Markdown-based knowledge management with backlinks and graph view

How to Record Obsidian

Record Obsidian without exposing personal notes. Setup guide for PKM tutorials, plugin demos, and knowledge base walkthroughs with clean vault config.

When you’d need to record Obsidian

PKM workflow tutorials for YouTube or courses

Show your Zettelkasten, PARA, or daily notes workflow in Obsidian. The PKM community is hungry for 'how I organize my vault' content — and it only works as video because the workflow involves jumping between notes, using backlinks, and navigating the graph.

Plugin demos and reviews

Record Obsidian community plugins in action — Dataview queries, Templater scripts, Canvas boards. Plugin READMEs are static; a video showing the plugin working in a real vault is 10x more convincing.

Team knowledge base onboarding

If your team uses Obsidian via Obsidian Publish or shared vaults, record a walkthrough of the vault structure, key MOCs (Maps of Content), and how to link new notes correctly.

Vault template showcase for creators

Sell or share Obsidian vault templates by recording a walkthrough. Show the folder structure, template notes, Dataview dashboards, and daily note workflow in action.

Recommended settings

Resolution

2560x1440

Frame rate

30fps

Audio

Microphone only

Capture mode

Window Capture

Things to know

•Obsidian stores all notes as local .md files — the file explorer sidebar shows your entire vault structure including personal note names
•Community plugins can render custom UI (Dataview tables, Kanban boards, Calendar) that may look broken if the plugin hasn't loaded yet
•Graph View is GPU-rendered and animates node positions — recording at 30fps captures it smoothly but 1080p loses the small node labels
•Obsidian's 'Live Preview' mode renders markdown inline — formatting characters (**, [[, #) flash briefly when editing near them

Step-by-step

1
In Screenify Studio, select Window Capture and pick the Obsidian window.
Enable cursor highlight — Obsidian's text cursor is a thin blinking line that disappears on dark themes.
2
Open Obsidian and your vault. Before recording, go to Settings > File & Links and review your vault name — it appears in the title bar. Rename it if it contains personal info (e.g., 'Brian's Brain' → 'Demo Vault').
3
Collapse file explorer folders you won't reference. Click the collapse arrows on personal folders (journals, private notes). If your vault has a folder called 'Therapy Notes' or 'Job Applications', it will be visible in the recording.
4
Set a clean appearance: go to Settings > Appearance. Choose a theme with good contrast for recording — 'Minimal' or 'Things' themes work well. Increase the font size to at least 16px (Settings > Appearance > Font Size).
5
Start recording. When navigating between notes via backlinks ([[links]]), click the link and WAIT for the note to open before speaking. Obsidian opens notes instantly, but viewers need 1-2 seconds to read the new note's title and orient themselves.

For Graph View and plugin demonstrations

6
To demonstrate Graph View, press Cmd+G or click the graph icon. Zoom in on a cluster of connected notes — the full graph is visually impressive but the node labels are unreadable at wide zoom levels.
7
For Dataview demonstrations, navigate to the note containing the Dataview query first, then switch between Source mode (shows the query code) and Live Preview (shows the rendered table). This teaches both the syntax and the result.
8
When showing Templater or QuickAdd workflows, trigger the template insertion live: Cmd+T (Templater) or Cmd+Shift+A (QuickAdd). Show the template picker, select a template, and let the result render before explaining what happened.

Pro tips

Auto-zoom on the backlink panel. Obsidian's backlink panel (right sidebar) shows linked mentions in 12px text with truncated note names. When you click a backlink to navigate, auto-zoom catches the click and zooms in so viewers can read which note you're jumping to.

Use a demo vault, not your personal vault. Your personal vault has notes titled 'Anxiety Management', 'Investment Portfolio', 'Ex-Girlfriend Stuff'. Even collapsed folders show their names. Create a separate vault with clean, topic-appropriate content for recording. File > Open Another Vault > Create New Vault.

Record Graph View at 1440p minimum. Graph View node labels are rendered at ~10px. At 1080p after compression, every node becomes an unlabeled dot. 1440p preserves label readability for the zoomed-in clusters you'll actually explain.

Show source mode before live preview. When recording a tutorial about Obsidian's markdown features (callouts, embeds, Dataview queries), show the raw markdown FIRST (Cmd+E to toggle source mode), explain the syntax, then switch to Live Preview to show the rendered result. Showing only the rendered output teaches nothing.

Common mistakes

Recording your personal vault without review. File explorer shows every folder and note name. 'Dream Journal', 'Therapy Sessions', 'Passwords', 'Rant About Boss' — all visible. Use a demo vault or meticulously collapse every personal folder before recording.

Showing Graph View zoomed all the way out. The full graph looks cool as a thumbnail but is useless in a recording — 200 nodes with unreadable labels connected by tangled lines. Zoom into a specific cluster of 10-15 notes and explain the connections.

Not increasing font size from the default. Obsidian's default font size varies by theme but is typically 14-15px. After video compression, this becomes hard to read. Go to Settings > Appearance > Font Size and set it to 18px for recording. You can change it back after.

Editing in Live Preview and confusing viewers with formatting artifacts. When you type near markdown syntax in Live Preview, formatting characters flash briefly (bold, [[links]], #headings). It's disorienting on video. Either edit in Source mode (clean) or explain the Live Preview behavior before demonstrating it.