Make button to switch views in tab title bar more intuitive

[peeragetalkers]

Use case or problem

With ‘Show editing mode in status bar’ set to ON in Editor settings, three problems arise:

1. While the icon in the status bar reflects the current view, the top-right icon shows the mode you will switch to if you press it. Visually, the two icons conflict, which often leads to confusion, even if you’re an experienced user. (“Wait, what mode am I in again? Am I reading or editing?”) This is poor design. This sentiment is shared, for example, here and here.
2. There’s no reason why these two toggles should be separate at all as they accomplish the same function; the second button is redundant. (Currently, the top-right toggle offers a binary choice of ‘Reading’ vs ‘Live Preview’, while the status bar toggle also offers “Source mode”.)
3. It takes an additional click to switch to source mode, when a single click should do.

)

Proposed solution

All three of these issues would be solved by a segmented button. Here’s a quick mock-up:

Ideally, one should be able to configure to display it in either top right or in the status bar.

Related feature requests

Trifold edit mode button

Use case or problem I often find myself switching between Live Preview and Source mode. It’s difficult to switch between them, and sometimes difficult to tell which mode I’m in. Proposed solution Have the Edit mode icon switch to the Source view icon when Source view is active. (This presumes that the icon changes to reflect the current state of the window, which is already what I expect and want.) Have an option under Editor options to cycle through all three modes when selecting the E…

[peeragetalkers]

I completely forgot about mobile when requesting this A segmented button would be too clunky on a small screen w/o a major UI overhaul. I’ll reframe this request to a redesign of the status bar toggle then! I’ll leave the original post as is because I do believe the issue w/ conflicting icons is a valid one.

[peeragetalkers]

Related Reddit post.

[peeragetalkers]

Saw someone sharing the same paint point on Discord:

I don’t know whether there are design best practices for this, but in most Obsidian themes including the default one, the icon at the top right for switching between Reading View and Editing View throws me off.

I keep looking at it as an indicator of which view I’m already in, rather than the view that will activate if I click on it.

This icon is inconsistent with the one below on the status bar, to boot, which always shows the view you’re already in.

I find myself going for themes like Blue Topaz and Shimmering Focus, which better works with my brain in that single and admittedly small aspect. But it’s big enough of a throw-off that I’m wanting to avoid checking out other themes even for fun, like Baseline.

[peeragetalkers]

@peeragetalkers

While the icon in the status bar reflects the current view, the top-right icon shows the mode you will switch to if you press it. Visually, the two icons conflict, which often leads to confusion, even if you’re an experienced user.

To circumvent this, a CSS snippet:

Button to switch view in tab title bar reflects current view

This CSS snippet makes the view switch button in the tab title bar behave just like the status bar icon: it reflects the current view rather than show the reading icon when editing and the edit icon when reading. [Screenshot 2025-09-02 at 03.04.49] [Screenshot 2025-09-02 at 03.04.52] It also adds an icon for Source view: [Screenshot 2025-09-02 at 03.04.56] CSS snippet