**Created**:: [[2023-12-12 Tuesday]] **Link**:: https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ **Duration**:: 9:14 ![Merging Old Notes into One: Illustrations & Insights Combined](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ) # Summary In this video, the creator demonstrates how to merge old notes with new visual representations using Obsidian's Excalidraw plugin. By integrating drawings and notes into a single file, users can streamline their learning materials and improve information retention. The tutorial also covers techniques for embedding and switching between views in the tool, enhancing the overall user experience. # Key Takeaways - The Excalidraw plugin in Obsidian allows users to combine drawings and notes seamlessly. - Users can easily switch between views of their notes and drawings to enhance understanding. - A hotkey feature can be configured for quick toggling between Excalidraw and markdown modes. # Content One of Excalidraw's last known superpowers in the Obsidian plug-in is that you can flip your drawing around, and you can take notes on the backside. You can simply switch it around by opening your drawing as a markdown note, and this way you can place your additional notes in. In this case, my notes about the SWOT analysis are on the backside of the card. I don't have two files; I don't have a note and a drawing—it's one and the same. You can think of this as a note with a drawing on the other side, or you can think of this as a drawing with a note on the other side. But the point is that the information that belongs together sits together. [* ](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=0) I recently started to go back to work on some of my old notes, and in this video, I just want to quickly show you how I can transform an old note into this new type of approach. So I have this document about the business analysis techniques, and I've already converted my SWOT analysis note here, as well as updated my PESTEL analysis. Just to show you what you can see here—this is my SWOT analysis. You can see here this is the backside of the card. If I move this section heading here and just include "SWOT analysis," then the image is inserted. If I reference a section in this document, then that section, the backside of the note, is inserted. [* ](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=45) So, as I said, you can look at the note in two ways, and you can even embed it in two ways, depending on how you want to do it. By the way, if you're wondering, this image right here within the note—let me come back here and open this as a markdown note—this image is a self-reference of the drawing, but it doesn't become recursive because here I'm referring to this file as the image itself and not as the text section. For this reason, it doesn't become recursive, and I can actually use the file itself as the illustration of itself within the description. So, as I said, I've already done this conversion for the SWOT analysis as well as for PESTEL, and I thought I would show you how to do this with my Porter's Five Forces file. [* ](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=90) So, what I'm going to do here is I'm going to open both of these files. First of all, this is my note on Porter's Five Forces, so I'm going to open this in a new window, and you can see that this note includes a description of Porter's Five Forces and has an embedded Excalidraw drawing. Now, I have my drawing and my Five Forces file open. I'm going to switch my drawing around; I'm going to look at the backside of this note. So, I'm going to open this as a markdown note, and you can see here this is the backside of my note. Now, anything that goes above text elements but below the document properties or the front matter can be used for your notes. Don't overwrite anything below text elements because that is managed by Excalidraw and will be overwritten if you make changes there. But anything above here—this is the sweet spot. So, let's do the conversion. [* ](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=140) All I'm going to do is press Control-A and simply cut the text from here. I'm going to come over here—I'm going to add here "Porter's Five Forces." So I have a header, and I'm going to just paste the text in here. You can see that this way I've created my note right here. All that's left to do is come to my empty note; this is a completely empty note. On this note, I'm going to click "merge entire file with." Why am I doing this? I'm doing this because here, if you take a look, I'm using this note about Porter's Five Forces in a number of places in my visual archive, and I don't want to break those links. So, for this reason, instead of just deleting this and renaming this file to be the Five Forces file, I'm going to simply put this on my clipboard. But I'm going to right-click and choose "merge entire file with," and here, right at the top, because that's the most recent file I use, I have the Excalidraw file. So, I'm going to merge these two files. When I merge it, then my Excalidraw file—you can see both of these files are now with the same name—this is actually the same file. [* ](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=210) So now, if I switch this around to Excalidraw view, it's now twice open. I've made my conversion. All I am going to do finally is rename this; it's going to be called "Porter's Five Forces." So now I've combined this drawing with the backside of the drawing. You can see here this is my backside, and I'm going to open my Business Analysis Techniques document right here. In the Business Analysis Techniques, what you will see is, of course, now Porter's Five Forces is embedded only as an image. So, what I'm going to do here is just add the hashtag here and select the section I want to embed: Porter's Five Forces section. And when I do this, then I'm back to my original document. [* ](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=290) So, I have my heading here, and I have the text right here with the image, but now my Porter's Five Forces file has become a file that has two sides. It has a note, and on the backside of the note, it has a drawing, or it's a drawing, and the backside of the note is a drawing. Finally, I just want to show you why this is so good. For example, if I look at my visual thinking tools, I've embedded here the SWOT analysis image or, actually, this is my note on SWOT analysis. If I then open this, I can open my SWOT analysis file, and of course, here, if I switch it around, then I can see my backing notes. I can add additional links here, etc. This is my note about the SWOT analysis, both a drawing and the backside of the note. [* ](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=370) Finally, I want to show you that there's a shortcut as well that you can quickly switch between the front and the back view of the card. I've configured this on a button, so I can just, with a simple click of a key on my keyboard, turn the page around. I don't need to fiddle here to open the markdown and open as Excalidraw. The way you do that is you come to Obsidian settings, go to hotkeys, and you need to write here "toggle between Excalidraw and markdown mode." You can see I've set this up to be Control-Alt-E; of course, you can choose your own setting. But if you set up a hotkey for this action, you have a quick shortcut to turn your drawing around and to draw on the backside of the note. If you want to know more about this, I also have a video that explains the use of the backside of the drawing in a Zettelkasten setup, so please watch the video here that I'm referencing to see the visual Zettelkasten video. Otherwise, I appreciate your time. Thank you for watching! Until next time. [* ](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=490) # YouTube Details ## YouTube Description 📽️ ✏️ Sign up for the Visual Thinking Workshop: https://www.visual-thinking-workshop.com/ 🚀 Cohort 7 starts on January 20, 2024. 