In a Nutshell
Useful / Download
Welcome to episode four of the Obsidian Tweaks & Tips series. If you missed the earlier episodes, check out Episode I, Episode II, and Episode III. This time, we have four more community-sourced tweaks covering bad YAML detection, stacked tab formatting, hoverable dropdown fields, and bullet threading.
Find Notes with Bad YAML
Occasionally, some of your files might have incorrectly formatted frontmatter. If you don’t notice it immediately, it can be cumbersome to find those files later on.
This DataviewJS script makes it easier. I found it on the Obsidian forum, shared by user holroy.
While the details are complex, the script basically checks whether any frontmatter exists and — if so — whether any parts of it are faulty. If a problem is found, it categorizes it as Not valid, NO yaml, or Empty.
As a result, you get a table with the linked file name of notes with bad YAML code, the status, and the faulty code’s start and end positions.
You can copy the script from here.
Format Stacked Tabs
As you probably know, Obsidian lets you change how tabs of multiple open notes are displayed. By default, they are aligned horizontally. If you click on the little arrow and change the setting to “Stack Tabs”, they get aligned vertically.
With the following CSS snippet, you can adjust the stacked tab appearance. I found this on the Obsidian Forum, posted by user ariehen.
Setup
Go to Settings, Appearance, and scroll all the way down to the CSS snippets section. Click on the folder icon to open the local snippets folder. Create a new file — for example, format stacked tabs.css. Make sure the file extension is css.
Open the file, copy the CSS code into it, save, go back to Obsidian, and refresh the list of snippets. Enable the format stacked tabs snippet, and that should do it. If it does not, you may have to restart Obsidian.
Result
Once activated, the CSS definitions are applied right away. You can play around with the values to make your stacked tabs look exactly the way you want them to. Whenever you change the CSS file and save it, the changes are applied in Obsidian instantly.
You can copy the snippet from here.
Hoverable Multi-Level Dropdowns
Did you know that you can create hoverable fields in any note — and customize their appearance with a CSS file? I learned about this on Reddit from user OnionOk776.
These fields can have multiple levels, which makes them convenient for navigation. Each entry can link to a specific target.
Setup
First, add another CSS snippet to your snippets folder — the setup process is the same as described in the “Format Stacked Tabs” section above.
Inside the CSS file, you will find a block called “Gradient color selections” with 13 pre-defined gradients. Each has a name and a background color value.
Once the snippet is activated, create a new note. Inside it, add a simple callout and give it the name of one of the pre-defined gradients — for example, Blue_gradient_1. Then define the structure using a simple bullet list. These are just links to existing notes, and by using proper indentation, you can quickly create any navigation tree you want.
If you don’t like how it looks, pick a different gradient style or adjust attributes such as padding, font color, and field color directly in the CSS.
Bonus: Hide Properties on Specific Notes
Here is a bonus tip from Episode I: if you want to hide the properties section on a specific note only, you can use another CSS snippet and add the field cssclasses to the frontmatter with the value hide-properties. This gives the note a cleaner look.
You can copy the dropdown snippet from here.
Bullet Threading
If you are like me, you like making lists. Many of them might be very long and have multiple levels. With such long and deep lists, it can be a challenge to keep track of what belongs to which level. This CSS snippet helps by adding “bullet threading” — visual lines that connect parent and child items.
I found this on Reddit, posted by user seashoreandhorizon.
Setup
Add the snippet and activate it — the setup process is the same as described in the “Format Stacked Tabs” section above.
Result
Once active, create a bullet list and when you hover your mouse over a list item, you get a highlight of the path from the top level to the current item. The appearance of this path can be adapted in the CSS file. Depending on the theme you use, you may have to adjust the offset values so the line does not overlap with the text.
You can copy the snippet from here.
More in This Series
- Episode I — Templater callout script, auto-hide properties
- Episode II — Active tab color, hotkey sync, hide specific properties
- Episode III — Styled TOC, find missing/empty notes, Plugin Groups
- Episode IV — Bad YAML finder, stacked tabs, dropdown fields, bullet threading
- Episode V — Columns, floating callouts, table styles, tasks dashboard, help tooltip