Selection Toolbar

Selection Toolbar adds a compact floating toolbar to Obsidian whenever text is selected in the Markdown editor. Use it to format Markdown, convert selected lines into blocks or lists, and extract selected text into a new note without breaking your writing flow.

Features

• Floating toolbar that appears only when editor text is selected.
• Inline formatting for bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, highlight, inline code, wikilinks, and Markdown links.
• Block formatting for quotes, bullet lists, numbered lists, task lists, fenced code blocks, and callouts.
• Text transforms for uppercase, lowercase, and title case.
• Extract selected text into a new note and replace the selection with a wikilink.
• Keyboard-bindable commands for every toolbar action.
• Blank-line-aware formatting: paragraphs separated by blank lines are formatted independently, while soft line breaks inside a paragraph stay together.

Usage

Select text in a Markdown note. The toolbar appears near the selection with quick actions:

• B: bold
• I: italic
• U: underline
• S: strikethrough
• H: highlight
• `: inline code
• [[: wikilink
• Link: Markdown link
• ...: more actions

The ... menu contains block, callout, case conversion, and extract-to-note actions.

Commands

All actions are registered as Obsidian commands so they can be assigned keyboard shortcuts in Settings -> Hotkeys.

• Format selection: bold
• Format selection: italic
• Format selection: underline
• Format selection: strikethrough
• Format selection: highlight
• Format selection: inline code
• Format selection: wikilink
• Format selection: link
• Format selection: comment
• Format selection: quote block
• Format selection: bullet list
• Format selection: numbered list
• Format selection: task list
• Format selection: code block
• Format selection: note callout
• Format selection: tip callout
• Format selection: warning callout
• Format selection: uppercase
• Format selection: lowercase
• Format selection: title case
• Extract selection to note

Notes On Formatting

Selection Toolbar uses standard Markdown where possible.

• Underline uses HTML: <u>selected text</u>.
• Highlight uses Obsidian Markdown: ==selected text==.
• Comments use Obsidian Markdown comments: %%selected text%%.
• Callouts use Obsidian callout syntax, such as > [!note].

For selections with blank lines, inline wrappers are applied to each paragraph-like block instead of wrapping the whole selection once.

Installation

Community Plugin Installation

After the plugin is published to the Obsidian community plugin directory:

1. Open Settings -> Community plugins.
2. Select Browse.
3. Search for Selection Toolbar.
4. Select Install.
5. Enable the plugin.

Manual Installation

Download the release assets and place them in your vault at:

<Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/selection-toolbar/

Required files:

• main.js
• manifest.json
• styles.css

Reload Obsidian and enable Selection Toolbar in Settings -> Community plugins.

Development

This plugin uses TypeScript, npm, and esbuild.

npm install
npm run dev

Production build:

npm run build

Lint:

npm run lint

Release Checklist

1. Update version in manifest.json.
2. Update versions.json with the plugin version and minimum Obsidian version.
3. Run npm run build.
4. Create a GitHub release with a tag that exactly matches the version, with no leading v.
5. Attach manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css as release assets.

Privacy

Selection Toolbar works locally inside Obsidian. It does not make network requests, collect analytics, transmit vault content, or use external services.

The extract-to-note action creates Markdown files inside your vault only when you explicitly run that action.

Compatibility

• Minimum Obsidian version: 1.1.0
• Desktop and mobile supported

License

This project is licensed under the 0BSD license.