Should you use multiple vaults in Obsidian?
Should You Have Multiple Obsidian Vaults?
In this section, the speaker discusses the topic of having multiple Obsidian vaults and provides reasons for and against it.
Reasons Against Having Multiple Vaults
- It is generally advised to start with just one vault and add more only when there are good reasons to do so.
- Linking to notes within the same vault is easier as you can simply type in the name of the note and create a viable link. Previewing and embedding notes from the same vault is also possible.
- Searching across multiple vaults or using Dataview to work on notes from different vaults is not supported in Obsidian.
- Having all your knowledge in one place increases the chances of serendipitous discoveries and connections between seemingly unrelated topics.
Reasons For Having Multiple Vaults
- If you want to publish only specific parts of your vault, you can use the front matter publish setting for individual notes. However, if you have a lot of confidential data mixed with public content, it may be better to have a separate vault for publishing purposes.
- Sharing specific vaults publicly or with certain people may require compartmentalization to avoid accidentally sharing sensitive information. Different levels of security can be achieved by having separate vaults.
Note that timestamps are provided for each bullet point where available, allowing easy navigation through the video transcript for further study or reference.
New Section
In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of having separate vaults in Obsidian for different purposes.
Creating Separate Vaults
- It is recommended to have separate vaults for personal notes and testing/development purposes. This helps ensure that the main vault remains stable and avoids risking data loss.
- Having multiple vaults can also help in keeping the size of your vault assets minimal, especially when using GitHub for backup or versioning. Large files like images can be stored in a separate vault to avoid limitations with text-based versioning tools like GitHub.
- Another reason to have multiple vaults is to keep different types of content organized. For example, creating a reference vault for external resources such as books or gaming systems can help differentiate between self-written content and external sources.
Creating Multiple Vaults
- To create a new vault in Obsidian, click on the icon representing your current vault and select "Create a new vault." Choose a name and location for the new vault, preferably within a designated folder for easier management.
- If you already have a folder of markdown notes, you can open it as a new volt by selecting "Open folder as volt" instead of creating a new one. This allows you to work with existing notes without duplicating them into a separate volt.
Benefits of Multiple Vaults
- While having multiple vaults can be useful, it is still recommended to keep the majority of your notes in one main volt. Consolidating notes on different topics in a single place allows for better identification of gaps in knowledge and discovering surprising parallels or contradictions.