Advanced Multi Column

Create interactive, nested multi-column layouts — without losing sibling columns when editing in Live Preview.

Install from Obsidian Community Plugins

Features • Usage • Legacy Usage • Quick Start • Syntax • Installation • Troubleshooting

Why this plugin?

The problem with existing multi-column plugin? In Live Preview, when you click into one column to edit it, Obsidian collapses the entire block — sibling columns disappear, replaced by raw markup. You lose all visual context of the layout while editing.

Advanced Multi Column fixes this. It uses lightweight comment markers (%% col-start %%, %% col-break %%, %% col-end %%) instead of wrapping content in a single callout or codeblock. This means when you edit one column, the other columns stay rendered. You always see the full layout, making multi-column editing feel natural instead of fighting the editor.

Features

• Marker-based syntax — %% col-start %%, %% col-break %%, %% col-end %%
• Live Preview + Reading View — renders in both modes, toggleable independently
• Nested columns — columns inside columns, unlimited depth
• Drag to reorder — grab handle or Alt+drag to rearrange columns
• Resize by dragging — drag the vertical divider between columns
• Right-click style popover — per-column and container styling
• Inline editing — click to edit with live markdown preview
• Wikilink autocomplete — [[ triggers file suggestions inside column editors
• Image paste — paste images to auto-save and insert ![[image.png]]
• Colored column headers — start a column with !tip: Title for a colored header bar with an icon; built-in note, info, tip, warning and danger types, plus your own custom types (icon, background, text color, size, weight)
• Footnotes in columns — [^1] and inline ^[...] footnotes work inside columns and tables in columns, numbered with the rest of the note and listed at the end of it
• PDF export — Export to PDF keeps your column layout, styles and headers instead of flattening them
• Style tokens — portable styling via marker parameters (b:, bc:, t:, sb:, hd:)
• Quick add/remove — + / × buttons on each column; removing a column with content asks first
• Global settings — default layout, colors, borders, dividers
• MOC (map of content) — auto-updating columns of links to notes from a folder, tags or properties, grouped into columns you choose

Screenshots

Column headers and coloured backgrounds	Dashed separator between columns
Editing a column in place — the other columns stay rendered	Stacked rows beside a wide column
Coloured column headers with icons	Right-click → Insert layout: ready-made layouts
Nested (child) columns	Cornell notes layout
MOC: auto-updating map of notes, by subfolder and by property	New MOC dialog with a live preview
Sidebar with an image, headers in Reading view	Blank layouts, ready to fill
Right-click in a note: insert columns, layouts and MOCs	Right-click a column: style it, add, edit or delete
Nested blank columns — edit one while the rest stay rendered

_{Demo notes use text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and images from Wikimedia Commons (each under its own free licence; see the linked articles).}

Quick Start

1. Open the command palette and run Insert 2-wide layout, or right-click in the editor and select Insert Column Layout from the context menu.
2. Click inside each column preview area to edit.
3. Drag the vertical divider between columns to resize.
4. Right-click a column to open style options.

Basic syntax

%% col-start %%
%% col-break %%
Left column content
%% col-break %%
Right column content
%% col-end %%

Content between %% col-start %% and the first %% col-break %% is ignored.

[!WARNING] Type the markers directly in your note. Don't wrap them in a code block: the ```md fences in this README only display the examples. A fenced layout breaks reading view and can turn the rest of the note into a code block.

Syntax Reference

Markers must be on their own lines.

Container markers

col-start accepts optional container style tokens:

%% col-start:b:secondary,bc:accent,sb:1 %%

Column markers

Width and style tokens can be combined:

%% col-break:35,b:blue-soft,bc:blue,t:text,sb:1 %%

Style tokens

Nested Layout Example

%% col-start %%
%% col-break:40 %%
# Column 1
Top-level content.
%% col-break:60 %%
# Parent column
This column contains nested columns.

