Using Readwise’s Highlight_id as a Single Source of Truth in Obsidian
URL: https://medium.com/p/b1de98a8b87c
Author: TfTHacker
Summary
The Readwise service allows you to export your highlights to various tools like Obsidian, Roam, Notion, and more. The export can be…
Highlights Added July 17, 2024 at 11:02 AM
- {{ highlight_text }}{% if highlight_location and highlight_location_url %} ({{highlight_location}}){% elif highlight_location %} ({{highlight_location}}){% endif %}
- Tags: {% for tag in highlight_tags %}{{tag}} {% endfor %}
- Note: {{ highlight_note }}{% endif %} ([View Highlight] (https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6jvc2eyqknv73vbwpkdsd3y))
It is hard to see in all the goo and spaghetti of the code the configuration, but notice ^rw{{highlight_id}}. This is the Obsidian block reference. The format is as follows:
• Obsidian requires that a block (a paragraph or highlight) ends with a space and then the ^ character. This tells Obsidian that this is a block that can be referenced elsewhere in the vault.
• The next 2 characters are rw. I choose to export the rw as a prefix for the identifier as a way of telling myself that this block reference originates with Readwise, but it is not necessary, you don’t have to include it if you don’t want it.
• Then the highlight_id field from readwise
{ #rw}
{{highlight_id}}.
This will append the Readwise ID to the end of the highlight. So an exported highlight looks like this:
- The checklist cannot be lengthy. A rule of thumb some use is to keep it to between five and nine items, which is the limit of ([View Highlight] (https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6jvcha2axdbs1e7fgnvyfs3))
Interestingly, you can also use this ID directly to link back to Readwise’s site:
• https://readwise.io/open/{{highlight_id}} ([View Highlight] (https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6jvcpre63xd80g2gfpehk6m))