EasyView

Easy View is a minimalist status bar utility for Obsidian that provides instant control over your writing environment. Adjust font sizes, toggle themes, switch between focus modes, and manage your layout—all from the status bar, right-click context menu, ribbon menu (on mobile), or via keyboard shortcuts.

Table of Contents

• Status Bar Controls
• Mobile Support
• Focus Modes
• Reading Mode Toggle
• Delete with Attachments
• Recent Notes History
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Right-Click Context Menu
• State Persistence
• Settings Panel
• Installation

Status Bar Controls

Easy View places convenient buttons in the Obsidian status bar for one-click access to essential view controls.

In a web viewer tab, the three font size buttons and commands zoom the web page instead, in 10% steps from 50% to 300%, and reset returns it to 100%. A web page cannot use Obsidian's font size, so this works like zooming in a browser.

All buttons can be individually enabled or disabled in the plugin settings.

Mobile Support

Since mobile devices lack a status bar, Easy View integrates directly into the Mobile Navigation Bar:

• Primary Action Shortcut: Adds an icon to the navbar menu. You can select ONE primary action for this shortcut (e.g., Theme Toggle, Font Resizing, or Focus Mode) in settings.
• Dedicated History Icon: If enabled, a persistent History icon is added to the main navigation bar (next to the forward/back buttons) for instant access to your recent notes.
• Always Accessible: These shortcuts are optimized for touch, featuring zero-delay interaction.

Focus Modes

Focus Mode

Hides peripheral UI elements while keeping navigation accessible:

• ✓ Hides left sidebar (File Explorer, Search)
• ✓ Hides right sidebar (Backlinks, Properties, Outline)
• ✓ Hides ribbon menu (left vertical strip)
• ✓ Keeps tab headers visible
• ✓ Keeps status bar visible

On macOS, the tab header automatically shifts to avoid the window control buttons.

Zen Mode

Ultra focus mode that removes all interface chrome:

• ✓ Hides all sidebars
• ✓ Hides ribbon menu
• ✓ Hides tab headers
• ✓ Hides status bar
• ✓ Hides title bar

Only your content remains visible. Perfect for deep writing sessions.

Reading Mode Toggle

Each click advances to the next mode in the cycle:

1. Source Mode → Raw markdown with full editing control
2. Live Preview → WYSIWYG editing with rendered formatting
3. Reading View → Clean rendered view for reading

Delete with Attachments

Avoid "orphan" images in your vault. When you delete a markdown note using Easy View:

• Automatic Detection: Scans the note for all wikilinked and embedded images.
• Shared Images Are Kept: An image that another note also uses is never deleted; the modal lists it as kept.
• Confirmation Modal: Prompts you to move the note to trash, with a checkbox (enabled by default) to also trash all linked images.
• Independence: Works even if you have "Confirm before deleting" enabled in Obsidian settings.

Access via:

1. File Explorer: Right-click any .md file → Delete with attachments…
2. Command Palette: "Delete current note with linked attachments"

Recent Notes History

Keep your workflow fluid by jumping back to previous notes:

• Automatic Tracking: Remembers the last 10 (configurable up to 20) notes you've opened.
• Mobile-Optimized: Zero-animation closing and "toggle" support on mobile devices for a snappy, instantaneous feel.
• Intelligent Layout: Long note titles automatically wrap, ensuring readability even on narrow mobile screens.
• Deleted File Support: Visually distinguishes notes that have been moved to trash or deleted from the vault. Renamed notes keep their place in the history.
• Quick Access: Dedicated status bar button, persistent mobile navigation icon, and command palette shortcut.
• Toggle Behavior: Tapping the history icon while the modal is open will instantly close it.
• Homepage First: If you use the Homepage plugin and your homepage is a note, that note is pinned at the top of the list, marked with a house icon.

Keyboard Shortcuts

All Easy View features are accessible via Obsidian's Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + P). Search for "EasyView" to see all available commands:

Right-Click Context Menu

Right-click anywhere on the Easy View status bar to open a quick-access context menu. The menu is fully configurable — you choose which items appear via Settings → EasyView → Context menu.

Available items:

• Focus mode — shows a checkmark when active
• Zen mode — shows a checkmark when active
• Cycle reading mode
• Toggle theme
• Recent notes
• Increase font size
• Decrease font size
• Reset font size

This means you can keep just one button in the status bar and access everything else via right-click.

State Persistence

Easy View remembers your preferences across Obsidian restarts:

Settings Panel

Access the Easy View settings via Settings → EasyView. On Obsidian 1.13 and later every setting also shows up in the settings search.

Basic Settings

Mobile / Ribbon

• Show ribbon icon (mobile only): Display a shortcut icon on the mobile navigation bar.
• Ribbon icon action: Select which feature the shortcut should trigger.
• History icon in navbar: Put a recent notes icon in the mobile navigation bar, in place of the forward button.

Visibility

Toggle status bar buttons on or off individually:

• Show decrement (−)
• Show increment (+)
• Show reset (↺)
• Show theme (☀/☾)
• Show focus (◎)
• Show view switcher (▤) — replaces Obsidian's own editing-mode indicator while it is on
• Show zen (◉)
• Show history button (↺)

File Management

• Delete with attachments: Enable/disable the "Delete with attachments…" context menu item and command.

Recent History

• Show history button: Toggle the status bar history icon.
• History size: Set how many notes to remember (5-20).
• Clear history: Instantly wipe your navigation history.

Context Menu

Choose which items appear when you right-click the status bar. Independent from the Visibility settings — you can hide a button from the status bar but still have it accessible via the context menu.

Visual Design

• Native Icons: Uses Obsidian's Lucide icon set for consistent appearance
• Theme Adaptation: The buttons take the status bar's own colours, so they match the bar in any theme, light or dark
• Subtle Interactions: Icons brighten on hover; an active mode is marked with the hover background
• Clean Separators: Thin borders between buttons, in the theme's border colour

Installation

1. Download the latest release from the GitHub Releases page
2. Extract main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css
3. Create a folder: YOUR_VAULT/.obsidian/plugins/easyview/
4. Move the three files into that folder
5. Reload Obsidian
6. Enable "Easy View" in Settings → Community Plugins

Requirements: Obsidian v1.6.6 or higher

Support

If you find Easy View useful, consider supporting development:

Licence

MIT Licence - See LICENSE.md for details.