📔 We will be summarizing The Practicing Stoic by Ward Farnsworth into a book-on-a-page ----- My PKM tools are Obsdian.md and the Excalidraw plugin. ------ In this video, I explain how I use "both sides" of my virtual note card, placing the illustration on one side and my notes about the subject on the other. I will walk you through the simple process of converting old file pairs of a note and a separate illustration into one. ------ If you find my videos helpful, please say thanks by buying me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/zsolt 📩 If you want to connect, you can reach me: (@zsviczian) on the Obsidian Members Group (OMG) on Discord, or on 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/zsviczian ----- [00:00](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=0) Intro [01:04](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=64) Referencing and embedding my combined note [02:44](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=164) Converting an old note pair into one [07:51](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=471) Setting up a hotkey for switching between Markdown and Excalidraw view ------- 🍿Watch next: 📽️ Visual Zettelkasten https://youtu.be/uoNHkCLsp3g?si=YBZ7j5EpmZBMnviI 📽️ Deconstructing Visual Ideas with Obsidian Excalidraw using Excalidraw Scripts https://youtu.be/HRtaaD34Zzg 📽️ How to Take Smart Notes - Book on a Page https://youtu.be/o49C8jQIsvs 📽️ Deep Work - Book on a Page https://youtu.be/aI8RsmWv9Do 📽️ Idea Mixer - A Journey into Visual Connections https://youtu.be/ItV8PEaPorE 📽️ Thinking Maps https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6mqgtMZ4NP2VJULuSi0D2-CgK30Hh_0F 📽️ Getting started with Excalidraw https://youtu.be/QKnQgSjJVuc 📽️ Getting started with ExcaliBrain https://youtu.be/8LE_QdYQZVk --------- Visual Thinking Workshop: https://www.visual-thinking-workshop.com/ My blog: https://zsolt.blog/ Obsidian: https://obsidian.md Excalidraw-Obsidian: https://github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin/ ExcaliBrain: https://github.com/zsviczian/excalibrain #excalidraw #sketchnotes #obsidianmd #pkm ## YouTube Transcript [one of exol draws last known superpowers](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=0) [in the obsidian plug-in is that you can](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=3) [flip your drawing around and you can](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=5) [take notes on the backhand side you can](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=8) [simply switch it around by opening your](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=11) [drawing as a markdown note and this way](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=14) [you can place your additional notes in](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=17) [this case my notes about the SWAT](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=20) [analyses on the back side of the cord I](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=23) [don't have two files I don't have a note](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=26) [and a drawing it's one and the same and](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=30) [you can think of this as a note with a](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=33) [drawing on the other side or you can](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=37) [think of this as a drawing with a note](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=39) [on the other side but the point is the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=43) [information that belongs together sits](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=46) [together I recently started to go back](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=49) [to rork some of my old notes and in this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=53) [video I just want to quickly show you](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=56) [how I can trans form an old note into](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=58) [this new type of approach so I have this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=61) [document about the business analysis](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=65) [techniques and I've already converted my](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=68) [SWAT analysis note here as well as I've](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=72) [updated my pastel analysis and just to](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=76) [show you what you can see here so in](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=80) [this case my SWAT analysis you can see](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=82) [here this is the back side of the card](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=86) [if I move this section heading here and](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=89) [just include SWAT analysis then the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=93) [image is inserted if I reference a](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=97) [section in this document then that](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=100) [section the back side of the note is](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=104) [inserted](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=106) [so as I said you can look at the note in](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=108) [two ways and you can even embed it in](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=111) [two ways depending how you want to do it](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=114) [by the way if you're wondering this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=117) [image right here within the note so let](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=120) [me come back here and open this as a](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=122) [markdown note this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=125) [image is a self reference of the drawing](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=127) [but it doesn't become recursive because](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=131) [here I'm referring to this file as the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=134) [image itself not as the text section and](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=137) [for this reason it doesn't become](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=141) [recursive and I can actually use the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=143) [file itself as the illustration of](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=146) [itself within the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=149) [description so as I said I've already](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=153) [done this conversion for the SWAT](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=156) [analysis as well as for pastel and I](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=159) [thought I would show you how to do this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=163) [with my porter 5 forces file so what I'm](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=165) [going to do here is I'm going to open](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=170) [both of these files so first of all this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=173) [is my note on Porter 5 forces so I'm](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=176) [going to open this in a new window and](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=180) [you can see that this note includes a](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=183) [description of Porters five forces and](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=187) [has an embedded EXC colro drawing so I'm](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=189) [going to open this drawing in a new](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=193) [window so here you go this is my drawing](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=196) [now I have my drawing and my five forces](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=199) [file open I'm going to switch my drawing](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=202) [around I'm going to look at the back](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=207) [side of this note so I'm going to open](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=209) [this as a markdown note and you can see](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=211) [here this is the backs side of my note](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=214) [now anything that goes above text](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=218) [elements but below the document](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=221) [Properties or the front matter can be](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=223) [used for your notes don't overwrite](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=228) [anything below text elements because](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=231) [that is managed by exol raw and will be](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=234) [overwritten if you make changes there](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=236) [but anything above here so this is the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=239) [sweet spot so let's do the conversion](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=242) [all I'm going to do is I'm going to](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=245) [press control a and I'm going to just](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=247) [simply cut the text from here I'm going](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=250) [to come over here I'm going to