docs/obsidian-help/User interface/Sidebar.md

metadata

aliases:
  - User interface/Workspace/Sidebar

On desktop Obsidian has two sidebars on both left and right. The left sidebar includes the [[Ribbon]].

On mobile, Obsidian sidebars are [[#Open hidden sidebars|collapsed by default]]. They can be opened by using left and right swipe gestures from the edge of the screen.

Open hidden sidebars

If a sidebar is collapsed, you can open it by clicking the left expand ( ![[obsidian-side-bar-left.svg#icon]] ) or right expand ( ![[obsidian-side-bar-right.svg#icon]] ) to reveal it.

Tabs

By default, plugins will only create new tabs instead of new [[#Tab groups]].

You can switch between tabs by clicking on the icon. A tooltip will also appear to help you identify tabs.

In each pane, you can only see one tab at any given moment. Some actions will automatically bring a tab into view, for example when you click on a tag.

Close tabs

Some tabs can be closed via the right click menu, but some can't. If you don’t want to see a tab that can't be closed, consider disabling the relevant plugin or collapsing the sidebar by clicking on the Arrow icon.

Rearrange tabs

You can drag and drop the tab icons to rearrange them within a group of tabs.

Tab groups

You can have multiple tab groups in the sidebar.

Create tab groups

To get a new tab group, drag the icon of a tab above or below a current tab group. The highlighted area will indicate where the new tab group will be created.

Close tab groups

To close a tab group, you can [[#Close tabs|close all tabs in it]], or drag all tabs in it by their icons and drop them into existing tab groups.

When only the tab area of a tab group is highlighted, the tab being dragged will be dropped into that tab group to merge with other tabs in that group.