Force note view mode

This plug-in allows you to indicate through front matter that a note should always be opened in a certain view mode or editing mode.

Installation

From within Obsidian:

1. Open Settings → Community plugins and turn off Restricted mode if it is on.
2. Select Browse, search for "Force note view mode" and select Install.
3. Select Enable.

Manually:

1. Download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Copy them to <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-view-mode-by-frontmatter/.
3. Reload Obsidian and enable Force note view mode under Settings → Community plugins.

The plug-in requires Obsidian 1.1.0 or later. Release assets come with artifact attestations; verify a download with gh attestation verify main.js --repo bwydoogh/obsidian-force-view-mode-of-note.

Usage

Front matter

Changing the view mode can be done through the key obsidianUIMode, which can have the value source (editing view) or preview (reading view). Changing the editing mode happens by declaring the key obsidianEditingMode; it takes live (live preview) or source (source mode) as value.

When only obsidianUIMode: preview is set (in front matter or through a folder or file rule), switching to editing uses the obsidianEditingMode of the note if it has one, and Obsidian's default editing mode otherwise.

Example: add below snippet (front matter) to your note ...

---
obsidianUIMode: source
obsidianEditingMode: live
---

... and this will force the note to open in "live preview" edit mode.

Similar, ... add below snippet to your note ...

---
obsidianUIMode: preview
---

... and this will always open the note in reading view (Obsidian calls this mode preview internally).

Folder and file rules

Under Settings → Force note view mode you can force a mode without touching the notes themselves:

• Folders: every note in the folder (and its subfolders) opens in the chosen mode.
• Files: every note whose name matches a regular expression opens in the chosen mode, for example - All$ for notes ending in " - All" or 1900-01 for daily notes starting with "1900-01".

Rules take precedence over front matter, and file rules take precedence over folder rules. Within a list, a lower rule wins over a higher one, so put child folders below their parent folder. Choose default to leave the matching notes alone.

Other settings

• Ignore opened files: never change the mode of a note that was already open.
• Ignore force view when not in frontmatter: only change the mode of notes that declare one, or that match a rule.
• Debounce timeout in milliseconds: how long to wait before setting the mode (300 by default, 0 turns debouncing off). Increase it if the mode does not stick.

Default mode

This plug-in also ensures that a note is always opened in the configured default mode (suppose the Obsidian setting has "preview" as default mode but the pane is currently in "source" mode, then opening a new note in that same pane will open in "preview" mode).