permalink: drag-and-drop

Drag and drop

There are many ways to drag and drop elements in Obsidian. This includes tabs, files, folders, and content.

Drag tabs

You can arrange tabs and split tab groups in the main content area and in sidebars.

Drag sources

You can drag a file, or multiple files from the file explorer.
You can drag a file from a search result.
You can drag a file from backlinks or unlinked references.
You can drag a file from a link inside the note, in preview mode.

Drop destinations

You can drop a file on a tab header to open the file there. Hold Alt (or Shift on macOS) to drop anywhere in the tab.
You can drop a file on a folder in the file explorer to move the file there.
You can drop a file into an editor to insert it as a link. The generated link also follows your preferences, such as relative paths, or using Markdown links.
You can drop a file on the Bookmarks tab to bookmark it.

Dragging from outside Obsidian

You can drag any HTML content from the browser into Obsidian to automatically convert them into Markdown
You can drag and drop any files from your native file explorer to have Obsidian import (make a copy of) those files in your vault's attachment folder and insert them as internal links. Hold Ctrl on Windows/Linux or Option on macOS to create file:/// absolute links to those files instead of importing a copy.

Dropping files outside Obsidian

This creates an obsidian:// URL in the external application for the Obsidian note that you dragged.