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

---
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.