Hey everyone,
I’m building a plugin that potentially solves a major problem for me: visually excerpting literature in an engaging, visual way. It’s somewhat related to the Lineage plugin and is even fundamentally compatible with it, since it’s based on a simple outline structure – but it follows a more mindmap-like approach, which I find intellectually very stimulating (as in tools like MarginNote).
It’s still in a very early stage, and much of what I plan to implement hasn’t even been started yet. But I’m sharing it already because I’m hoping for some kind of feedback. I’m not a programmer, so I apologize in advance for anything that’s poorly implemented – and I’d be grateful for any kind of productive exchange.
Theoretically, it can also be used just for simple mindmapping – but I don’t like approaches that rely on heading hierarchies alone, because they tend to break down after a few levels and can’t handle longer text blocks well. This tool works differently in that regard.
Excerpt-Outline-Mindmap-Editor
An Obsidian plugin for creating visual mindmaps optimized for literature excerpting. Running on pure Markdown outlines, with a drag-and-drop workflow.
What It Does
Excerpt-Outline-Mindmap-Editor lets you visually structure text excerpts as mindmaps using a drag-and-drop system.
The underlying data model remains a standard Markdown outline (indented list) — fully compatible with Obsidian’s editor and outline plugins such as Lineage.
There is no proprietary format and no external storage.
Key Features
- Drag-and-drop support for creating and editing hierarchical structures
- Each node represents a list item in a Markdown outline
- Dragging a node into another creates a parent-child relationship
- When dragging a node, all its children move with it
- Hover buttons allow adding new child and sibling nodes directly in the mindmap
- Node deletion supports:
- Removing a single node from its parent
- Deleting a node along with all its children
How to Use
- Create a Markdown file: empty with an outline structure.
- Open the file as a mindmap:
- Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the editor and select “Open as mindmap”,
- or right-click the file in the file explorer and choose “Open as mindmap”.
- Use drag and drop to build or restructure your outline visually:
- Drag a node onto another to make it a child
- Beware: All children move with their parent
- Use the “↓” button (visible on hover) to add child nodes directly
- Use the “→” button (visible on hover) to add sibling nodes directly
- Use the “x” button (also on hover) to delete a node, with the option to keep or remove children
All changes are written to the file as a clean Markdown outline — no custom syntax or hidden metadata. You can open lineage files with this plugin and vice versa.