aliases:
- User interface/Workspace/Sidebar
permalink: sidebarSidebar
Obsidian has two sidebars, left and right. On desktop and larger tablets, the left sidebar includes the Ribbon. On mobile and smaller tablets, the sidebars are collapsed by default.
Open hidden sidebars
On desktop and larger tablets: open a collapsed sidebar by clicking the left expand ( 
) or right expand ( 
).
On mobile and smaller tablets: swipe left or right, click the left expand ( ), or long-press the note menu ( 
).
Tabs
By default, plugins will only create new tabs instead of new Tab groups.
You can switch between tabs by clicking on the icon. A tooltip will also appear to help you identify tabs.
In each pane, you can only see one tab at any given moment. Some actions will automatically bring a tab into view, for example when you click on a tag.
Close tabs
Some tabs can be closed via the right click menu, but some can't. If you don’t want to see a tab that can't be closed, consider disabling the relevant plugin or collapsing the sidebar by clicking on the Arrow icon.
Rearrange tabs
You can drag and drop the tab icons to rearrange them within a group of tabs.
Tab groups
You can have multiple tab groups in the sidebar.
Create tab groups
To get a new tab group, drag the icon of a tab above or below a current tab group. The highlighted area will indicate where the new tab group will be created.
Close tab groups
To close a tab group, you can close all tabs in it, or drag all tabs in it by their icons and drop them into existing tab groups.
When only the tab area of a tab group is highlighted, the tab being dragged will be dropped into that tab group to merge with other tabs in that group.