Fluent OneNote

A beautiful, ultra-fast 2-pane navigation plugin for Obsidian notes, inspired by Microsoft OneNote and Fluent Design principles.

[!NOTE] If you are looking for a local alternative to Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, UpNote, Bear, or Joplin directly inside your Obsidian vault, Fluent OneNote brings a familiar, high-performance 2-pane navigation system across Notebooks, Sections, and Pages.

---

Quick Setup & Recommended Workflow

1. Assign a Global Hotkey (Highly Recommended)

Fluent OneNote is designed around an instant, distraction-free popup workflow.

1. Open Obsidian Settings -> Hotkeys.
2. Search for Fluent OneNote: Open navigation popup.
3. Assign your preferred shortcut (e.g. Ctrl + Shift + O, Alt + O, or Ctrl + Shift + A).

Whenever you need to switch notes or capture a thought, press your hotkey, browse or search across sections, and press Enter to jump right into the note without leaving your typing flow.

---

Key Features

1. 2-Pane Navigation Architecture

• Sections Column (Left): Displays section folders under the active Notebook as clean cards with note counters. The header features a sleek OneNote-style Notebook Selector dropdown.
• Pages Column (Right): Displays all notes and nested sub-pages belonging to the selected section.
• Cross-Pane Focus: Seamlessly jump focus between sections and pages with arrow keys or mouse clicks.

2. Floating Popup & Fast Keyboard Navigation

• Access your entire notebook hierarchy from anywhere in Obsidian.
• Instant keyboard navigation with arrow keys, quick selection, and background tab opening.

3. Instant Search-as-you-Type with Full IME Support & Global Scope Toggle

• Instant Focus & Zero Lag: The search input receives instant focus on modal open.
• Full IME Compatibility: Complete support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean IMEs (e.g., WeChat Keyboard / 微信输入法, Microsoft Pinyin, Sogou Pinyin) from the very first keystroke without dropped composition or popup delays.
• Global vs Scoped Search Scope Toggle:
  • Single Notebook Search (📓 Current): Default search strictly scoped to the active notebook with dynamic placeholder (Search in "<Notebook>"...), showing section badges.
  • Global Vault Search (🌐 All): Instant one-click toggle in the search bar header to search across all notebooks and recursive sub-page hierarchies simultaneously, displaying full path badges (Notebook / Section).
• In-Box Navigation: Navigate search results with ArrowUp / ArrowDown while remaining in the search box; press Enter to open.

4. Physics Drag & Drop & Uniform rAF Auto-Scroll

• High-Performance Physics Engine: Reorder Notebooks, Sections, and Pages with 0ms visual latency and zero reactivity lag.
• Uniform rAF Auto-Scroll: Generous 60px linear-damping edge auto-scroller allows smooth list scrolling while dragging items.
• Anti-Flicker Protection: Child elements are shielded during drag to eliminate mouse coordinate jitter and indicator ghosts.
• Cross-Pane Moves: Drag any Page onto a Section or Notebook folder card to move the note into that directory.

5. Custom Order Management (Export, Import & Reset)

• Export Order: Export your custom drag-and-drop notebook, section, and page arrangement to a standalone .json file via the native file save dialog.
• Import Order: Import a previously exported .json configuration to restore custom orderings across devices.
• Clear Order: Reset all custom orderings back to default alphabetical order with a confirmation warning dialog.

6. Folder-Note Sub-Page Hierarchy

• Supports multi-level nested sub-pages with collapsible chevrons (> / ∨).
• When a folder and a markdown note share the same name within a section, they automatically fuse into a parent "Folder-Note".
• Safe deletion un-nests child notes to the parent section, protecting nested notes from accidental data loss.

7. Recent Pages Quick Switcher

• Dedicated command (Fluent OneNote: Open recent pages list) to quickly access your most recently opened notes with timestamps.

8. Customizable Dimensions & Theme Accent Colors

• Customize the popup modal width (40%–98%) and height (40%–95%) to fit your screen size.
• Pick a custom accent color to harmonize with your Obsidian theme.

9. Dual Display Modes

• Choose between Floating popup only or Both (sidebar + floating popup) in plugin settings depending on your layout preference.

---

Keyboard Controls Cheatsheet

Action	Shortcut / Interaction	Description
Open Navigation Popup	Custom Hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+O)	Open floating 2-pane navigation modal
Open Sidebar View	Command: Open navigation sidebar	Open persistent sidebar tab view
Open Recent Pages	Command: Open recent pages list	Open recent notes fuzzy switcher
Navigate Items	ArrowUp / ArrowDown	Move selection vertically in active pane
Jump to Pages Pane	ArrowRight (on Section)	Shift active focus into the Pages column
Return to Section Pane	ArrowLeft (on Page)	Shift active focus back to the Section row
Toggle Sub-pages / Expand	ArrowRight / ArrowLeft	Expand or collapse nested sub-pages
Open Note & Dismiss	Enter / Space	Open note in active editor and close popup
Open in Background Tab	Middle-Click / Ctrl+Click / Ctrl+Enter	Open in new tab without closing popup
Open Feature Guide	Click (?) button in header	Open full interactive features & shortcuts guide
Create New Note	Ctrl + N (or + New Page button)	Create a new note inside active section
Search Notes	Type any key	Search across all notes with instant IME support
Clear Search / Close	Escape	First press clears query; second press closes modal
Delete Note Safely	Delete / Backspace (on Page)	Move note to trash with sub-page protection
Inline Rename	F2 (hover/focus) / Right-Click -> Rename	Edit notebook, section, or note name inline
Context Menu	Right-Click on any item	Native actions (Rename, Delete, Create Section/Note)

---

Configuration Options

Go to Obsidian Settings -> Community Plugins -> Fluent OneNote:

• Root Folder Path: The base directory scanned for OneNote-style notebooks (default: OneNote). Folders within act as Notebooks, sub-folders as Sections. Leave empty (or /) to scan your entire vault as notebooks.
• Display Mode: Toggle between Floating popup only and Both (sidebar + floating popup).
• Global Search by Default: Toggle whether the search popup defaults to searching across all notebooks or only the current notebook.
• DOM Virtualization: Optional viewport optimization for sections containing large numbers of notes.
• Popup Modal Width / Height: Adjust the width (40%–98%) and height (40%–95%) of the popup modal.
• Accent Color: Pick a custom accent color for focus highlights and active badges.
• Custom Order Management:
  • Export Custom Order: Save custom ordering to a .json file.
  • Import Custom Order: Restore ordering from a .json file.
  • Clear Custom Order: Revert all orderings to alphabetical sort (includes confirmation dialog).
• Reset Hotkey Tips Counter: Reset the recommendation notice counter.

---

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

---

Keywords

onenote onenote alternative evernote upnote bear joplin notebook navigation 2-pane view sections and pages subpages fluent design quick switcher hotkey navigation physics drag and drop