Section Reader: Read long notes one section at a time without splitting files

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1

Disclaimer

Is this plugin open source? Yes
Is this plugin completely free? Yes
Is this plugin vibe-coded beyond the author’s ability to comprehend how it works? No
Community Directory: Section Reader

I made Section Reader for a simple workflow: keep a long note in one Markdown file, but read one section at a time.

If you keep study notes or reading notes in a single file, it gives you a focused view of the current section while keeping the rest of the note together. You choose the sections by placing --- between them.

Switch from a full note to Section Reader, then browse one section at a time

The shortcut shown in the recording is configured for the demo. You can assign your own toggle shortcut in Settings → Hotkeys.

What stays available while reading

  • Your note’s connections: Obsidian’s native Markdown rendering, wikilinks, embeds, footnotes, and task checkboxes.
  • Navigation within the note: use the Outline or links to headings and blocks to jump to the relevant section.
  • Reading progress: when you return from Reading view, resume at your saved section. Entering from Editing view opens the section at your cursor.

On desktop, click inside a section and use ← / → to move between sections. On mobile, double-tap the left or right screen edge. Press Esc, or toggle the view again, to return to the normal note view.

Try it

  1. Install and enable Section Reader from Obsidian’s community plugin browser, or open its community listing.
  2. Go to Settings → Hotkeys, find Section Reader: Toggle card browsing mode, and assign a shortcut.
  3. Open any note and press your shortcut to enter the section view. Press it again to return to the normal note view.

For your own notes, put --- on an unindented line between sections, with a blank line before and after it. Each section becomes a card in the reading view; the note remains a single file.

The section view is for reading. Switch back to the normal note view to edit. Browsing does not change the Markdown; checking or unchecking a task updates its checkbox in the source as usual.

Requires Obsidian 1.8.7 or later, on desktop or mobile. Free and open source under the MIT license.

Source code and documentation · Report an issue

If you try it with your own notes, I’d like to hear what you used it for and where the reading experience could improve.

2

Thank you so much for your plugin! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. The only thing I’ve noticed is that I can’t activate the templater (and scripts) when working in this mode. I often highlight foreign words and add them to Anki, but I can’t activate the templater, so I constantly have to switch between modes. Also, there’s no way to edit the text as I go. Sometimes I like to mark unfamiliar words with symbols on either side. In that case, I have to switch between modes again. Is there any way to fix this?

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A similar plugin, Lineage allows you to do that but may not allow all your scripts to be run on the content.

4

Thanks for the feedback! I’m looking into this now and will get back to you once I have an update. Thanks for your patience!

5

This is now supported in Section Reader 0.3.0, available through Community plugins.

After updating, go to Settings → Section Reader, enable Allow native reading/editing mode switching, then exit and re-enter Section Reader.

6

Thank you so much!

7

I think you could also add another interesting feature. Double-clicking would toggle between read mode and edit mode. I think that would be interesting.

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Thanks for the suggestion. Section Reader uses Obsidian’s native Reading and Editing modes, so switching between them currently follows Obsidian’s standard controls. I’d prefer to keep that behavior consistent with Obsidian rather than add a custom double-click gesture.