Make.md is a very useful Obsidian plugin that lets you add visual polish to your notes. All those options can feel overwhelming, but the Make.md help page shows how to get the most out of it. You can use labels to add stickers, aliases, and even colors to your notes, making them easier to distinguish. Thus, it saves you time when searching through a long list of notes.

With this community plugin, you can make your notes more visually appealing. That way, you don’t always have to look at a wall of text. Boards let you turn notes into simple cards you can move through a workflow. If you want to keep things consistent, you can create a Type and apply it to a folder, so every new note inherits the same fields and stays tidy. Start with small changes, such as adding emojis to make certain text in your notes stand out, and move from there.

Emojis and cover images that make notes readable

Clear cues that guide the eye and reduce clutter

When you add emojis and cover images to your notes, you give them a more professional look. With emojis, you can add a clock to highlight a deadline or a red exclamation mark to make something stand out. These additions make the notes less dull and more visually appealing, since you can also add a background color to any emoji you add. The plugin provides options to reposition, remove, or replace your current image, so you're not stuck with the same image for extended periods.

Adding these extras is beginner-friendly since you only need to hover the cursor over the top of your note. After that, you should see the “Add cover” and “Add emojis” options appear. If you need to add a cover, click on the option and choose an image from your library or paste a link. Thanks to these visual cues, scanning your notes is faster. Stick to a small, consistent set of icons and cover styles so your notes have your own personal style.

Plan your work with boards

Turn note folders into drag-and-drop pipelines

Boards help you see work quickly and move it forward without needing to look through your folders. Make.md lets you turn any set of notes into cards, group them by a property such as Status or Owner, and drag them across stages to show real progress. You’re not locked into one view either. The same notes can switch between board, table, or calendar when you need a different view, so planning and doing stay in one place. Use boards when your list is long, and you need a clear pipeline instead of a static folder tree, so you can spot what’s moving and what’s stuck.

Keep it simple: add a status property, such as 'idea' or 'edit > open a board in your folder', group by status, and drag cards as they advance. Because boards read note properties, your setup grows with you. If you have to manage multiple projects, create a single board that consolidates notes by property across folders, allowing you to view the entire workload on a single screen.

Spaces in Make.md arrange notes your way

Drag and drop to set a custom order inside any folder

Another feature exclusive to the Make.md community plugin is Spaces. Here you can customize folders and notes in ways Obsidian’s core doesn’t allow. For example, you can view your notes in different formats, like Table, List, Details, Board, Card, Catalog, Gallery, Flow, Day, Week, and Month. Everyone has different preferences for viewing notes, and here you have 11 options to choose from.

Another benefit of Spaces is that you can rearrange the notes within a folder in any way you want. It’s easy to move a note that starts with an “X” and place it in the middle. Outside Spaces, you can only sort your notes from A to Z and vice versa. Another great way Spaces lets you organize your notes is by allowing your notes to behave like folders. For instance, by right-clicking on a note and choosing Convert to Folder Note, you can add additional notes to the original as if it were a folder.

You don’t need Make.md to get tidy notes

Folders, tags, and pinned notes keep a clean, fast setup

Some might think that having Make.md as a plugin is overkill, since they can organize their notes using keyboard shortcuts. For many beginners, core Obsidian is enough. You don’t need the plugin to create folders, sub-folders, and as many notes as you need. Organizing your notes in alphabetical order is a common practice, so installing another plugin feels unnecessary. Graph View already shows connections between notes, and simple tags and links cover most basics.

Also, when you use plugins, you run the risk of ending up with an outdated one. Sure, plugins give you more features, but you never know when they can be abandoned. If that happens, you could experience app-level issues that can ruin your experience. You don’t need a plugin to link one note to the other and see how your notes are connected. If you only use Obsidian for basic note-taking, then additional plugins are not a must.

Keep the core, add polish

Add only the Make.md pieces that you need

It’s true that you don’t need Make.md to create a concise vault of notes. But you could be missing out on little extras that will make your notes easier to look at, especially when they run long. Just because Make.md offers several perks, doesn’t mean you have to use them all right away.

Use the features that complement what you use most in Obsidian’s core structure and leave everything else alone. If you discard the plugin, you may miss out on additional ways to view your notes that could make it easier for you to make sense of it all. Also, you never know when those extras might come in handy, and if you see that the plugin only gets in the way somehow, all you need to do is uninstall it, and it’s gone.

Keep what helps, skip the rest

Plugins can be a huge help in improving your experience with Obsidian. Make.md is one popular plugin for a reason, and that alone could be enough for many to at least give it a try. If it ever feels complicated to use, you can always refer to the support pages, which are filled with useful instructions on how to get the most out of it.