%% col-start %%
%% col-break %%
## Child column 1
Nested content.
%% col-break %%
## Child column 2
Nested content.
%% col-end %%
%% col-end %%

Commands

Editing

• Click preview content to enter edit mode
• Tab / Shift+Tab — indent/unindent list items, or cycle through columns
• Esc — commit and exit edit mode
• [[ — wikilink suggestions
• Ctrl/Cmd+B — bold, Ctrl/Cmd+I — italic
• Paste image — auto-saves and inserts ![[...]]
• Drag handle (top-left of a column) or Alt+drag — reorder columns
• + — add column, × — remove column (asks first if the column has content)

Right-Click Style Popover

Right-click any column to:

• Style current column (background, border, text, toggles)
• Style parent container
• Add column / add child column
• Reset styles (column or parent)
• Clear all styles recursively

Settings

Settings → Community Plugins → Advanced Multi Column

• General — enable/disable live preview and reading view, drag handles and where the column buttons appear, default column count, minimum column width, stacking on narrow screens
• MOC — reusable MOC templates: sources (rules on folders, tags and properties, joined by And / Or), grouping, columns, and a live preview
• Column headers — turn column headers on or off, edit the built-in header types and add your own
• Appearance — style target (all or specific column), container background/border/radius/text, vertical and horizontal divider configuration

MOC (map of content)

A MOC lists notes as links in columns and keeps itself up to date. Right-click in a note and choose Insert MOC → New MOC…: choose its notes with rules on folders, tags and properties joined by And / Or (by default the note's own folder, with its subfolders as columns), see a live preview, and insert. Save options you reuse as templates in Settings → Advanced Multi Column → Maps of content; right-click a MOC → Edit MOC to change it later.

The links are written into the note, so they show in graph view and backlinks. When notes are added, renamed, deleted or retagged, the MOC updates automatically. See the MOC guide for details.

Privacy and vault access

Advanced Multi Column works entirely offline: it makes no network requests and collects no data.

What it accesses, and why:

• Notes you open are read to render columns in Reading view and when exporting to PDF.
• The list of notes and their metadata (file paths, tags, properties — from Obsidian's metadata cache) is used only by MOC to find the notes a MOC lists. MOC can be turned off in Settings → Advanced Multi Column → Maps of content.
• Notes are written only when you edit columns, insert a layout or MOC, or when an inserted MOC updates its own list of links.
• Pasted images in a column editor are saved in the note's folder; pasting reads only what you paste.

Installation

Community plugins (recommended)

Advanced Multi Column is in the official Obsidian community plugin list.

• Open in Obsidian: https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/advanced-multi-column — select Install there. To jump straight to the plugin inside Obsidian instead, paste this link into your browser's address bar:

  obsidian://show-plugin?id=advanced-multi-column
  

• Or from inside Obsidian:

  1. Open Settings → Community plugins.
  2. Turn off Restricted mode if it is on.
  3. Select Browse and search for Advanced Multi Column.
  4. Select Install, then Enable.

Updates arrive through Settings → Community plugins → Check for updates.

Beta versions with BRAT

1. Install the BRAT plugin if you haven't already.
2. Open Settings → BRAT → Add Beta Plugin.
3. Enter https://github.com/amatya-aditya/advanced-multi-column and click Add Plugin.
4. Enable Advanced Multi Column in Settings → Community Plugins.

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Create folder: .obsidian/plugins/advanced-multi-column/
3. Copy the files into that folder.
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin.

Legacy Syntax

CSS for older callout-based layouts ([!col] / [!col-md-*]) is supported. Marker syntax is recommended for new notes for extended features.

Use nested sibling callouts in this format:

> [!col]
> > [!col-md]
> > Left column
>
> > [!col-md]
> > Right column

If [!col-md] appears as plain text, the nested callout structure is malformed.

Development

npm install
npm run dev      # watch mode
npm run build    # production

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Support

If you find this plugin useful, consider supporting development:

☕ Buy me a coffee   •   Ko-fi   •   Discord

Privacy

This plugin runs locally in your vault and does not include telemetry.