Option for pop-out windows to have panes as main window like file explorer and outline

[zerkshop]

Use case or problem

Loving the ability to use pop-out windows, but I wish I could create multiple windows while keeping the following layout in each window:

• search pane
• starred pane
• file explorer
• tag pane
• outline pane
• backlinks pane
• graph pane

To me those are amazingly helpful for even navigating a single file. Can work around it right now by accessing those widgets in the main window, but would be nice if the new window came with it all, almost appearing like I’ve opened multiple vaults.

Proposed solution

Allow launching a pop-up window with the same set of panes and their layout as the main window.

Current workaround (optional)

Current workaround is just to alt-tab back to main window or just not use the features those other panes have.

Related

Possibly related, as there could be similar issues of these pane widgets needing to affect only the active window:

Outline plugin should only affect active pane

Here’s a workaround that might work if you really want this as a one-off: create a symbolic link to the file so that Obsidian thinks they’re 2 different files when they actually update in unison. Didn’t try it

[Mizumaky]

I want to emphasize this problem once again since I believe no satisfactory solution to it exists yet.

Use case or problem

Allow multiple windows of the same vault to be open to allow easy context switching in a multiple virtual desktop setup / workflow.

I am an IT grad student and I keep my virtual desktops organized into a few categories or “working contexts” - eg. subject 1, subject 2, subject 3, todo-ing, hobby-ing, chilling, gaming.
On each virtual desktop, I have a different background and keep various windows relevant to the current work-in-progress task open. This way, I can then easily switch between the contexts (and I do that multiple times a day), so that I can directly continue on things I was doing previously in a given context, without needing to use the energy and time to remember and reopen everything needed back again. It helps me properly focus on the things that I am doing.

Proposed solution

As from what I have read, the problem preventing the implementation of this feature seems to be in file locking for writing access (correct me if am wrong). In that case, I would propose maintaining which window is in focus. If another window is focused, release the file. If the newly focused windows was an obsidian one, lock the file.

This way, allow multiple instances of the same vault to be opened. Even if the solution would not be perfect, I would like that option for me to be available without workarounds.

Current workaround (optional)

Users mention the usage of symlinks or nested vaults. I have tested creating a soft link (on Windows) and opening the vault, but it only lead me to the original vault window instead of opening a new one. Even if I managed to get it working, I would need to eg create and maintain a symlink for each desktop, moreover it is still an officially unsupported approach. The same goes for nested vaults.

The current way I switch contexts is basically reopening Obsidian to the state I want it in, with additional help from Obsidian workspaces. When I want to switch context, I need to remember to always check if an Obsidian window is open on this desktop, focus it, save the workspace (if desired), close obsidian, switch desktop, open obsidian, load workspace. Even when I would reduce the closing and opening to moving the window to other desktop, this is still way more conscious effort than just pressing a shortcut to switch to a different desktop in an instant. In reality, I forget to check for opened Obsidian windows. Then, when I switch a task and start working, wanting to open Obsidian to make a note, I am interrupted by the need to first go to a different desktop to properly close my previous session.

Popup windows - irrelevant to this case since they lack the full UI.

Related feature requests (optional)

It has been mentioned here:

Floating \ Pop-out \ Multiple windows of the same vault

(I was surprised that I didn’t see this already in the feature requets — apologies if I’ve missed it.) It would be very helpful to be able to have multiple windows open operating on the same vault. At present it seems I’m limited to just one per vault, which is OK but somewhat limiting. Being able to split the window into panes helps, but I work with multiple monitors and it would be handy to be able to, e.g, put the preview of some note or the graph view on another monitor. It looks to me lik…

And later here:

Multiple windows of the same vault (repost)

Use case or problem Allow multiple windows of the same vault (e.g. multi-monitor setup, topic related workspaces) Has been filed here already, bringing the plead again; Hope i am not the only one. Proposed solution let obsidian span a 2nd or multiple instances of the same vault Current workaround (optional) I create a symlink to the vault and open that as ‘different’ vault. Related feature requests (optional)

[Mizumaky]

I noticed that my issue was merged into this one as a reply.
The original title of my issue was:
Multiple windows of the same vault (repost once again)

It is true that I see not much of a difference between upgrading pop-up windows to the same functionality as main windows versus allowing multiple windows of the same vault to be opened.

Nevertheless, I am still a bit worried about approaching this problem from the “upgrade pop-up windows” kind of view, instead of my proposed “allow multiple windows of the same vault” view. A key feature to allow the convenient multiple-virtual-desktop workflow I described is that I can start a new window from any desktop, even where no Obsidian window is opened yet. If going to a desktop with an already open window would be needed to open a new window, then this poses severe limitations to the workflow. The ideal goal here is to be able to open and close obsidian windows independently of each other.