Folding problems and dividing panels

While folding headings and indents, I sometimes want to create a line separating between those headings using the ---(sorry, I can’t find what it’s called). However, every time I try to create a separation using that, the program just assumes that the --- line itself is part of the heading and folds that with everything above

Proposed solution

I wish I could either have the --- dividing lines be separated from the folding action

or

a way to tell the system where the folding action should be ending, i.e. it will acknowledge where the folding will begin, headings indents, like the current version

but I have the option to specify where the last line of folding will be

Current workaround (optional)

Currently, I do not have any idea on how to work around this issue that I am having.

Thank you for putting time into Obsidian, I am very happy with how things are.

3 Likes

Why do you want this feature?

Not being glib. There might be solutions that don’t require the implementation you’ve imagined.

For instance, if you want to make sure there’s a divider at the top of every folded section, that can be styled already using CSS.

sorry for replying very late

I am not very experienced in markdown and only have just begun using it without much learning, so I didn’t think it there would be a way, and couldn’t find anything related to what I was looking for, my bad :P.

Also, if it doesn’t bother you too much, could I ask how to do what you suggested? No need to if you don’t feel like it but I could really use some help.

Anyways, thanks for the reply, I’ll try to learn more on my own.

No need to apologize! What is it that you want your notes to look like? Or, what is the behavior you’re trying to achieve?

are you on discord? I could dm you some screenshots. I’m not a native speaker so I don’t think I can phrase it in words in a way for you to understand them.

You should be able to paste screenshots here, or, if you wanna use Discord, I would just paste it to the #css-themes channel. The folks there are much better at CSS than I anyway!

1 Like

I was still trying to find a solution to this minor issue of the divider always being hidden in preview when folded within the heading that contains it. I was thinking that maybe I should request the ability to lock the fold state of headings or list elements (although only the heading lock is relevant here). This could solve this problem by way of a workaround where you add a heading that only has the divider folded within it and lock it as unfolded.

However, when I thought about it, I realized this probably would require some sort of added syntax or database to store heading states, which would mean it is probably a no go. Anyways, I figured I might as well post the thought in case I was mistaken.

Thanks.

I think I may got the same issue. The thing is, I want to use the folding ability to make the markdown display not so messy, also want a seperating line in the editing mode and not folded within the heading content coz the --- is just normal text (i.e. like the rendering effects of --- in build-in slide plugins in the non-edit mode). Hope it’s declared clearly, lol. :sweat_smile:

I would also love to have this feature. And I don’t think it would create too many complications syntax-wise. You could just make the divider be on the same “level” as the biggest type of heading, so it wouldn’t fold under the headings. Then if you do want the divider to be folded under a heading, you just indent the --- with TAB to become “part of” the block above it. Right now you can already indent dividers, and it just shifts it to the left a little, but it doesn’t really have any functionality.

2 Likes

Don’t use --- for that.
Use ***

1 Like

Neither --- nor *** work for me in the exact same situation (both get folded up with the section above). I’m also unclear what the CSS fix would be here.

My use case: I have a number of ongoing projects that will have bits and pieces added over time within the same project. I prefer to have a single page to track all project-related info for a single major project. To declutter when things can be archived in the project (but when I still want them to be accessible on the project page for quick and easy reference), I have a Project History section at the bottom of the page (separated from the rest with ---). I keep that section collapsed by default. That was fine until I needed to also collapse a previously unused heading in the section just above project history, which then also collapsed the divider.

I keep information from long conversations in the project so they aren’t lost (by retention policies in other tools), which is in a section just above the project history divider. I keep those conversations collapsed unless I need to refer to them, but collapsing then also collapses the diving line and then the project history section isn’t nicely divided from the rest of the content. I can move sections around, but I tend to keep most sections folded with only the specific sections I need at a given time open (much easier when there’s a lot of info on the page). Using --- is such a simple thing to add on the fly, so it would be great if there was a way to keep it from getting folded up with the above section. I’m also not a fan that collapsing a section removes the intentional spacing between sections (which makes everything look so crowded, and line breaks don’t help), so I’ll need to find a way to fix that in the CSS as well.

Ymmv but I this kind of structure:

# header 
text
# .   (<--- folding stop)

Alternatively you could try as fold stops:

# --- 
# <hr>
# ‘ (invisible in live preview)

etc.

3 Likes

I also would like this feature, I thought --- was used to separate parts in texts when folding but it’s more of an aesthetic.
Using @chrsle method works of course because you’re basically creating a new header, which needs a title; putting # --- or # . is not nice. Also, it folds.
I’d like to be able to fold the text around it (with headers) and leave a part out, separating it with --- is a good idea for me.

Something like the picture below

Thank you for the consideration

Yep I would also value this attention to detail, nesting dividers is super useful but without having top level dividers as well it sort of reduces their usefulness or utility. It also doesn’t feel sematically correct or logical to only have them in folded views.