Obsidian Stats logoObsidian Stats

Window Spaces

by Edward Hsieh
5
4
3
2
1
Score: 50/100
Install Code

Description

Save and restore window layouts for Obsidian popout windows. Seamlessly manage multi-window popout workspaces.

Reviews

No reviews yet.

Stats

2
stars
293
downloads
0
forks
33
days
14
days
14
days
0
total PRs
0
open PRs
0
closed PRs
0
merged PRs
0
total issues
0
open issues
0
closed issues
57
commits

Latest Version

1.1.0
15 days ago

Changelog

🚀 Window Spaces 1.1.0 Release Notes

Why 1.1.0? This release jumped from a patch (1.0.7) to a minor (1.1.0) because it adds substantial new features (a full popout Activity Bar & sidebar pane engine, per-space window accents/icons/colors, a vault-switcher style space menu), introduces a major layout‑rebuild architecture for sidebar column management, migrates the build toolchain (rollup → esbuild, TypeScript 4 → 7), and changes several behaviors around popout restore and column handling. Per semantic versioning these are minor (new, backwards‑compatible feature) changes, so the version steps to 1.1.0.

✨ New Features

  • Popout Activity Bar & sidebar pane engine — each popout window now gets a left/right vertical toolbar (sidebar toggle + view-switch buttons) with automatic sidebar column management.
  • Per-space window accents — custom icon/emoji, border-frame color, and folded-corner decoration for popout windows, aligned with Obsidian's native window styling.
  • Native-style Activity Bar buttons — toggle buttons rebuilt to match Obsidian's own sidebar SVG/CSS, and Activity Bar view items can now be reordered by drag-and-drop in Settings.
  • Vault-switcher style Space menu — a richer space switcher/menu (built via the Folder Spaces collaboration).
  • Center-editor file routing — file openings triggered from a popout sidebar now route to the center editing area instead of replacing the sidebar view.

🔧 Layout & Restore Improvements

  • Startup target-only reconcile — on launch only windows whose structure differs from their saved snapshot are rebuilt, so the other popout and main windows are no longer shaken or rebuilt.
  • Flicker-free popout restore — geometry pre-positioning, opacity masking, multi-DPI bounds sync, and a restoration transaction gate eliminate the "position jumps after it appears" artifact.
  • Startup popout auto-match — existing popouts are automatically matched to their saved space to restore the space name and status-bar label.
  • Activity-bar-adjacent sidebar determination — the column next to an enabled Activity Bar is treated as the sidebar, backed by a layout-integrity guard that keeps at least one content column and auto-creates a center editing area when opening files.
  • Standard sidebar tabs via layout rebuild — enabling an Activity Bar now rebuilds the popout from a freshly generated layout tree, so multi-column / split-rich spaces keep every original column as content and get standard workspace-tabs sidebars added at the ends. This also fixes "can't open a view from the Activity Bar button" on split columns.

🐛 Column & Stability Fixes

  • getTopLevelColumnElements now descends into the popout "column container", so multi-column spaces are counted correctly (previously always reported 1).
  • Enable / disable / re-enable of Activity Bars in any order no longer produces duplicate columns or lost sidebars.

🧹 Toolchain & DX

  • Build toolchain migrated rollup → esbuild.
  • TypeScript 4 → 7 upgrade, refreshed dependencies and Obsidian type definitions, stricter type/lint rules, and INTERNAL API annotations.
See all version on GitHub

README file from

Github

Window Spaces - Obsidian Plugin

Declutter your main workspace. Transform heavy plugins and multifaceted notes into lightweight, isolated popout work cabins.

🌐 Language / 語言

English | 繁體中文 | 简体中文

💡 The Philosophy: Free Your Main Workspace

Obsidian’s vibrant plugin ecosystem and malleable layout make it the ultimate "Everything Notebook". But as our vaults grow, so does the chaos:

  • 🗂️ The Crowded Main Window: Canvas whiteboards, Excalidraw sketches, Dataview dashboards, graph views, and complex note splits all compete for the exact same screen real estate.
  • ⚡ Context Switching Overhead: Switching between project planning, deep literature research, and daily task review constantly disrupts open tabs, sidebar configurations, and pane splits.
  • 🖥️ Underutilized Multi-Monitors: Modern workstations have multiple displays, yet managing distinct, persistent layouts across separate windows is difficult.

Window Spaces is built as an organic, seamless extension of Obsidian. Instead of cramming everything into a single main window, Window Spaces lets you isolate distinct workflows into dedicated Popout Work Cabins (Spaces).

With focus interception technology and per-window layout lifecycle management, your heavy plugins, complex splits, and research setups effortlessly transition into independent windows—letting you focus on one task at a time with zero clutter.

