Tutorial 5: Start an Accessible Vault

Goal: in about twenty minutes, turn an empty folder into a set of notes that link to each other, with backlinks, tags, daily notes and sync.

A vault is just a folder of Markdown files. QUILL keeps a small index to find things quickly (you can delete it without losing a word). When you want to know how your notes connect, QUILL tells you in words instead of drawing a picture.

1. Create and open the vault

Make a folder, for example Documents\Notes.
Tools > Vault > Open Vault... and pick it. QUILL indexes it and announces: "Vault Notes: 0 notes, 0 links."

2. Your first three linked notes

Create Projects.md, write a line, and save it into the vault folder.
Create QUILL.md and inside it type: Part of my [[Projects]] work.
Create Podcast.md and type: A [[Projects]] idea that uses [[QUILL]].
In Podcast.md, put the caret on [[QUILL]] and run Follow Wikilink. You are taken to QUILL.md.
Now go to Projects.md and run Show Backlinks. QUILL answers "2 notes link here" and reads each link with the sentence it lives in. Enter opens the source at the mention.

That is how you find out which notes point to this one, by ear.

3. Daily habits

Complete Link or Tag at Cursor finishes a half-typed [[note or #tag. Pick from a short list as you type.
Go to Note: type part of a note's name to jump to it. Search Vault searches every note and takes you straight to the line it found.
Add #project/quill style tags anywhere; Show Tags groups them (#project also finds #project/quill).
Open Today's Note starts a dated journal entry; Previous Daily Note and Next Daily Note move through your journal.
Insert Template fills in {{date}} and {{title}}, asks you for anything marked {{prompt}}, and puts the cursor at {{cursor}}. Choose your Templates folder in Vault Settings.

4. As your notes grow

A [[link]] to a note that does not exist offers to create it. If two notes have the same name, QUILL asks you which one you mean instead of guessing.
Rename Note renames the file, its main heading, and every link to it.
Unlinked Mentions finds where you wrote a note's name without linking it, so you can add the link.
Note Neighborhood lists every note this one links to, and every note that links to it.

Export Vault as Website writes a small accessible website, with one page per note and all the links working, ready to put online wherever you like.
Sync Vault keeps your notes in step with your own Git repository. If the same note changed in two places, it lists it for you to decide, instead of overwriting anything.

6. Ideas to try

Research: one note per source, links to topic notes; backlinks answer "which sources discuss this?"
Fiction: a note per character and place; from a character note, backlinks list every scene that mentions them (this works well with Story Studio).
Work journal: daily notes and tags. When you need to write your weekly report, one search finds it all.

Start small. Ten notes with real links between them are worth more than a big plan you never finish.