add](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=253) [here](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=257) [Porters](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=259) [Porters five forces so I have a header](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=262) [and I'm going to just paste the text in](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=266) [here so you can see that this way I've](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=269) [created my note right here and now all](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=271) [that's left to do is I need to come to](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=276) [my empty note so this is a completely](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=279) [empty note on this note I'm going to](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=281) [click merge entire file with why am I](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=284) [doing this I'm doing this because here](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=289) [if you take a look I'm using this note](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=291) [about Porters 5 forces in a number of](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=295) [place in my VA and I don't want to break](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=298) [those links so for this reason instead](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=302) [of just deleting this and renaming this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=306) [file to be the five forces file I'm](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=309) [going to](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=311) [Simply put this on my clipboard but I'm](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=313) [going to here click right click and I'm](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=317) [going to choose merge entire file with](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=320) [and here right at the top because that's](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=324) [the most recent file I use I have](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=326) [the exol draw file so I'm going to merge](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=330) [these two files when I merge it then my](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=333) [exol file you can see both of these](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=336) [files are now with the same name this is](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=340) [actually the same file so if I now](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=344) [switch this around to exol dra view so](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=346) [it's now twice](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=349) [open I've made my conversion all I going](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=351) [to do finally is just to rename this so](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=356) [this is is going to be called Porters](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=359) [five forces so now I've combined this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=361) [drawing with the back side of the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=365) [drawing so you can see here this is my](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=368) [back side and I'm going to open my](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=370) [business analysis techniques document](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=374) [right here and in the business analysis](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=377) [techniques what you will see is of](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=380) [course now Porter 5 forces is embedded](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=382) [only as an image so what I'm going to do](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=387) [here is I'm going to just add the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=390) [hashtag here and select the section I](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=394) [want to embed Porter 5 forces section](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=397) [and when I do this then I'm back to my](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=401) [original document so I have my heading](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=403) [here and I have the text right here with](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=408) [the image but now my Porters 5 forces](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=411) [file has become a file that has two](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=415) [sides it has a note note and on the back](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=418) [side of the note it has a drawing or](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=421) [it's a drawing and the back side of the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=423) [note is a drawing and finally I just](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=426) [want to show you why this is so good so](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=429) [for example if I look at myoc for visual](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=432) [Thinking Tools then I've embedded here](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=437) [the SWAT](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=440) [analysis image or actually this is my](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=442) [note on SWAT analysis and then I open](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=445) [this I can open my SWAT analysis file](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=448) [and of course here if I switch it around](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=452) [then I can see my backing notes and I](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=456) [can add additional links here Etc this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=459) [is my note about the SWAT analysis both](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=462) [a drawing and the back side of the note](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=467) [and finally I want to show you that](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=471) [there's a shortcut as well that you can](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=473) [quickly switch between the front and the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=476) [back view of the card I've configured](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=478) [this on a button so I can just with a](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=481) [simple click of a key on my keyboard](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=483) [Turn the Page around so I don't need to](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=486) [fiddle here to open as markdown and open](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=489) [as exol draw the way you do that is you](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=491) [come to obsidian settings to hot keys](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=495) [and you need to write here toggle](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=499) [between xol draw and markdown mode and](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=502) [you can see I've set this up to be](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=506) [control alt e of course you can choose](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=508) [your own setting but if you set up a](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=511) [hotkey for this action excal toggle](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=515) [between excal and markdown mode then you](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=518) [have a quick shortcut to turn your](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=521) [drawing around and to draw on the back](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=524) [side of the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=527) [note if you want to know more about this](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=528) [I also have a video that explains the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=531) [use of the backs side of the drawing in](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=534) [a zle Casten set up so please watch the](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=537) [video here that I'm referencing to see](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=541) [the visual SLE cast and video and](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=544) [otherwise I appreciate your time thank](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=547) [you for watching until next time](https://youtu.be/pucR1OMERTQ?t=550)