How to Use the Alias Feature in Obsidian


Transcript with Timestamps


00:01

Hey there Adam here. today I wanted to do a very short video on how and why to use the alias function in Obsidian. The alias function is quite simply a way to make an alternate title or alternate name linked to the same Obsidian note. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is just to give you an example. Also I just say no, it’s finicky. You have to do a Ymal or Yaml Y-A-M-L is what that stands for header. So I’ll show you how that works. Let me just jump to my personal YouTube channel. I started a personal YouTube channel and then you’re going to see right here you’ve got three dashes to open, three dashes to close. This is basically your metadata section that you can create. It’s an optional section. You don’t have to have a metadata section, but if you want to do an alias, you have to do it like this.


00:56

There’s no other way to do it right now one of their blog posts did say specifically they may make this easier. To do an alias you just do an open bracket. You do aliases semicolon open bracket and then the comma separates them. I have two different aliases for this personal YouTube channel page or Note. It’s personal YouTube or Adam Melrose YouTube. If I wanted to link to this personal YouTube channel Note, I could do either Adam Melrose YouTube and you’re going to see that this is the actual way it’s going to link. It’s going to put a dash with straight line in between the actual name of it and then the alias. You’re going to see that it’s going to call added Melrose YouTube. If I click on it’s going to take me to personal YouTube channel. A really clean way to do this. A more practical example.


01:50

I mean, I think this is practical in its own way, but let’s just say one of my favorite business books I read recently, it’s called the 100 Million Dollar Offer. That’s the actual name of the book, the 100 m offer. Let’s just say that this is excessive. I just want to call it 100 m. Most of the time I talk about it, but for my actual literature note, I want to have the correct name. I’m going to type in aliases, open bracket, 100 m, close bracket. Now you’re going to see, well, if I click off that there we go. Now you’re going to see if I use it. Let’s just go back to here again. I can just do now 100 m. That’s what it’s going to be called, the document 100 m. It’s shorter, it’s cleaner. Some people, if you’re a little neurotic about it like I am, you may have the note as a singular or a plural.


02:46

You may just want to create an alias for the singular, plural version. If that really bugs you to have the link be the wrong pluralization of that word, then go for it. So that’s sort of it. Very nice and short video. I hope this explained it. Again, just so we can go through the syntax is the important part you have to do. A Yaml metadata section has to be at the very top of your page, and it’s three dashes to open, three dashes to close alias with a semicolon and then an open and closed bracket. If you want to have more than one alias for the same page, you just do a comma in between the aliases. All right, thank you very much. Bye.

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