Notebook Navigator for Obsidian: Revolutionizing Your Note Management Experience

In the realm of digital note-taking, Obsidian has emerged as a top choice for knowledge workers and learners. Its capabilities in bidirectional linking and graph visualization have significantly enhanced the efficiency of information organization and retrieval. However, the default file explorer in Obsidian leaves much to be desired in terms of intuitiveness and user experience. Today, I would like to introduce a plugin that can significantly enhance your Obsidian experience—Notebook Navigator.

What is Notebook Navigator?

Notebook Navigator is a plugin specifically designed for Obsidian. It replaces the default file explorer with a clean interface resembling Apple Notes, featuring a dual-panel layout with folders on the left and files on the right. This intuitive design allows users to manage and browse their notes more efficiently.

Core Features of Notebook Navigator

Interface and Navigation

  • 「Dual-Panel Layout」: The left panel displays folders while the right panel shows files, enabling users to quickly locate desired files.
  • 「Mobile Optimization」: On mobile devices, Notebook Navigator offers touch gestures and single-panel navigation, ensuring a smooth user experience even on smaller screens.
  • 「Theme Support」: The plugin seamlessly integrates with your current Obsidian theme, whether it’s light or dark mode.

Navigation and Organization

  • 「Tag Browser」: Supports hierarchical tag trees with nested tags, allowing users to filter and search notes quickly through tags.
  • 「Pin Notes」: Important files can be pinned to the top of folders for easy access.
  • 「Auto-Reveal」: Instantly locates the file you are currently editing, saving time on searches.
  • 「Keyboard Navigation」: Enables navigation using arrow keys and the Tab key, improving operational efficiency.

File Display

  • 「Smart Previews」: Preview content snippets without opening files, helping users quickly determine if a file meets their needs.
  • 「Thumbnail Display」: Extracts feature images from frontmatter for display, making the file list more intuitive.
  • 「Date Grouping」: Organizes files by Today, Yesterday, This Week, etc., facilitating time management.
  • 「Custom Sorting」: Allows setting individual sorting preferences for each folder.

Productivity Boost

  • 「Drag-and-Drop」: On desktop, users can move files between folders via drag-and-drop.
  • 「Resizable Panels」: Adjust panel widths according to personal preferences to optimize display effects.
  • 「Smart Filtering」: Hides unnecessary files or folders through pattern matching.
  • 「Visual Customization」: Customize folder colors and icons to enhance visual recognition.

How to Use Notebook Navigator

Installation

There are two ways to install Notebook Navigator:

  • 「From Obsidian Community Plugins」:

    1. Open Obsidian Settings.
    2. Navigate to Community Plugins.
    3. Search for “Notebook Navigator.”
    4. Click Install and enable the plugin.

  • 「Manual Installation」:

    1. Download the latest version from GitHub.
    2. Extract the files to your vault’s .obsidian/plugins/notebook-navigator/ folder.
    3. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings.

Basic Operations

  • 「Click」: Select folders, tags, and files.
  • 「Double-Click」: Expand or collapse folders and tags.
  • 「Arrow Keys」: Navigate within the current panel.
  • 「Tab Key」: Switch between the folder/tag panel and the file panel.
  • 「Delete/Backspace」: Delete selected items (optional confirmation can be enabled).

Right-Click Menu

Right-click to open the context menu for the following actions:

  • Create new files and folders.
  • Rename items.
  • Delete items.
  • Pin/unpin files.
  • Change folder colors.
  • Remove folder colors.

Drag-and-Drop Files

On desktop, drag and drop files between folders to quickly organize your notes.

Notebook Navigator Settings

File Organization

  • 「Default Sort Order」: Set the default sorting method for all folders—by modification date (newest/oldest), creation date (newest/oldest), or title (A-Z/Z-A). This can be overridden on a per-folder basis using the sort button above the file list.
  • 「Group Notes by Date」: When sorting by date, group notes under date headers like “Today,” “Yesterday,” etc.
  • 「Show Notes from Subfolders」: Display notes from subfolders in the current folder view.
  • 「Auto-Reveal Active Note」: Automatically reveal and select notes opened via Quick Switcher, links, or search.
  • 「Excluded Notes」: Enter frontmatter properties to hide notes containing these attributes (e.g., draft, private, archived).
  • 「Excluded Folders」: Specify folders to hide with wildcard support:

    • Simple names: resources, templates
    • Wildcards: *-archive, temp-*, _* (matches folders like 2023-archive, temp-notes, _private)

Note Display

  • 「Show Date」: Display the date below note names.

  • 「Date Format」: Customize the date display format (uses date-fns format).

