Rich Table

Obsidian only. The rich-table fenced code block is rendered by the plugin — it won't display in standard Markdown editors or GitHub previews.

Rich, interactive tables for Obsidian — with cell merges, inline editing, wikilink autocomplete, typed columns, drag-to-reorder, math formulas, lists, images, and more.

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Why Rich Table?

Feature	Native tables	Rich Table
Cell merging	✗	✓
Click-to-edit cells inline	✗	✓
[[wikilink]] autocomplete in cells	✗	✓
Math formulas (KaTeX) in cells	✗	✓
Lists, bold, italic, links, images in cells	✗	✓
Multi-line cell content	✗	✓
Typed columns (status, priority…)	✗	✓
Per-cell style (bg color, font size…)	✗	✓
Column alignment (left / center / right)	✗	✓
Table title & footer notes	✗	✓
Drag to reorder rows / columns	✗	✓
Drag to resize column width / row height	✗	✓
Insert / hide / delete rows & columns	✗	✓
Row filtering by value	✗	✓
Per-table lock	✗	✓

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Demo

⬆️ Upgrading from v0.x? — v1 → v2 migration: the upgrade banner on old-format tables, converting in one click or keeping the old format read-only.

1 · Quick start from template — or a blank table

An empty rich-table code block shows one button per built-in template (currently a full-featured Demo and a Cornell Notes layout) plus Insert blank table, which opens a Word/Sheets-style size picker — hover an 8×6 grid to preview and click to confirm a row/column count, or type exact numbers for anything past the visible grid. Hovering any button live-previews that option below; with nothing hovered, the default template previews. Templates are auto-discovered from src/templates/*.yaml (same pattern as themes) — no code changes needed to add one.

2 · Merge cells — drag-select → Merge in popup

3 · Typed columns & cell style — click to pick value, double-click to set style

4 · Drag to reorder & row/column ops — ⠿ handle + double-click menu

5 · Drag to resize — column header right edge · row bottom edge

6 · Title & footer — click to edit, Shift+Enter for multi-line

7 · Column filtering — filter rows to focus on what matters

8 · Rich cell content — math · bold/italic · links · images · lists · multi-line

🎬 Demo GIF coming soon

9 · Copy/paste interop with Excel & Markdown — paste values pasted from Excel/Sheets straight into a cell (detected via clipboard HTML); copy a selection out as an Excel-compatible table or as a Markdown table, from the selection/cell/header menus

🎬 Demo GIF coming soon

10 · Row sorting — column selector popup: one-time sort or live auto-sort with a header indicator

11 · Summary/aggregate rows — Sum/Average/Min/Max/Count via the Σ icon or column selector popup; per-row remove and reorder

12 · Collapse/expand table — fold-icon button hides/shows the body while keeping the title and header row visible

13 · Table lock — 🔒 icon disables all graphical editing for that table

14 · Auto-fit all — ⊞ icon fits every column width and row height to its content in one click

15 · Theme picker — 🎨 icon switches between built-in themes (academic, grid, plain)

16 · Split cell — double-click a plain cell → split into 2 rows/columns; other cells in that row/column keep their current shape

🎬 Demo GIF coming soon

---

Format

```rich-table
---
version: 2
title: Project tracker
columns:
  - id: c_000000
    name: Task
    width: 200
  - id: c_000001
    name: Status
    type: task-status
    width: 110
rows:
  - id: r_000000
    cells:
      c_000000: "**Design** — architecture review"
      c_000001: done
  - id: r_000001
    cells:
      c_000000: Build
      c_000001: pending
  - id: r_000002
    cells:
      c_000000: |-
        - Write tests
        - Fix edge cases
      c_000001: todo
merges:
  - anchor: r_000000.c_000000
    end: r_000001.c_000000
styles:
  - target: header
    bold: true
    bg: "#e8f0fe"
  - target: r_000000.c_000001
    bg: "#f0fdf4"
footer: "Updated weekly · click any cell to edit"
---
<!-- Generated by Rich Table. Do not edit below — data source is the YAML front-matter above. -->
| Task                          | Status  |
| ----------------------------- | ------- |
| **Design** — architecture ... | done    |
| Build                         | pending |
| - Write tests<br>- Fix edge.. | todo    |
```

The YAML front-matter is the only data source. The pipe table below the <!-- Generated … --> comment is a read-only mirror regenerated on every write-back and can be safely ignored.

