Outline does not remember state between restarts

[Zwergziege]

Use case or problem

Currently, the document outline does not remember its state regarding folding between restarts.

I have a few longer documents with several sections and subsections. I actively work on only a few of the sections at a period of time, for some I just want to look up stuff there and many are irrelevant. The outline really helps when looking stuff up, but the sections that are momentarily irrelevant often get in the way. So I collapse them. And again on the next day It’s not tragic but a bit annoying nonetheless.

Proposed solution

You guessed it: Save the state of the outline between restarts. Either as part of the current workspace or as meta information attached to the document (same as for the folding state).

Workaround

This could be worked around by using the outline or document search. I find that argument weak because you could also employ it to the existence of the outline. Also I don’t always know what to search for, but seeing the headings I’d know which to pick.

Related feature requests

The FR below is probably the better option and easier to implement, since folding is already remembered for notes and all you have to do is copy that state to the outline. The only benefit I could see in my FR is that it allows having different folding states in the document and the outline, but I don’t know whether there is a proper use case for that.

Sync editor/preview folds with outline view

Sometimes a document can be quite long, and the outline view in the sidebar is used to jump to relevant positions in the document without having to manually scroll down. It would be great if the headers in editor/preview would fold/unfold when you fold/unfold a header in the outline view. There was an obsidian plugin that did this - Creases - but that feature broke at the end of last year. Currently, in the Creases plugin, the outline will fold/unfold when a header is folded/unfolded in the e…

This FR is a duplicate of the FR below which was merged with another (implemented) FR as an implementation detail that sadly never made it.

Note Outline's folded-state memory

I make heavy use of the outlining capability within notes. As I flesh out an outline, I collapse (fold) sections, to keep just the level of detail I want to be looking at visible. What’s not working so well with this and needs improvement is, when I navigate away from this note and then return to it, the folded-state that I left it in is gone, and the outline is always completely expanded at every level. I would like to see the note’s folded state when I left it be retained when I return to i…

Edit: There also seems to be a regression. The FR below was said to be implemented but the same issue occurs for me on v1.5.3. Also it mentions relaunching in the title, which I overlooked in my original search. So maybe this should be transformed into a bug report?

Outline does not remember state—expands when note is edited, when app is relaunched, etc

Steps to reproduce Make an outline Collapse outline Start typing in the main note Expected result I expected the outline to stay collapsed while I typed. Actual result It expands spontaneously while I type. When working with longer notes this is very annoying, as I might want the bird’s eye view of the note rather than all the subheadings. Environment Operating system: Windows 10 Obsidian version: 0.12.12 Additional information

[CawlinTeffid]

I tested once each (without following the debugging steps) on MacOS, where the outline was forgotten, and iOS, where it was remembered.

[Zwergziege]

Thx for bringing this up. I observed the “forget state between launches”-issue on Linux in a new vault. I observed the “expand on edit”-issue in an existing vault but did not try it in a new one.

[dandv]

On Linux, folded state in the outline is reliably forgotten simply by deleting a paragraph in Source mode.

I’ve also seen mismatched folding states in Source mode - the heading showing as folded (> and the ... at the end), but the text within expanded.

I’d be happy to construct a minimal repro test case and screencast if the team has the bandwidth and priority to fix these issues, just let me know.

[shumadrid]

Adding to the outline cache issues:

On Mac, if you search for a term in the outline plugin and then delete the search, and restart Obsidian, the previous term that you searched for will come back to the search field, requiring you to keep deleting search terms to use the plugin properly.

[CawlinTeffid]

That might be worth reporting separately as a bug.

[dandv]

@dandv

On Linux, folded state in the outline is reliably forgotten simply by deleting a paragraph in Source mode.

Reported this separately at Outline tab does not stay collapsed and scrolls while typing (expands, unfolds headings) - #25 by dandv

@dandv

I’ve also seen mismatched folding states in Source mode - the heading showing as folded (> and the ... at the end), but the text within expanded.

@CawlinTeffid I’ll file a separate report when I encounter this reliably again.