Document Spanning

Plugins ideas
9

This is such a good idea. This is something I am definitely missing from Roam as well, in the sidebar. When you shift-click load multiple documents into the sidebar, you end up with a single pane full of multiple documents that you can reference and edit seamlessly. And remove documents from the queue when you are done with them.

This is very different than splitting panes. When you are splitting past 3 or 4 documents, you can end up with a huge amount of headers, and you can’t scroll them all together in one contiguous view, like Scrivenings.

This contiguous, seamless view is amazing for synthesizing ideas from multiple documents into one. It is also great for loading up a queue of unrelated documents you want to edit, without a huge cluttered multi-header split.

11 Likes
10

This will be a really great feature to have. I like the file embeds, but they show up as iframes windows and you have to scroll each one — it will be much better to have them organically connected. Perhaps something like:

![[Book - Part1]]
![[Book - Part2]]

Option: MERGE EMBEDS INTO A NEW FILE

11

Hi @romanov.maxim as far as I understand, I think this thread is more about having a temporary editable view of a selection or collection of multiple notes. Not a destructive or additive merge operation.

In Scrivener’s Scrivenenings view, or in Ulysses, if you select multiple notes, you see them chained together in a contiguous view, and can edit them, or just read and compare them. When you deselect them, that view is gone, without having modified each individual note.

Scrivener was illustrated above. Here is how it works in Ulysses:

Seamless_View
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10 Likes
12

I will be happy with either option. Non-destructive, preferably.

13

Another inspiring layout/implementation, which fulfills this request/plugin-idea plus allows to keep synopsis/overview at multiple levels, is Gingko. See 80 seconds video in:

1 Like
14

Related functionality within Obsidian is vertically oriented Andy mode. Looking forward to see it as native option within Sliding panes (Andy mode) plugin.

keywords: continuous, sequence, view

15

Have there been any developments on this front? Having the ability to “chain” together documents, combined with the recent Citations plugin, will enable me to shift my entire writing process from Scrivener to Obsidian. Thanks!

5 Likes
16

Definitely @malecjan! The idea of a more useful and clearer outliner seems to be realised in the https://gingkowriter.com/ . The recipy?

Taking the outline and separate the different levels horizontally. It allows you to work on granular level, but keeps you in the big picture at the same time, to navigate and restructure the document. Very ADHD-friendly! @tallguyjenks puts it here nicely: https://youtu.be/dxCJHHWyNzY

What do you think @WhiteNoise ?
examples in Ginko:

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Related to plugin/FR ideas in these posts:

https://forum.obsidian.md/t/outline-core-plugin-improvement/9540?u=sofortlos

2 Likes
17

+1 to this as well. This ability of Ulysses / Scrivener is really key to many writers.

4 Likes
18

+1 behause it fills an important gap in knowledge management with obsidian:
knowledge transfer into hierarchical structure :fire:

4 Likes
19
  • maybe thats a way?
2 Likes
20

Until this becomes a feature or plugin, try Settings > Editor > Fold heading (& optionally Fold indent). With this and the Fold all and Unfold all commands you can:

  • Fold all headings to get an overview.
  • Use a comment or even nothing as heading text if you don’t need a real heading — it will still fold. (These also appear in the Outline core plugin’s view.)
  • Unfold the 1 section you want to work on.
  • Unfold all to see the whole document
  • Select and drag or cut-paste folded sections to change the order.

I’ve long been intrigued by Scrivener’s corkboard and I’ve used Ulysses’s pasting a little, but this works well enough for me (maybe better, for my taste). I often fold all and then unfold 1 to navigate a document. Some will still prefer full document spanning, of course.

2 Likes
21

Longform gives Obsidian writerly wings.

Angel

1 Like
22

+1 This “Scrivener mode” would be such a great feature to have. I could switch to Obsidian as my only knowledge collection & writing application then. Have all the folder notes concatenated and editable in this view, drag and drop them to change the order of the parts :heart: As for now, I have to switch between the apps a lot when composing using my Obsidian collected knowledge elements.

4 Likes
23

A couple of stray duplicate requests from last year:

24

Taking the outline and separate the different levels horizontally. It allows you to work on granular level, but keeps you in the big picture at the same time, to navigate and restructure the document.

Another way this would be incredibly useful is with zettelkasten and breadcrumbs plugin. Could have it so that vertically is a continuous list of next/previous notes and the horizontal for going up/down. So, if X note was selected, the left column would show any ‘up’ notes and the right any ‘down’. Clicking any ‘related’ link within a note would navigate to the linked note and change the columns to show its up, next/previous, and down notes. This would give Obsidian a major advantage over a lot of alternative software used for zettelkasten.

3 Likes
25

I am also longing for this feature - able to join multiple notes in a continuous scrollable fashion (under a file hierarchy like Scrivener or perhaps multiple selected notes on the file tree). At the moment, I am using Obsidian to write rough notes before moving the text to Scrivener when it is close to forming the initial draft.

I have been checking this feature every month to see if a plugin that would just do this. My current workaround is using embedded nested notes + flat css hack (to make them look like the same document) but it is not the same as a ‘continuous scrolling view’.

8 Likes
26

Not as handy as Scrivener, but try this !
(requires the wonderful Dataview plugin)

``` dataviewjs
for(var i = 0; i < dv.pages('"<folder name>"').length; i++) 
{ dv.paragraph("![["+dv.pages('"<folder name>"')[i].file.name+"]]") 
}

(Thanks CliffBadger on Reddit)

2 Likes
27

The outcome of this script is static. You can’t edit any of the separate notes in this view like in Scrivener or Ulysses.

3 Likes
28

+1 I want this, it would be very nice for daily notes. I would also like an option to have them side-by-side, like columns.

1 Like