    • Common formats:

      • MMM d, yyyy = Jan 5, 2024
      • dd/MM/yyyy = 05/01/2024
      • yyyy-MM-dd = 2024-01-05

  • 「Show Note Preview」: Display preview text below note names.

  • 「Skip Headings in Preview」: Exclude heading lines when generating preview text.

  • 「Skip Non-Text in Preview」: Exclude images, embeds, and other non-text elements from preview text.

  • 「Preview Rows」: Set the number of rows for preview text (1-5 rows).

  • 「Show Feature Image」: Display thumbnail images from frontmatter properties.

  • 「Feature Image Property」: Specify the frontmatter property name for thumbnails (default: feature). Tip: Use the Featured Image plugin (also available in community plugins) to automatically set feature images for all your notes based on the first image in each document!

Folder Display

  • 「Show Root Folder」: Display “Vault” as the root folder in the tree.
  • 「Show Folder Note Count」: Display the number of notes in each folder.
  • 「Show Folder Icons」: Display folder icons in the folder tree.

Tag Display

  • 「Show Tags」: Display the tags section below folders in the navigator.
  • 「Show Untagged Notes」: Display an “Untagged” item for notes without any tags.

Advanced

  • 「Confirm Before Deleting Notes」: Show a confirmation dialog when deleting notes or folders.
  • 「Clear Saved State」: Reset expanded folders, selections, and pane width to default settings.

Tips for Using Notebook Navigator

Creating Beautiful Note Lists

Combine Notebook Navigator with the Featured Image plugin to display thumbnail previews in your file list:

  1. Install the Featured Image plugin.
  2. Enable “Show Feature Image” in Notebook Navigator settings.
  3. Your notes will automatically display thumbnails from the first image.

Optimizing Thumbnail Performance

For optimal performance with Notebook Navigator’s 42px thumbnails, configure the following settings in the Featured Image plugin:

  • 「Create Resized Thumbnail」: true
  • 「Resized Thumbnail Frontmatter Property」: featureResized
  • 「Max Resized Width」: 42 (or 84 for retina displays)
  • 「Max Resized Height」: 42 (or 84 for retina displays)
  • 「Fill Resized Dimensions」: true

Then, in Notebook Navigator settings:

  • 「Feature Image Property」: featureResized

This generates optimized 42px thumbnails that load quickly and display perfectly in the file list, avoiding the need to load full-size images.

Organizing with Pins

Keep frequently accessed notes at the top by pinning them:

  1. Right-click any file.
  2. Select “Pin Note.”
  3. Pinned notes will appear at the top with a 📌 icon.

Customizing Folder Colors and Icons

Enhance visual organization with custom folder colors and icons:

  1. Right-click any folder.
  2. Select “Change Color” or “Change Icon.”
  3. Choose from a palette of colors or a variety of Lucide icons.
  4. To remove, right-click and select “Remove Color” or “Remove Icon.”

Visual customization helps you:

  • Quickly identify different types of content.
  • Highlight important project folders.
  • Create a more personalized and intuitive navigation experience.
  • Combine colors and icons for better organization.

Using Tags Effectively

The tags section provides powerful ways to organize and find your notes:

  • 「Hierarchical Organization」: Use nested tags like #project/work/urgent to create tag hierarchies.
  • 「Quick Filtering」: Click any tag to view all notes with that tag and its subtags.
  • 「Untagged Notes」: Find notes without tags by clicking “Untagged.”

Managing Draft and Private Notes

Use the “Excluded Notes” setting to hide notes with specific frontmatter properties:

  1. Add properties like draft, private, archived to the excluded notes list.
  2. Add frontmatter to your notes:

    ---
draft: true
---
  3. These files will be automatically hidden from the navigator.

This is ideal for:

  • Work-in-progress notes.
  • Personal or sensitive content.
  • Archived notes you wish to keep but not see daily.
  • Template files with a template: true property.

Conclusion

Notebook Navigator offers Obsidian users a fresh and intuitive file navigation experience. With its rich features and flexible settings, users can tailor their note management to suit their needs, enhancing both efficiency and user experience. Whether you are new to Obsidian or an experienced user, Notebook Navigator is worth trying—it may become an indispensable part of your daily note management routine.

I hope this blog post helps you better understand and utilize the Notebook Navigator plugin. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to raise issues on the GitHub repository.

About the Developer

Notebook Navigator is developed and maintained by Johan Sanneblad, CEO of TokenTek. Johan holds a PhD in Applied IT and has over 40 years of programming experience. He has worked on innovation projects for companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and is currently exploring how Transformer-based AI and AI agents can boost corporate productivity.

Supporting Development

If you enjoy using Notebook Navigator, consider supporting its ongoing development through GitHub Sponsors.