Cell content supports full Obsidian Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, [[wikilinks]], [links](url), ![images](url), - lists, $math$, <br> for line breaks.

Style targets (v2 ID-based):

Target	Meaning
header	Entire header row
header.c_xxx	Single header cell
r_xxx	Entire data row
c_xxx	Entire column (including header)
r_aaa:r_bbb	Row range
c_aaa:c_bbb	Column range
r_aaa.c_aaa:r_bbb.c_bbb	Rectangle range
r_xxx.c_yyy	Single data cell

Upgrading from v0.x? Tables written in the old format automatically show an upgrade banner. Click Convert to new format for one-click migration, or Keep old format to continue reading without converting.

---

Themes

Add theme: to the YAML front-matter to apply a built-in visual theme:

theme: academic   # LaTeX booktabs style — three horizontal rules, no grid lines
theme: grid       # Excel "All Borders" style — full grid, bold outer frame + header rule
theme: plain      # Colorful gradient header + animated border

Theme	Description
(none)	Default — no special styling
academic 📐	Inspired by LaTeX's booktabs package: toprule / midrule / bottomrule, no vertical lines, no cell backgrounds
grid 🔲	Full grid on every cell, a bolder outer frame, and a bolder rule separating the header from the data
plain 🙂	Animated rainbow border, gradient header with breathing effect, cursor-reactive row glow

Themes are purely visual — they never affect data or layout.

Quick customization without a theme: for a small tweak (not a full theme), set one of these CSS variables on .bt-render-root in an Obsidian CSS snippet — no selectors needed:

Variable	Controls	Default
--bt-border-outer	Table's outer edge	none
--bt-cell-border (+ -top/-right/-bottom/-left)	Gridlines between cells	none
--bt-cell-bg	Data cell background	transparent
--bt-header-bg	Header cell background	theme default

.bt-render-root {
  --bt-header-bg: #223;
  --bt-cell-bg: #fafafa;
  --bt-border-outer: 2px solid #888;
}

A manually-set per-cell style (via the style panel) always wins over both themes and these variables.

