All my text files are now available in both apps.

Use the Rename Finder Items pane to replace “.txt” with “.md”.

txt files in Finder, then choose “Rename” from the drop-down menu

If the extension is hidden, right-click, select “Get Info”, then uncheck the “Hide extension” box.

To make them visible in Obsidian, I had to change. Most of the files I’d already created in Writer still had the. Now, any files I create in Writer will be immediately compatible with Obsidian. I went into Writer’s preferences and selected the.

txt as the file extension, but Obsidian only recognises. That wasn’t the end of the process, however.īy default, Writer uses. I then added the Obsidian vault to Writer’s library as an external source. This was a simple case of drag and drop – just as it should be with plain text. To make my documents available in both apps, I moved everything from Writer’s iCloud folder to my Obsidian “vault”. Knowing I can be a bit like that, I looked for a simpler approach – and the answer was soon apparent. I did a bit of overthinking and tried one or two things that were too complicated. I wanted to be able to work in Writer, but also have my files available in Obsidian. But for longer pieces, posts such as this, or when I really want to get into the zone, iA Writer is my preferred writing environment. The ability to link files in Obsidian is extremely useful, and can feed the work. I’ve struggled for a long time with the organisation of my writing, notes, ideas, links and other bits and pieces.

I’m still experimenting with organisation, but having tried several alternatives, Obsidian feels right as a repository for my texts, ideas and miscellaneous information.

The upshot is that Obsidian works with plain text, and offers a load of features beneficial to creators of any kind. I’m not going into too much detail about it here as there are enough posts and videos out there already. Obsidian is an extremely versatile application. Here’s a perfect example, and how to make your text files accessible in both iA Writer and Obsidian. I mentioned in my previous post about iA, Ulysses & Scrivener how I like to be able to see my files in the Finder, and how this can be useful.

Iawriter app