#41

While the ability to tear off panes into their own windows (like Chrome or JetBrains) would be ideal, I’m very happy to find the symlink workaround, it’s working for me now, as the main thing I wanted was to be able to have another window open on a separate monitor.

I can report on Windows, that after experimenting with shortcuts, and file and directory “soft links”, the approach that worked was using mklink /J to create a “directory junction”, which is the directory version of a “hard link” on windows. So for each new window I want, I need an extra uniquely-named junction/link somewhere (I just put them in the same parent directory that contains my vault). Not so bad; definitely better than having to nest it in 4 dirs deep.

I also use multiple monitors, that are different sizes and orientations and positions, so simply stretching the window across them, while better than nothing, is far inferior.

Basically I just wanted an extra window or two for my other monitors, and this workaround gives me the ability to do that, so for now I am happy. (There may be some weirdness or drawbacks to discover later with the shared .obsidian dir/cache, we’ll see.)

Thank you to all :pray::slightly_smiling_face::om::v:

(Update: after using this solution for several months, I haven’t really run into any problems or weirdness. I use Dropbox with and without Cryptomator to store and sync my vaults (one encrypted, one not), and access them from both Windows and Mac OS, as well as the unencrypted one on iOS using Editorial and 1Writer (which have built-in Dropbox support) and occasionally on Android via Markor and Dropsync (less convenient as Dropsync can be slow, but still works fine.)

4 Likes
#42

Hi, I am just passing by. To everyone reading the previous comment. We don’t explicitly support neither nested vaults nor this hack with symbolic links. You are free to do whatever you want, but you are on your own.

1 Like
Symbolic links [symlinks, folder links]
#43

Just writing to say that this set of features would be really awesome.

Another usecase where a floating window would be useful is when you have another app in full screen (say, a conference in Zoom) and want to take notes in live. With floating windows, you can just put a note in small window in a corner.

5 Likes
#44

Related feature request: PIP like Note Float

  • is specifically about the case mentioned by melsophos
1 Like
#45

If you need more than two windows, then What about combining the two approaches, i.e. nesting soft links in vault-like folders like this?:

- OriginalVault
	- .Obsidian
		- config
	- Content
- ViewVault1
	- .Obsidian
		- config
	- soft link to OriginalVault
- ViewVault2
	- .Obsidian
		- config
	- soft link to OriginalVault
...

With folders for attachments and for new files being other than roots of ViewVaults.

Some workflows might be solved also by Sliding Panes (Andy Matushcak Mode) Plugin

#46

If you are using Mac Spaces, you can right click on the Obsidian icon in the dock and have the app “stick” to all desktops/spaces.

2 Likes
Open all links in a targeted pane
#47

Agreed, this is my use case too.

3 Likes
#48

nope, when aspect ratios & resolutions are different for each monitor it looks janky AF.
so extending it to multiple windows is not an universal solution. :frowning:

2 Likes
#49

an ability to open a MD note in some other external MD editor could do a trick.

1 Like
#50

This is for people with multiple screens. It would be great to detach a view (or at least detach a view from the main window) to have on a separate screen

2 Likes
#51

How are people solving this problem currently? Is there a method for getting the benefit of multiple windows that doesn’t involve potentially problematic workarounds like symlinks?

I saw a reference to using the Andy mode sliding panels plugin. (I can’t find the link now–it was on reddit.) That seems like it would work.

1 Like
#52

My current workaround is to open a note in another text editor app (using “Open in default app” option). In my case, I use Byword: it auto-saves like Obsidian, offers decent markdown support, and doesn’t mess up my files in any way.

Admittedly this loses you any Obsidian functioning (multiple panes, quick switcher, auto-complete links, etc), but it works for me when I want a single note split-screened with my web browser when taking notes while researching.

1 Like
#53

I think this would be a nice solution.

Opening notes in another app would mess up with all the function of linking and reference, you’ll lose the meaning of using Obsidian.

Definitely need notes in floating windows.

2 Likes
#54

It occurred to me that saved workspaces would work for this, wouldn’t it?

#55

It’s possible with a simple workaround using symbolic links.
Suppose your folder structure is:
~/vaults/thesis

then create a folder called mirror in vaults:
~/vaults/mirror

inside mirror folder type:

ln -s ../thesis thesis-mirror

And it’s done!
Open one obsidian for thesis, and other for thesis-mirror

Both obsidian instances will work in sync.

6 Likes
#56

Thank you for the suggestion.

I’ll figure out how to make a symbolic link in Windows and give it a try.

#57

Thank you for this!!! All I wanted for multi displays was to toss a live view of my graph up on the TV while keeping my workspace on my laptop (or vice versa) - this workaround does the trick perfectly! Thank you thank you thank you :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

#58

I am also dying to be able to do this.

1 Like
#59

What OS did you do this on? I couldn’t get it to work on Mac, (symlink works fine, but opening up the symlink in Obsidian, while main vault is already open, does not open a new instance of Obsidian; it just does nothing)

(though it was working fine for Windows)

#60

I’m using this hack on linux, and it’s working pretty well, althougt i only open two instance of obsidian at max. Not tested on mac, but it should work as the underline commads are the same. Maybe, try to create the symbolic vault in a diferent work directory tree, outside the vaults base dir.