Templates

The Templates plugin lets you insert pre-defined content into your notes, with dynamic variables for the note title, current date, and current time.

Templates is a core plugin that lets you insert pre-defined snippets of text into the active note. Templates are plain notes stored in a folder you designate, and they can include dynamic variables that resolve when you insert the template.

Enable templates

1. Open Settings

   Click the gear icon in the bottom-left corner, or press Ctrl+, (Cmd+, on macOS).

2. Go to Core plugins

   Select Core plugins in the sidebar and toggle on Templates.

Set your templates folder

1. Open Templates settings

   Go to Settings → Core plugins → Templates.

2. Set the folder

   In the Template folder location field, enter the path to your templates folder (for example, Templates or _meta/templates).

Template variables

Templates support three built-in variables that are replaced with live values when you insert the template:

Variable	Description	Default format
{{title}}	The title of the active note.	—
{{date}}	Today’s date.	YYYY-MM-DD
{{time}}	The current time.	HH:mm

Custom date and time formats

Add a colon and a Moment.js format string to override the default format:

{{date:MMMM Do, YYYY}}   → March 15th, 2024
{{date:DD/MM/YYYY}}      → 15/03/2024
{{time:h:mm A}}          → 3:45 PM

You can use {{date}} and {{time}} interchangeably for date and time formatting. You can also change the global default formats under Settings → Templates → Date format and Time format.

The {{date}} and {{time}} variables also work in the Daily notes and Unique note creator plugins.

Create a template

In your templates folder, create a note with the content you want to reuse. Use template variables for anything that should update dynamically.

Here’s an example template for study notes:

---
topic: 
date: "{{date}}"
course: 
tags:
  - studies
---

# {{title}}

## Key Concepts


## Important Details


## Examples


## Questions
- 

## Summary


## Related Topics
- [[]]

Insert a template

To insert a template into the active note:

• Click Insert template in the left ribbon.
• Or, open the Command palette and run Templates: Insert template.
• Or, set a hotkey for the Templates: Insert template command.

The template content is inserted at your current cursor position. If your cursor is not inside the note body, the content is inserted at your last cursor position.

Insert the current date or time

Use the commands Templates: Insert current date and Templates: Insert current time to insert just the date or time at your cursor, using the formats configured in plugin settings.

Templates vs. Templater

Templates (core)

Built into Obsidian. Supports {{title}}, {{date}}, and {{time}} variables. Simple and reliable for most use cases.

Templater (community)

A community plugin with a far richer scripting language. Supports JavaScript, conditional logic, user prompts, file system access, and hundreds of built-in functions. Install it from Settings → Community plugins.

If you need logic, loops, or dynamic content beyond simple variable substitution, Templater is worth exploring. For basic templates, the core plugin is sufficient.