# Creating a Technical Article Garden with Obsidian Publish
## Introduction
A technical article garden is a collection of interconnected notes and articles that form a knowledge base. It's a great way to share your technical expertise and create a valuable resource for others. Obsidian Publish is a powerful tool for creating and publishing such a garden. It allows you to create a public-facing website from your Obsidian vault, making it easy to share your notes and articles with the world.
> This article explains how to set up Obsidian Publish for technical documentation and create an interconnected knowledge base that grows over time.
## Setting up Obsidian Publish
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<div class="callout-title">Prerequisites</div>
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To get started with Obsidian Publish, you'll need an Obsidian account and a subscription to Obsidian Publish.
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Once you have those, you can follow these steps to set up your article garden:
1. **Create an Obsidian vault:** If you don't already have one, create a new Obsidian vault for your article garden.
2. **Enable Obsidian Publish:** In Obsidian, go to Settings > Core plugins and enable the "Publish" plugin.
3. **Connect to Obsidian Publish:** Click the "Publish changes" button in the ribbon. This will open the Obsidian Publish interface.
4. **Choose a site name:** Enter a name for your site. This will be used as the subdomain for your Obsidian Publish site (e.g., `yourname.obsidian.md`).
5. **Select notes to publish:** Choose the notes you want to include in your article garden. You can select individual notes or entire folders.
6. **Publish your site:** Click the "Publish" button to publish your site.
### Custom Domain Setup
You can also set up a custom domain for your Obsidian Publish site. To do this, you'll need to:
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<span class="api-method">DNS</span> <span class="api-url">CNAME Record Configuration</span>
1. **Add a CNAME record:** In your domain registrar's DNS settings, add a CNAME record that points your desired subdomain (e.g., `garden.yourdomain.com`) to `publish.obsidian.md`.
2. **Configure Obsidian Publish:** In the Obsidian Publish interface, go to Settings and enter your custom domain.
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## Creating Content
The key to creating a successful technical article garden is to create high-quality, interconnected content. Here are some tips for creating content in Obsidian:
* **Use Markdown:** Obsidian uses Markdown for formatting, so you can use standard Markdown syntax to create headings, lists, links, and more.
* **Create internal links:** Use internal links to connect your notes and articles. This is what makes your article garden a garden, rather than just a collection of individual articles. To create an internal link, use the `[[note name]]` syntax.
* **Use tags:** Use tags to categorize your notes and articles. This makes it easier for readers to find related content. To add a tag, use the `#tagname` syntax.
* **Use images and other media:** Add images, videos, and other media to make your articles more engaging.
* **Keep it concise:** Technical articles should be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
### Example of Internal Linking
```markdown
Here's how to link to [[another-note]] in your vault.
You can also use [[another-note|custom link text]].
```
## Customizing the Appearance
Obsidian Publish allows you to customize the appearance of your site using CSS. You can add custom CSS rules to change the colors, fonts, layout, and more. To add custom CSS, create a file named `obsidian.css` in the root of your Obsidian vault. Obsidian Publish will automatically load this file and apply the CSS rules to your site.
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<div class="callout-title">Pro Tip</div>
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For technical documentation, consider using a monospace font for code blocks and a clean sans-serif font for body text to improve readability.
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Here are some examples of CSS rules you can use to customize your site:
```css
/* Change the background color */
body {
background-color: #f0f0f0;
}
/* Change the font */
body {
font-family: sans-serif;
}
/* Change the heading colors */
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
color: #333;
}
```
### Terminal Commands for CSS Validation
If you want to validate your CSS, you can use the following command:
```bash
npx stylelint obsidian.css
```
## Maintaining the Garden
A technical article garden is a living document that should be maintained and grown over time. Here are some tips for maintaining your article garden:
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### Maintenance Best Practices
* **Regularly review and update your content:** Make sure your content is accurate and up-to-date.
* **Add new content:** Continuously add new notes and articles to your garden.
* **Refactor your content:** As your understanding of a topic evolves, refactor your content to reflect your new knowledge.
* **Respond to feedback:** Pay attention to feedback from readers and use it to improve your content.
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## Technical Implementation Details
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<div class="callout-title">How Obsidian Publish Works</div>
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Obsidian Publish uses a static site generator to convert your Markdown files to HTML. It preserves your internal links, embeds, and other Obsidian-specific features. The site is hosted on Obsidian's servers and served via a global CDN for fast access.
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### Performance Considerations
| Feature | Impact on Performance |
| ------- | -------------------- |
| Images | Large images can slow down page loading |
| Embeds | Excessive embeds can increase page complexity |
| Graph View | Can be resource-intensive for large vaults |
| CSS Customization | Complex CSS may affect rendering speed |
## Conclusion
Obsidian Publish is a great tool for creating a technical article garden. It's easy to set up, allows you to create interconnected content, and provides a way to customize the appearance of your site. By following the tips in this article, you can create a valuable resource for others and share your technical expertise with the world.
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<div class="callout-title">Next Steps</div>
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Now that you know how to set up and customize Obsidian Publish, try creating your own technical article garden. Start small with a few interconnected notes, and gradually expand your garden over time.
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