Obsidian plugins with #visual-navigation#

The Gallery Navigator plugin turns the vault into a visual browser with a folder and tag tree on the left and a masonry wall of cover cards on the right. It pulls covers from frontmatter, embedded images, image files, PDF first pages and link note metadata, and it can render Canvas and Base files as cards too. The wall supports pinning, per card colours, multi select actions, inline rename, favourites and follow mode so the current note stays visible in the tree and card wall. Search uses a built in BM25 index across notes and PDFs, shows thumbnails, highlights and context snippets, and can send results back to the card wall. Optional modules add image preview, rich link cards and URL cleanup, while PDF text search reads Text Extractor's cache when available.

The Visual Card Writer plugin turns a Markdown note into a spatial card editor where ATX headings define a hierarchy of cards tied to the same source file. It lets you navigate the outline as horizontal or vertical trees, drag cards to reorder branches or change depth, create child and sibling cards and edit content in an embedded CodeMirror 6 view with essential Live Preview. It also supports MARP slide decks as flat draggable cards when `marp: true` is set, while preserving ordinary thematic breaks in regular notes. The editor adds branch focus, folding, resize controls, pan, scroll, zoom and automatic heading level updates when structure changes. It is desktop only and images, embeds, callouts and complex block widgets remain source Markdown while editing.

The Zettelkasten Branch Tracker plugin introduces a dedicated graph view tailored for notes that follow Zettelkasten ID numbering. Instead of showing a generic network, it parses hierarchical and linear continuations like `1114a`, `1114.1`, or mixed formats, then displays them as a clear four-tier structure. Parents, siblings, continuations, and children are colour-coded and sized dynamically to reflect depth and content, with dotted or solid lines distinguishing sequence and hierarchy. Users can pan, zoom, or adjust spacing, depth, and branch limits for better navigation. Interactive controls allow toggling counts, enabling auto-update, or focusing on specific levels. This makes it easier to see how notes branch out, trace ancestry, or explore continuations in large collections.

The Better Mindmap plugin transforms Markdown outlines into interactive mind maps, offering a dynamic visual representation of your notes. It supports live updates as you edit, allowing seamless navigation between content and mind map view. Users can switch between vertical and horizontal layouts, adjust spacing with rank and node separation sliders, and interact directly with nodes to collapse, expand, or highlight sections. Clicking linked text within nodes opens related notes instantly.

The Notes Explorer plugin offers a visually rich way to browse and organize notes by displaying them as cards in either a masonry or gallery layout. Users can sort notes based on modification date, creation time, or filename, and apply filters to hide empty notes or focus on specific folders, including subfolders. Clicking on a folder in the file explorer opens an explorer board tailored to that folder's contents. The plugin also supports visual tagging using background or sidebar color indicators. Originally a fork of the Cards View plugin, Notes Explorer has evolved with additional customization options, making it ideal for users who prefer a more visual approach to navigating their vault.