# Immersive Folder

English · [简体中文](README.zh-CN.md) · [繁體中文](README.zh-TW.md) · [日本語](README.ja.md) · [한국어](README.ko.md)

An Obsidian plugin. While you are working in a folder, one click narrows the
file explorer to that folder's notes and covers everything else up until you
switch it back.

It also lets you drag folders into the order you want, so you no longer have to
name them `01_Inbox`, `02_Projects` just to make them line up.

![the file explorer with the Clippings folder readable and every other row reduced to skeleton bars](docs/screenshot.png)

The folder is picked automatically from the file you have open, so there is
nothing to select.

## Why

- **Focus.** A vault of two thousand notes stops competing for attention with
  the dozen you are actually working on.
- **Presenting in a meeting.** Put one project on the projector to walk a room
  through it, and the room reads that project, not the name of the one beside
  it, or of another client, or of whatever you keep for yourself.
- **Screen recordings.** Show the folder the video is about and leave the rest
  of the sidebar unreadable, without rearranging your vault first.

## Using it

- **The button** at the top of the file explorer toggles it. It takes on your
  accent colour while the cover is up, so the state is readable at a glance.
- **`Immersive Folder: Toggle immersive folder`** does the same from the
  command palette, so you can bind a hotkey. Worth doing if you switch it on
  and off around recordings.

The state is remembered across restarts.

### Arranging the folders

Press the up-and-down arrow button at the top of the file explorer. Every
folder lifts a little and grows a handle, and from there you drag folders into
the order you want. Changes are saved as you make them, and pressing the button
again — or Escape — leaves the mode.

![with folder arrange mode on, dragging a folder changes where it sits among its sibling folders](docs/arrange.gif)

You can only reorder among siblings. A folder moves within the folder it lives
in and cannot be dragged out to another level, which is what keeps reordering
and moving apart.

Only folders take part. File order is still Obsidian's to decide, so whatever
you picked in the sort menu, by name or by date, goes on working as before.

This is a mode of the plugin's own, and inside it you do one thing: set the
order of folders. Leave the mode and Obsidian's own dragging behaves exactly as
it always did, moving files and folders wherever you drop them. The two stay
out of each other's way.

The plugin records the order and nothing more. It renames nothing, moves no
files, and writes nothing else into your vault.

### Settings

**Language** — the interface follows whatever language Obsidian itself is set
to. English and 简体中文 ship with the plugin; pick one here to override the
match. Everything switches over on the spot, the command name included.

**Toolbar buttons** — which of the plugin's two buttons sit at the top of the
file explorer. Both are switches that show whether their mode is on, so both
stay in plain sight by default; hide one if you only ever use the other
feature. Whatever you hide is still on the command palette, and the settings
page will offer to take you straight to the hotkeys page once something is
hidden.

**Keep the active file in view** — scrolls the explorer to each note as you
switch to it, expanding whatever it takes to show it. Without it, switching to
a note whose folder is scrolled out of view leaves you looking at a screen of
bars and nothing else. On by default.

**Collapse every other folder** — on each switch, folds away every folder
except the one you are in. Less to scroll past, and it stops the bars from
giving away how many files the other folders hold. Whatever was open is put
back when you leave immersive mode. On by default.

**Keep everything inside this folder readable** — the cover spares the folder
you are in and whatever sits directly in it. Switch this on and it spares the
rest of the way down as well: open a subfolder and its contents read normally
instead of turning into bars. The folders beside the one you are in are
covered either way; the ones above it have their own setting below. On by
default.

**Keep the folders above this one readable** — every folder from the one you
are in back up to the vault root keeps its name, so you can still tell where
you are in the tree. Only the path itself is spared: the folders beside it stay
covered either way. Off by default, because a top-level folder name is often
the most telling thing on the screen.

## What it does not do

**This is a visual cover, not encryption.** The names are still in the page,
and anyone with developer tools can read them. It is built for cameras,
projectors and the person sitting next to you, not for someone who already has
your machine.

The cover applies to the file explorer only: tab titles, the note's own
breadcrumb, search results and the quick switcher are untouched, so switch it
off when you want to search by name. And with **Collapse every other folder**
turned off, the bars still give away how many files each folder holds and how
deep the tree goes.

## Installing

In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse and search for
**Immersive Folder**. You can also go straight to the [plugin
page](https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/immersive-folder).

Requires **Obsidian 1.13 or later**. Everything works on mobile as well.

To install it by hand instead: download `main.js`, `manifest.json` and
`styles.css` from the [latest
release](https://github.com/iBlinkQ/immersive-folder/releases/latest), put them
in `YourVault/.obsidian/plugins/immersive-folder/`, and enable the plugin under
Settings → Community plugins. (`main.js` is a build artefact and is not kept in
the repository; it exists only in the releases, or after you run
`npm run build` yourself.)

Questions and suggestions are welcome in
[Issues](https://github.com/iBlinkQ/immersive-folder/issues).

## Development

```bash
npm install
npm run dev     # watch build
npm run build   # type-check and build main.js
npm run lint    # the rules the community-plugin review runs
npm run sync    # build, then copy into the vaults listed in sync.mjs
```

`npm run lint` has to be run from the repository root: the rules read
`manifest.json` from the working directory.

## License

MIT