Customisation of order of icons in left toolbar panel

It would be nice to have a possibility to change order of icons in the toolbar.
I would like to have “A daily note” as my first icon. Now it’s controlled by app or even is random.

54 Likes

As a new user I always thought that this should be possible but I just did not know where do it. That’s seems so obvious to be able to put the icons in a meaningful order… and this don’t seems like a very complicated feature to build.

Can it be done by a community pluging ?

1 Like

Third this. I would also like a way to hide some icons completely.

3 Likes

+1 on this.

@tonyx - If you’re comfortable using css snippets, it is possible to hide specific icons.

This is how to hide the icon that takes you to the help vault:

div[aria-label = "Help"]{
  display: none;
}

Basically, where you see Help in this code, place the text that pops up when you hover over the icon you want to hide. For example, to add the icon for the quick switcher:

div[aria-label = "Help"]{
  display: none;
}
div[aria-label = "Open quick switcher"]{
  display: none;
}

Hope this is useful.

8 Likes

+1 on this request

+1

This would be a lovely quality of life update.

+1
In a program where I have complete control over my data, the one thing I don’t have any control over drives me crazy.

3 Likes

+1 on this feature request as well !

Would love to see this feature as well. It would be great to re-order and show/hide various options. It would probably be best suited as a menu where you can toggle all the available options with the ability to drag-and-order the menu options.

yes, would love to see this as well.

btw, you can manually rearrange items if you go into settings and disable plugins, then re-enable them.
Or directly edit .obsidian/core-plugins.json with a text editor

3 Likes

Use case or problem

The bar on the left side of the UI that holds the “toolbar” buttons is an amazingly useful feature. The only problem is that, no matter what order you enable plug-ins, or what order the buttons are listed from top to bottom, whenever you restart Obsidian the order changes, which is inefficient and confusing if you use the buttons often. The “Workspaces” button might be above the “Quick Switcher” button one time, and the next time you reopen Obsidian it will be at the very top.

Proposed solution

All I am requesting is that either it be possible to reorder and drag the buttons back into the order you want, or at least to keep Obsidian from rearranging the buttons when it loads. This is a major annoyance for me. I’m not complaining, but it does cause me to waste a lot of time. So I was just hoping to have a fix at some point. I thought maybe if I waited for a while someone else would want it, but it doesn’t seem like it.

Thanks for at least checking into this or reading the request. It means a lot. And I’m not complaining about Obsidian or any plug-in in general. I LOVE Obsidian or I wouldn’t be using it. I just have this one tiny issue. :slight_smile:

Current workaround (optional)

There are no workarounds I am aware of. I’ve tried re-enabling the plug-ins in order, and this allows the buttons to be presented in the correct order, but once the application is restarted it must be done again, as the buttons will once again be out of order.

13 Likes

Unable to Customize Order of Vertical Toolbar Buttons

Every time I open Obsidian, the buttons for the plugins on the toolbar at the left are in a completely different order. I am always accidentally clicking the wrong button. For example, I accidentally click the “Create New Zettelkasten Note” instead of the “Manage workspaces” button, thereby creating a new Zettelkasten note instead of what I wanted to do. I do this because it’s natural to assume the order of the buttons will be the same each time you open the application, as it is with most applications in my experience. Also, I would really appreciate it if it were possible to have the buttons for certain functions/plugins next to buttons with related functionality.

Proposed solution

If there were some way to either rearrange the buttons in a dialog box or even rearrange them by drag and drop that would be great. It would even be acceptable to just make sure the buttons are in the same position as they are when you enable the plugin they are for.

Current workaround (optional)

None, AFAIK.

To expand on the idea by @Erisred, this can be done with CSS snippets. The default order is 0 and aria-label should match the text you see when you hover over a ribbon in the sidebar, something like the following should work:

div.side-dock-actions {
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: column;
}

div.side-dock-actions div[aria-label="Appropriate text value"] {
    order: -1; /* order earlier */
}

div.side-dock-actions div[aria-label="Appropriate text value"] {
    order: 1; /* order later */
}
5 Likes

TYVM. :slight_smile: It might be a hack, but it’s a good one, and a good work-around till the devs get their heads out of “somewhere” and fix this in release. If I were more familiar with CSS/JS/etc. I’d be glad to do it, but my background is in C/Asm/embedded systems, etc. and I am clueless with Web devel. Maybe I will change that and then fix this annoying (lack of a) feature! You’ve inspired me! :smiley:

there is also a plugin being developed (I have not tested it)

1 Like

It’s possible to rearrange left ribbon (sidebar) buttons using this plugin: GitHub - phibr0/obsidian-customizable-sidebar: This Plugin allows you to add every Command to Obsidian's Sidebar Ribbon and add Custom Icons.

You can use it to hide any auto-added buttons by plugins and then add your commands with custom icons in any order.

1 Like

I don’t see an option to rearrange the order, only to hide existing ones and add new commands

Thx for the info! NICE :smiley:

Just wanted to confirm that I’ve been using this since it’s initial release and it has been working well for me to rearrange icons in the sidebar. It feels like a must-have really, especially if you’re very particular about your workflow and want to choose where things are located.

2 Likes