Every week, my Obsidian vault grows, and so does the challenge of tracking anything down in it. Tags, links, and filters help me find notes faster, but they only work well when everything is perfectly organized. My vault holds a mix of daily logs, technology guides, project outlines, and personal thoughts. Even with careful organization, having over a thousand entries makes finding specific notes difficult, and sometimes even entire folders get lost in the shuffle.
While Obsidian provides a clean interface with powerful organizational tools, it lacks visual distinction. When I scan for files, all I see are neatly arranged lines of text. This strains my eyes and makes it nearly impossible to distinguish anything at a glance. Then I discovered Notebook Navigator. This plugin transformed my Obsidian interface by adding colors, icons, and visual hierarchies that make navigation instant. Instead of reading through monotonous text lists, I now identify folders and tags by sight alone. My vault went from being a wall of identical words to an intuitive, visual workspace that actually works with how my brain processes information.
Notebook Navigator solves the navigation problem in Obsidian
What makes Notebook Navigator different
Notebook Navigator fundamentally changes how I interact with my vault by addressing the core limitations of Obsidian’s default file explorer.
First, Notebook Navigator replaces the default single-column explorer with a dual-pane layout. Now, navigation sits on the left and files are displayed on the right. This simple shift lets me see my folder and tag structure at a glance and scan a full file list, just like Apple Notes. The added clarity feels huge, especially when working across multiple projects simultaneously.
Tagging and metadata are two of the biggest reasons people use Obsidian for deep research. With Notebook Navigator, the navigation pane provides a hierarchical tag tree that I can expand in collapse. Nested tags stay organized, making deep workflows, topic tracking, or personal categorization a cinch.
Each note displays a preview showing the first few lines beneath the file name, usually the front matter, which makes it easier to view metadata in my notes. This preview makes a massive difference when scanning through similar titles, since I see context without opening a dozen notes to check their content. This becomes especially valuable when I have multiple versions of a draft or saved research snippets with generic names.
Visual customization takes navigation even further. I can color-code folders, highlight specific ones, or add icons. This visual layer makes navigation much faster since my action folders now pop out instantly, and icons help me locate work and personal projects at a glance. When everything in your sidebar looks identical, finding what you need requires reading every label. With colors and icons differentiating categories, pattern recognition kicks in, and you navigate by sight rather than by parsing text.
Beyond aesthetics, the plugin introduces powerful organizational controls. Since I already have my Readwise highlights synced into Obsidian, Notebook Navigator can easily pin important highlights at the top, keeping them visible as I inevitably add more entries and my vault gets crowded.
Notes automatically group by edit date into categories like Today, Yesterday, and Last Week, making recent work easy to locate without manual sorting. Every folder and tag can have its own sort order, so reference folders can be arranged alphabetically by title, while project folders can be sorted by recent edits or creation date. These flexible sorting and grouping options mean the plugin adapts to your workflow rather than forcing you into a rigid system.
How I set up Notebook Navigator to make finding notes easier
My setup for a cleaner, more searchable Obsidian vault
After installing and enabling Notebook Navigator by Johan Sanneblad, my vault immediately improved my browsing experience. Without configuring anything, my interface already includes dual-pane navigation, tag trees, and previews that give my vault much more context, making it easier to find items. I’m already pretty happy with this, but we can still do better.
My folders are already well organized, but I would like to add some extra context and visual flair to make it easier to find important folders at a glance. So, I started adding icon markers by right-clicking on each folder and selecting Change icon. I choose colorful emojis for icons since they are easier to recognize.
After adding the icons, I also highlighted the most important folders in my navigation pane by changing font colors. Aside from highlights, you can also change the background color for each folder to make them pop even more. I personally find it easier on the eyes to use font colors, so I didn’t bother adding background colors.
Now that I’ve made it easier to recognize my folders, I then organize my vault by pinning important notes and adding shortcuts to folders. To pin a note, simply hover over the item to reveal the Pin note icon before clicking. You can add a folder to shortcuts by right-clicking on the folder and selecting Add to shortcuts.
And that’s about as much customization as I do with Notebook Navigator. It’s not the kind of eye candy setup you get from fully customizable Obsidian themes, but I think Notebook Navigator does a good job of providing enough visual cues to make it easier to find notes and folders in my vault.
However, I do like pairing Notebook Navigator with Featured Image. This extra plugin lets me add thumbnails to each of my notes, providing an extra visual cue to make it easier to find specific notes. Both plugins are by Johan Sanneblad, and they work perfectly together. The Featured Image also doesn’t need any extra configuration. Just install the plugin, and you should see thumbnails immediately.
For vaults heavy on visual content like design mockups, photography collections, or illustrated tutorials, I think having this extra plugin makes it so much easier to browse and search for notes.
Finding my notes is so much easier with Notebook Navigator
Notebook Navigator has made such a difference in my note-taking process. I finally move quickly through my vault, with visuals, previews, and structure working together to keep me productive. No matter how big or complex your vault is, transforming the navigation can help you reclaim your content and use Obsidian the way you want. Whether you’re building a knowledge base or tracking daily tasks, don’t settle for the default. Try expanding your setup and you’ll see the results firsthand.