Notes and documents

What notes and a document archive are for

This page covers two jobs that sit side by side. Notes are what you write yourself: lists, ideas, how the router is set up, what the plumber said. Documents are the paper that arrives: letters, bills, payslips and manuals you want to find again in five years.

For notes, what matters most is where they’re kept. Many apps hold notes inside their own database or cloud, so leaving means exporting and hoping nothing is lost. Obsidian keeps each note as a Markdown file, an ordinary text file with a few symbols for formatting, such as # before a heading. Any text editor on any computer can open it, now or in twenty years.

For paper, a document manager such as Paperless-ngx reads each scan with OCR (optical character recognition, which turns a picture of text into real text). A search for “boiler” then finds every letter that mentions one.

Notes on your devices or on a server: decide this first

Start with notes on your devices unless you have a reason not to. There’s nothing to keep running, and nothing stops working when the server is off. A server app earns its place for pages several people read, such as a house wiki, or for quick notes you want from any browser.

What it needs

• For Obsidian: a Windows, Mac or Linux computer, or an iPhone, iPad or Android device. No account and no server. Text takes very little space, though pictures and PDFs you add take more.
• A way to sync, if you use more than one device. The next section covers this.
• For Paperless-ngx: an always-on computer with Docker (a tool that runs apps as containers, packaged apps in their own sealed boxes), and a scanner or a phone. Reading the text on each page is the hard work, so a big first batch takes a while on modest hardware.
• A backup. Notes and scanned papers are among the files you’d least like to lose (see Backups).

Getting your notes onto every device

Obsidian doesn’t sync on its own unless you pay for Obsidian Sync. The free routes depend on your devices:

Free routes exist for the mixed case, such as Synctrain, a Syncthing app for iPhone (see iOS tools), but they need more care. Whichever you choose, use one sync method per vault. Obsidian warns that two at once can cause conflicts or damage notes.

How Obsidian fits in

• Vaults. A vault is the folder that holds your notes. You can have several, such as one for home and one for work.
• Links. Type [[ and a note’s name to link to it. Each note lists what links back to it, so connections build up as you write.
• Search and graph. Search looks through every note, and the graph view draws your notes and their links as a map.
• Daily notes and templates. One click opens today’s page, laid out the way you set once.
• Canvas and Bases. Canvas lays notes, images and web pages out on a board. Bases shows notes as a table or cards, sorted by details you add to them, such as a status or a date.
• Web Clipper. A browser extension that saves a web page, or the parts you highlight, as a note.
• Community plugins. A large library of add-ons, switched off until you turn them on in Settings. Obsidian can’t limit what a plugin does, so stick to well-known ones.

The easy way to set it up

Obsidian and the server notes apps need no terminal at all.

1. Install Obsidian from obsidian.md on a computer, or from the App Store or Google Play on a phone.
2. Create a vault. Give it a name and choose where the folder goes: inside iCloud Drive for the Apple route, or any folder you like for Syncthing.
3. Write a few notes and link them with [[.
4. Set up sync. For Syncthing, install it on each computer (its download page lists installers for Windows and Mac), Syncthing-Fork on Android, and, if you have a home server, Syncthing from the ZimaOS App Store as the always-on copy. Then share the vault folder between them from Syncthing’s web page. For Obsidian Sync, sign in from Obsidian’s settings instead.
5. Add server apps if you want them. Memos and Trilium each install in one click from the ZimaOS or CasaOS App Store and open in a browser.

Paperless-ngx isn’t in the ZimaOS app store. Its own installer is one copy-paste line, run on a Linux server that already has Docker. It asks a few questions, such as where to keep documents and what your login should be, then sets everything up. From then on it’s all in its web page: upload scans, give it an email inbox to check, and correct its guesses until it learns how you file things.

Questions people ask

Do I need a home server for this?

Not for Obsidian. A server comes in for Paperless-ngx, Memos or Trilium, or as an always-on Syncthing copy of your notes.

What happens to my notes if Obsidian disappears?

They stay where they are, as ordinary files. Any text editor opens them, and other Markdown apps can read the folder, though a few Obsidian extras, such as its style of links, may show as plain text.

Is Obsidian free for work?

Yes. Obsidian says you don’t need its commercial licence to use it at work. The licence is an optional way for organisations to support it.

Can I scan with my phone instead of a scanner?

Yes. On iPhone the Notes and Files apps have a document scanner, and on Android the Google Drive app has one. Save a PDF, then upload it in Paperless-ngx’s web page or email it to the inbox Paperless checks.

Should I shred the paper after scanning?

Not all of it. Keep deeds, wills, certificates and anything you may need to show in its original form, as the Skip list below explains.