Original video in Chinese.
Key Takeaway
- After Omnivore shuts down, Web Clipper becomes the replacement. It’s a browser extension that can clip web content and sync it to Obsidian.
- Web Clipper works on both desktop and mobile, can save either full articles or selected sections, and supports custom templates and automatic triggers.
- Plugin settings include binding your Obsidian Vault, setting the storage location, behavior (create a new note or add to an existing note), and trigger conditions (automatically choose a template based on the URL).
- The standout feature of Web Clipper is its automation, which can reduce the pressure of reading and improve information collection efficiency.
- This article emphasizes the important role Web Clipper plays in building a personal AI knowledge system.
Full Content
Omnivore is going to stop service at the end of the month. I’ve used this software for a long time. It could save every article I wanted to read into Obsidian, completing information input, so that my AI knowledge system would be complete.
There are many alternatives to Omnivore. The official blog also recommended a few, for example, if you don’t want to tinker, you can choose the paid Readwise; if you’re willing to tinker, you can try self-hosting.
I’ve always been the kind of person who will absolutely not tinker if there’s already something ready to use. After looking around, my current choice is Web Clipper.
This is a browser extension, supported by mainstream browsers like Chrome and Edge. After installing it, all the settings are done on the plugin side, and there’s no need to adjust anything in Obsidian. My judgment is that it just creates an md file locally, that is, a new note, without going through a server or anything like that, so it’s very simple and direct.
If you want to save a full article, just click the button twice.
If you want to save part of an article, click the pen button in the upper right corner and highlight the paragraphs you want to save in the article.
If you want to save content in a format you’ve set up yourself, click the template name in the upper left corner and select the template you want from the drop-down list.
What’s even better is that Clipper can automatically determine which template to use based on the URL. That saves you the trouble of having to choose a template every time.
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Back to today’s topic: Web Clipper.
Actually, I’ve recommended this plugin in the community before. But some friends didn’t quite understand how to set it up specifically. So this video came to be.
After installing the plugin, click the gear button in the upper right corner to enter the settings. On the General page, the most important thing is to bind your Vault, so the plugin knows where to store the article.
If you’re not sure what your Vault is called, open Obsidian and you can see it in the lower-left corner. My name here is Documents, so I entered that name and pressed Enter, and that was done.
On the General page, you can also set keyboard shortcuts, which is very useful. You can use the default ones, or change them to something more convenient for you. I already have enough shortcuts on my machine, so I’m not changing anything here and will just use the default.
I didn’t touch the rest of the options on the General page or the other two pages. The focus is on template settings. I’ve divided this part into three sections.
First, storage location settings.
Earlier, we set the Vault on the General page. At that point, you can select it from the drop-down list. So, which folder should it be saved in specifically?
For example, in my note structure, all information input goes into the Input folder, and then it’s split into two subfolders: one for articles and one for papers. So, in the template settings, I just filled in this folder hierarchy to complete the entire storage location setup.
Second, behavior settings.
Generally speaking, when we save an article, we want the plugin to create a new note. But this may not be suitable for saving only part of an article. Because when we read articles, we often want to save a sentence here and a sentence there. If a new note were created for every highlight, it might become too many and too messy.
So, for highlights, I choose to have the plugin add the content to an existing note and place it below. That way, after I finish reading an article, all the content I need to save gets collected into one note and arranged in order.
Third, trigger settings.
As I said earlier, Clipper can automatically determine which template to use based on the URL. For example, I created a template for WeChat official account articles, with no properties added inside it, just the content itself. At this point, I fill the official account URL into Template triggers, which is mp.weixin.qq.com — all WeChat official account article URLs start with this string.
In this way, whenever I save a WeChat official account article, the plugin will judge based on the URL and then automatically select the corresponding template. Isn’t that much more convenient?
Creating templates, along with the three settings I just shared, are the core uses of this Clipper plugin. Once everyone understands the logic, you can customize it according to your own situation and bring Obsidian’s efficiency to the maximum.
OK, that’s it for this issue. If you want to discuss AI, come to our newtype community. See you next time!