🖼️ Visual Showcase

🗺️ Dedicated Popout Workbench 🗂️ Native Sidebar Panel 📑 Editor Tab Management
Dedicated Popout Workbench Sidebar Panel Tab Panel Mode
Visual Canvas + Markdown Split with Status Bar indicator Unified Spaces Picker with Active indicators & Quick Search Full-page Workspace Management inside Editor Tabs

✨ Key Features

🪟 Dedicated Popout Work Cabins (Per-Window Layouts)

  • True Window Isolation: Saves and restores layout splits, active files, pinned tabs, view modes, and exact window coordinates for popout windows without altering your main window.
  • Smart Window Focusing: Restoring a Space that is already open smoothly focuses its existing window rather than creating a duplicate.
  • Empty-Tab Pane Protection: Preserves your intended pane layout structures even if some files are temporarily unavailable.

🔄 Per-Space Auto-Save

  • Effortless Synchronization: Toggle 🔄 Auto-save on any Space. Modifications made during your work session are automatically saved in the background with a 5-second debounce and an instant snapshot on window close.

⚡ Context-Aware Rapid Navigation

  • Keyboard-First Navigation: Press ↑ / ↓ to navigate, Enter to spawn in a new popout window, Shift + Enter to restore into the active window, and Esc to dismiss.
  • Safe Focus Interception: Keyboard events are cleanly handled when the Spaces panel is focused and never interfere with typing inside notes, search bars, or external modals.

🎨 Native 3-in-1 Interface & Visual Customization

  • Flexible Management Locations: Access your Spaces seamlessly from the Left/Right Sidebar, as an Editor Tab, or via the Quick-Popup Modal (Ribbon Icon or Hotkeys).
  • Visual Identity: Personalize each Space with custom emojis or Lucide icons, color badges, tags/categories, and 6 sorting dimensions.
  • Hover Content Preview: Hover over any Space to instantly preview its included files, active tab, and pinned document structure.

🔒 Privacy & Safety Guardrails

  • 100% Local & Safe: All configurations and spaces are stored locally in your vault's plugin directory.
  • Off-Screen Prevention: Automatically recalculates window coordinates if an external monitor is disconnected, ensuring windows never spawn out of view.
  • JSON Import / Export: Easily back up or share your workspace presets across multiple devices.

🚀 Typical Space Workflows

Each Space acts as a specialized work cabin tailored to your tasks:

Space Workflow Layout Composition Primary Use Case
🗺️ Project Map & Workbench Pinned Canvas/Base on the left + Project specs on the right High-level system architecture, milestone planning, and active deliverables.
🧠 Deep Research & Literature PDF reader / Literature note + Outline & Zettelkasten splits Distraction-free academic reading, concept linking, and knowledge synthesis.
✍️ Focus Writing & Showcase Clean markdown editor + Rendered preview / CSS showcase Deep long-form writing, technical documentation, and publishing workflows.
⚙️ Dev & System Maintenance Dataview queries + Configuration templates & check-lists Task reviews, vault maintenance, release checklists, and issue triage.

📥 Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (Recommended)

  1. Open Obsidian Settings > Community plugins.
  2. Turn off Restricted mode and click Browse.
  3. Search for Window Spaces.
  4. Click Install, then click Enable.

Manual Installation

  1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest GitHub Release.
  2. Create a folder named window-spaces inside your vault: <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/window-spaces/.
  3. Move the downloaded files into this folder.
  4. Reload Obsidian and enable Window Spaces under Community plugins.

🛠️ Quick Start Guide

1. Save Your First Space

  1. Open a new window (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N or drag any tab out to pop out).
  2. Arrange your split panes (e.g. Canvas on the left, notes on the right).
  3. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P) and run Window Spaces: Save current Space.
  4. Give it a name (or use the smart auto-generated suggestion) and assign an icon/color.

2. Restore and Manage Spaces

  • Open the Spaces panel from the Ribbon Icon, the left/right sidebar, or run Window Spaces: Open as popup window.
  • Click or Enter: Instantly launches the Space in a fresh popout window.
  • Shift + Click or Shift + Enter: Restores the layout directly into the current window.
  • Click the dropdown menu (... or right-click) to toggle Auto-save 🔄, rename, edit, or delete.

⌨️ Shortcuts & Hotkeys

Action Shortcut / Trigger Description
Open Spaces Modal Configurable via Hotkeys Quick floating modal to switch or launch Spaces
Open in New Window Enter / Single Click Spawns the highlighted Space in a new popout window
Apply to Current Window Shift + Enter / Shift + Click Overwrites the active popout window with the selected Space
Quick Navigate ↑ / ↓ Arrow Keys Move selection up or down within the list
Dismiss / Close Escape Closes the modal or search focus

🤝 Ecosystem Synergy & Heavy Plugins

Window Spaces works harmoniously with heavy and canvas-like community plugins. For detailed integration patterns with Excalidraw, Excalibrain, Canvas, Dataview, and Notebook Navigator, check out our community guide:

📖 Full User Guide & Plugin Synergy Walkthrough

💻 System Compatibility

  • Obsidian Version: v1.12.7 or newer
  • Platform: Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • License: MIT License
Sponsors