Exactly this. Can we please have this feature? It seems so natural to expect this to appear in the Settings and then it doesn’t, which is just… confusing!
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Could you explain how did you get this behavior?
Hi @paulo ! If you’re a user requesting this feature, I recommend trying my plugin, Vertical Tabs, and customizing the tab navigation strategies in the settings. If you prefer the default horizontal tabs while still utilizing tab navigation features without a vertical list of tabs, you can enable the Background Mode. If you’re a developer who are curious about the implementation, the source code of Vertical Tabs is available on GitHub.
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Thank you for sharing this. However, it does not totally remove the issue. When you work with many applications and windows remembering that you need to use a different click when in Obsidian it easy to mess up. Replacing the current tab forces you to find and reopen that tab. I often have several tabs open so this can be an issue.
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Still looking for this - I wish the authors could give their opinion too 
I have also been looking forward to having left-click open documents in new tabs by default.
However, when I found this post, I suddenly realized that to accommodate different user needs, we could do it like browsers do: ‘left-click opens in the current page, middle-click opens in a new tab.’ Then I tried it in Obsidian and discovered that this feature already exists: middle-clicking a document opens it in a new tab, just like in browsers. I will stick to using it this way from now on. I hope my discovery can help some people.
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Totally agree. I often fall on the same issue too. Looking for a switch button which can let users to choose whether to open notes in a new tab 
Totally agree. I signed up just now for this request.
I just want to open file I searched with new tab when I typed enter in command palette.
I need this feature, too! It’s been 4 years, come on Obsidian :D. I am working with lots of links inbetween files and it would be great if
- I can enable to always open in new tab and
- I can enable that when opening in new tab it checks if a file is already open and then it automatically focuses on that instead of opening it again.
I am aware that you can open it with middle mouse button, but it’s just better to have left click work on this + no duplicate tabs.
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Totally agree.
How many Obsidian users died waiting for this useful option? Think about it. Four years…
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Agree that being able to change to open in a new tab by default would be very helpful. My experience of jumping between docs in Obsidian is that it keeps closing the last doc I had open, which is persistently frustrating. I bump into this >10 times every time I use Obsidian and, despite knowing that I could middle-click on desktop (and ??? on mobile?), I still seem to click. Opening in the same tab is a persistent pain point in an otherwise lovely to use program, and I would love if being able to change the default was an option, similar to how it is in VS Code.
This plugin did the trick for me.
Obsidian link
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obsidian://show-plugin?id=open-in-new-tab
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+1 for this too, but let me formulate a response for @WhiteNoise
Before using Obsidian, I kept around a thousand markdown notes in a hierarchical structure and used Sublime Text to edit them.
After using Obsidian for around 6 weeks, I’m still haven’t trained myself to middle click. This results in multiple duplicate tabs, but also loosing track of where I am. I will probably eventually learn to middle click but tab reuse won’t happen.
My Sublime Experience
With Sublime (or any other text editor) the process is the same:
- Find a file in the file explorer
- Double Click it
- If the file is open, the existing tab gets selected
- If the file is closed, opens a new tab
- Alternatively use the
Quick OpentoolCtrl-Pto autocomplete and find a file- If the file is open, the existing tab gets selected
- If the file is closed, opens a new tab
There is a lot of chatter about what browsers do, but imo this is the wrong way to look at it. For me obsidian is not a browser it is an editor. As I write and spawn new notes I find it hard to find the note I started in - since it isn’t open anymore.
Proposed options
- Default Open to new tab
- Reuse existing open tab
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+1 for “Default Open to new tab” and “Reuse existing open tab”.
I’ll also like/+1 the related FR titled “IDE style navigation (tab reuse on link opening, tab management, switch to already open note”.
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New Tab+ works for me in Obsidian 1.8.4.
[EDIT: 26th May 2025] After more use, I’m now finding New Tab+ a bit janky. The features mostly do work as advertised, but it’s not 100% reliable, and there are a few small issues like scroll position being reset that take away from the quality of the plugin. Perhaps this is due to limitations of the Obsidian Plugin API rather than the plugin itself
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Came to this thread looking for a way to do this and I tried the New Tab+ plugin but it’s a bit wonky.
It seems like after installing it, it does both behaviors - it will open the page I clicked in my current tab and open a new tab with the page I clicked.
However using the “Open in New Tab” plugin it appears to work correctly - the files I click are opened in a new tab and my old tab is kept as it was.
Anyways - is there any reason this has not been implemented into Obsidian itself yet? It seems like a simple change, and this feature request was posted around 4 and a half years ago. Asking because the plugin is not perfect (only works in the file tree, not other places you’d open a file from)
Sad that Obsidian isn’t open source so I can’t PR this functionality myself…
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The “Open in New Tab” plugin worked for me (thank you for sharing it!) but I agree that this should be a default functionality!
Great tip, Thanks! I didn’t know that you could “Pin” tabs to keep them from being taken over by new tabs.
As a “workaround”, you can just press Ctrl before clicking the note and it will open on a new tab.
2 Likes