Template Workbench View
How the Template Workbench View edits a profile, the citation text, or a partial, and previews each one in Obsidian.
The Template Workbench View edits one template document and shows its output against data from your Zotero library.
One view, three kinds of document
The view opens all three kinds of template document. The kind decides the tabs, the tab title, and what the preview renders.
| Document | Tab title | Tabs | Preview |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profile | The profile's name, then Profile | Six | A literature note for one paper |
| Citation text | Citation text | One, Citation | One inserted citation |
| Partial | The partial's name, then Partial | One, Partial | The partial as one template calls it |
Everything you type is previewed, including bytes you have not saved yet. Editing uses Obsidian's automatic saving, with its Undo and Redo. A document with an error stays editable and saves with its diagnostics shown in the editor.
The native Markdown view keeps working on the same file. Select Open as Markdown to open the document as Markdown, and right-click a template document in the file explorer for Switch to template workbench view.
A profile document
A profile controls the name, folder, properties, and body of a literature note. It can also define how annotations appear and which Zotero items use the profile automatically.
The view groups these parts into six tabs:
- Note edits the literature note body.
- Properties edits the YAML properties that ZotLit manages.
- Annotation edits the format of one annotation.
- Name and folder edits the note path, citation style, imported note settings, and template language. Its Note path group joins the literature note folder and the note name template, and previews the full path.
- Match selects the Zotero items that use an added profile automatically.
- Profile edits the profile's own name, description, and version.
Source is a toggle in the view header. Select it to show the whole profile document as Markdown source in place of the tabs, and select it again to return to the tabs. A citation text or a partial shows its source in its one tab, so the toggle is offered for a profile document only.
Preview data
The preview uses a Zotero item or built-in example. Opening the view from a literature note selects that note's item. The pane menu offers Choose item to change the preview data and Open template workbench to open the editor, fields, and preview together.
The preview changes as you edit. A database or citation-style warning can limit the preview, but you can continue editing the profile.
Saving changes
The built-in Default profile is read-only. You can read and select its values without creating a document. Customize creates its document in the configured template folder before editing becomes available, or opens the existing custom document.
If creation fails, the built-in values remain readable and an inline error offers a retry. Closing an untouched customization keeps the created document.
Existing literature notes keep their current content. Run ZotLit: Update literature note to apply the edited profile to the active note.
Edit the Markdown document
Select Open as Markdown to open an existing profile document as Markdown. Customizing the built-in Default creates its document before editing becomes available.
The citation text
The citation text opens on one Citation tab. Its tab title is the fixed Citation text.
The preview, headed Citation preview, renders one citation. Its caption names the variant being previewed, Main or Alternate. The preview pane menu picks that variant, and offers Use example for a set of built-in citation shapes or Choose item for one of your own Zotero items.
Each pane keeps its own variant and example, and Obsidian remembers them with the pane. See Customize the citation text for the steps.
A partial
A partial opens on one Partial tab. Its tab title is the partial's name, then Partial.
A partial has no data of its own: it renders with the data of whichever template calls it. So its preview, headed Partial preview, asks you which caller to render as. The pane menu offers Preview as called from Note, Preview as called from Annotation, and Preview as called from Citation. It opens on Note, and remembers your choice per file. ZotLit never guesses the caller from the templates that call the partial.
While your vault holds a profile besides Default, the pane menu also offers Use profile to preview against that profile's data. Saving a partial re-renders every open preview that uses it.
The document's language
Above the editor of a citation text or a partial, a caption names the document's language, Liquid or Eta (JavaScript). The caption reports; it does not switch.
The pane menu carries Change language, the switch between the two languages. ZotLit rewrites the manifest key alone and translates no source. See How templates work.
A profile document sets its language on the Name and folder tab instead, under Template language.
Open the view
A view edits one template document, and each kind opens from the place that holds it:
- A profile, from its row at Settings > ZotLit > Literature note profiles, or from the Templates and properties row at Settings > ZotLit.
- The citation text, from the Citation text row at Settings > ZotLit > Citations.
- A partial, from its row under Partials at Settings > ZotLit > Literature note profiles.
The profile a literature note already uses opens from that note.
Each of those rows carries its own control, and Customize a template names it and walks the steps.
See also
Customize a template
Edit a profile, the citation text, or a partial, and preview the result.
How templates work
The three kinds of template document and the two template languages.
Configure frontmatter properties
Add and edit YAML properties managed by a profile.
Template Workbench CLI
Let an agent inspect and test templates through the Obsidian CLI.
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