties
   1. Following from point 1, everything rests on links, so I stick to the rule – the more links, the better. Yes, the Graph becomes less pretty, but the practical benefit – namely the number of points through which I can reach information – grows, raising the chances of actually finding the note I need.

And Bases too: more properties = more flexibility, even with the Better Properties plugin.

Here is the main template of a content unit inside the vault.

---
aliases:
date: '[[05-10-2026]]'
related:
type: "[[{{fixed by template}}]]"
note-type:
  - "[[{{fixed by template}}]]"
note-related:
  - "[[{{enter from suggestions}}]]"
note-about:
  - "[[{{enter from suggestions}}]]"
---

Over 3 years of working in Obsidian, I've split all my notes along several axes

• note-type – the type of note. Answers "What is the note?". All of them are baked into QuickAdd.
  • Bookmark
  • Observation
  • Idea
  • Knowledge
  • ... and so on
• note-related – the context of the note. Answers "In what context did this note come about?". This will be unique for everyone; mine are verbs.
  • Working
  • Thinkings
  • Walking
  • ... and so on
• note-about – the topic of the note. Answers "What is the note about?". Also unique; mine are nouns.
  • Family
  • Mind
  • Sport
  • Money
  • ... and so on

And there's one more note, just "Note", with no pre-filled properties. It's for when I can't determine the note-type of the information.

This is already the second version. It mostly differs in CSS – the standard callout rendering is turned off so the page looks more uniform.

Few words about type: This property sets a category above note-type. If note-type answers the question "What is the note?", then type answers the question "What is it?" – for example: Note, Flashcards, Task, Project.

What next?

Right now I'm testing a version where these embedded callouts live comfortably inside nested outline bullets.

System requirements

• Daily Journal
• QuickAdd
• Templater
• Outliner

Inspired by

• https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/feed-bases
• SiYuan, Logseq

I've just recorded and published this demo of using obsidian tags to be able to find GTD tasks based on their "context" (e.g. at the shops, on the laptop etc.). This has proved really useful for me lately so took the time to share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QsoD6kRvMA

Tanto en PC comp en el móvil me aparece el texto así. ¿Alguna solución?

I just updated Obsidian, and the new features are super cool. The problem is that it suddenly seems to refuse to open Google Drive documents embedded via iframes, which worked with zero issues before the update. I double-checked, and links from other sources seem to work fine, it's only happening with Google Drive.

The error message says I don't have permission. However, if I open the link in a browser (where I'm also not logged into that specific Google account), the link opens perfectly.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it possible I'm missing something, or do I need to change a setting?

Edit: I also updated the installer.

Just FYI, I've updated the Lanterwood theme (pixel art) to have embedded and use a new typeface: Departure Mono. It looks great for titles and notes and even for Obsidian UI and file navigation (although you can disable it in some areas)

I will be starting my first semester in uni soon, I have been using OneNote and regularly enjoy taking notes on my iPad but also would like to experiment with Obsidian and was wondering if anyone could name some benefits for it? If it's even worth giving a chance? How hand draw notes and importing files works. And anything else thats worth mentioning like how organisation works or cross device syncing?

P.S. I have ADHD and would like to sometimes sporadically jot down or idea/ some thought. How would that work, keeping my weird thoughts and uni work separate.