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Features & Roadmap

Feature
Editing
Single-click any cell to edit — text, [[wikilinks]], bold, italic	✅
[[ triggers Obsidian's native file & heading autocomplete	✅
Shift+Enter for line breaks inside the cell editor	✅
Double-click / right-click menu — insert, delete, hide rows & columns; merge cells; set style; change column type	✅
Column alignment (left / center / right) — in the double-click header menu	✅
Keyboard navigation — arrow keys between cells, Tab to advance	🔜
Paste values from Excel / Sheets — Ctrl+V into a cell, detected via clipboard HTML	✅
Rich cell content
Math formulas — inline KaTeX: $E=mc^2$	✅
Full Markdown: bold, italic, ==highlight==, [[wikilinks]], external links	✅
Images — inline  or ![[local.png]]; drag image edge to resize	✅
Lists — lines starting with - render as compact bullet lists	✅
Multi-line — <br> tag or Shift+Enter in the editor	✅
Typed columns
Colored pill badges; single-click to pick value from dropdown	✅
Built-in types: task-status · priority · boolean · rating · effort · approval	✅
Custom types defined in Settings → Rich Table	✅
Row filtering — funnel icon on each column header; click to open a checkbox panel and filter by value	✅
Filter status bar — "Showing X of Y · Clear" unified with sort / aggregate info	🔜
Row sorting — via the column selector's popup menu: one-time (reorders rows once) or live (auto-sorts, shown by an indicator until cleared)	✅
Summary rows — Sum / Average / Min / Max / Count, table-wide (toggle via the Σ icon in the left control column, or the column selector's popup menu); one row per active statistic at the table's bottom, computed over currently-visible rows, columns without meaningful data left blank. Each summary row gets its own selector cell (remove) and drag grip (reorder)	✅
Custom formulas — type Excel-style syntax (=SUM(A1:B3)); cell references get converted to this table's own stable row/column IDs on entry, so they survive inserts/reorders instead of drifting like raw A1 coordinates would. Same-sheet first; cross-sheet references are a separate, later phase	🔜
Styles
Per-cell bg color, text color, and font size — via panel or YAML	✅
Row / column selector strips — hover to reveal, click or drag to style entire rows/columns	✅
Per-table lock — click the 🔒 icon at the top-left corner to disable / re-enable all editing	✅
Themes — set theme: academic (booktabs), theme: grid (full grid + bold outer/header rules), theme: plain (colorful gradient + animated border)	✅
Custom cell padding (top / bottom / left / right)	🔜
Collapsible table — fold-icon button in the top-left corner shows/hides the table body, keeping the title and header row visible	✅
Conditional formatting — auto-apply styles based on cell value rules	🔜
Progress bar column type	🔜
Merges
Cell merging — drag-select → Merge in popup, or declare in YAML	✅
Split a plain cell into 2 rows or 2 columns — double-click menu; other cells in that row/column keep their current shape (merged or not)	✅
Copy selection to Excel / Sheets or as a Markdown table — selection/cell/header menus	✅
Merge / style state preserved when copying to Excel	🔜
Table structure
Hover selector strips to reveal ⠿ drag grips; drag to reorder rows / columns	✅
Hover selector strips to reveal resize seams; drag to resize, double-click to auto-fit	✅
Auto-fit-all button (top-left ⊞) — one click to auto-fit every column and row	✅
Hover bottom / right edge → + strips to append rows / columns	✅
Hide and show rows / columns	✅
Freeze header row / first N columns	🔜
Row grouping — collapsible groups	🔜
Views — alternate ways to browse the same rows/columns, switched via the layout-grid icon (or a Kanban/Calendar board's own icon column)
Kanban board — group rows into lanes by any choice-typed column; drag a card to another lane to change its value	✅
Calendar — place rows on a month grid by any date-typed column; drag an event to reschedule it, undated rows list in an Unscheduled tray below	✅
Multi-sheet — Excel-style tab bar at the bottom once a table has 2+ sheets
Left-toolbar button converts a single-sheet table into a multi-sheet workbook; each sheet has its own columns/rows/merges/styles/views	✅
Tabs: click to switch, click-again/double-click to rename, drag to reorder, right-click for rename / tab color / delete	✅
Title & annotations
Table title above, footer notes below — click to edit inline	✅
Cell comments — floating notes shown on hover	🔜
Excel interop
Open/edit an external .xlsx file directly (e.g. excel: path/to/file.xlsx in the front matter) — same editing UI as a normal code-block table, backed by the actual spreadsheet file	🔜

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Known Issues

Issue	Workaround
Reading mode: v2 tables remain interactive — In Obsidian reading view, v2-format tables still show hover strips and allow editing. The allowReadingViewEdit setting has no effect on v2 tables. v1 tables (awaiting upgrade) are correctly read-only.	Use the 🔒 lock button to prevent accidental edits in reading mode.

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Installation

Community plugin browser (recommended):

1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for Rich Table and install
3. Enable the plugin

Or: Open in Obsidian

Manual: copy main.js, manifest.json, styles.css to <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/rich-table/

Minimum Obsidian version: 1.8.7

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Settings

Open Settings → Rich Table to configure the plugin.

Setting	Default	Description
Allow editing in reading view	Off	When off, all interactive behaviour (hover strips, click-to-edit, panels, dropdowns) is disabled in Obsidian's reading view. Live preview / source mode is always interactive.
Single-click to edit	Off	When on, a single click on a cell enters edit mode immediately (no delay), and the style panel opens with Ctrl/Cmd+click instead of double-click. When off (default), single click enters edit after a short delay and double click opens the style panel.
Custom types	—	Define custom choice-column types with labels and colors.

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Claude Code Skill

A SKILL.md is included for use with Claude Code. Once installed, Claude agents can create and modify rich-table blocks directly in your vault — adding rows, applying styles, defining merges — without you having to remember the syntax.

cp SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/rich-table/SKILL.md

Then ask Claude: "Create a project tracker table in my note using rich-table".

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License

AGPL-3.0 — derivatives must be open-sourced under the same license.

For commercial licensing: sdkxyx@gmail.com

Support the Project

Rich Table is free and open-source under the AGPL-3.0 license. If this plugin has improved your workflow, you can support its ongoing development with a voluntary donation. Every contribution helps fix bugs, add new features, and maintain compatibility with future Obsidian updates.

💳 PayPal

🧧 WeChat Pay / Alipay

WeChat Pay	Alipay

Thank you for your support! 🙏

Feedback

Issues and feature requests: GitHub Issues

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