# ProseMirror Proposal: Range-wrapping decoration

**URL:** <https://discuss.prosemirror.net/t/prosemirror-proposal-range-wrapping-decoration/9088>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [September 17, 2026, 1:02am UTC](https://discuss.prosemirror.net/t/prosemirror-proposal-range-wrapping-decoration/9088 "2026-09-17T01:02:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hros](https://discuss.prosemirror.net/user_avatar/discuss.prosemirror.net/hros/32/4802_2.png) [@hros](https://discuss.prosemirror.net/u/hros)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2026, 1:02am UTC](https://discuss.prosemirror.net/t/prosemirror-proposal-range-wrapping-decoration/9088/1 "2026-09-17T01:02:27Z")

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**Title** : Decoration type for wrapping a range of sibling nodes in a container element

While working on a personal project, I ran into a limitation I think many ProseMirror editors would benefit from solving upstream: there’s no way to wrap a _range_ of sibling block nodes in a decoration-injected container element.

The problem comes up whenever an editor needs section-level formatting — different CSS custom properties (or any styling) applied to different contiguous groups of top-level nodes. Think of a document where one section has `column-count: 2` and the next is single-column, or one section has a narrower `max-width` than another, or different `font-size` / `margin` values per section.

For inline text properties, `Decoration.node()` works fine — you can set a different inline style on each individual node. But for properties that require a containing element (column layout, max-width, margin, and any CSS that needs to apply to a group rather than an individual node), there’s no decoration-based solution. `Decoration.node()` requires `from`/`to` to bracket exactly one node.

What I’d want is something like:

```js
Decoration.wrap(from, to, {style: "column-count: 2; max-width: 29.7cm"})

```

…where `from`/`to` span a range of sibling nodes at the same depth, and a `<div>` wraps them — transparent to position mapping, like how `MarkViewDesc` wraps inline content with zero `border`.

Looking at the internals, `MarkViewDesc` already solves the same structural problem for inline content: it wraps runs of nodes in a DOM element that contributes no position offset. A block-level equivalent for decorations, modeled on the same pattern, seems like a natural extension.

**Use cases I can see:**

- Section-level formatting (different margins, font sizes, or orientations per section)
- Multi-column layouts where column count varies by section (common in academic papers: single-column abstract, two-column body)
- Chapter or part separators with different page widths
- Newsletter/magazine-style mixed layouts

**Questions:**

1. Is this something you’d consider for prosemirror-view?
2. Would you prefer a new `Decoration.wrap()` type, or extending `Decoration.node()` to relax the single-node constraint?
3. Are there position-mapping concerns beyond what `MarkViewDesc` already handles? The pattern seems directly reusable for block content.

I’d be happy to implement this and submit a PR if the approach makes sense.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marijn](https://discuss.prosemirror.net/user_avatar/discuss.prosemirror.net/marijn/32/15_2.png) [@marijn](https://discuss.prosemirror.net/u/marijn)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2026, 10:32am UTC](https://discuss.prosemirror.net/t/prosemirror-proposal-range-wrapping-decoration/9088/2 "2026-09-17T10:32:42Z")

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Decorations, as they exist, actually never span multiple nodes, even inline ones. Adding support for a feature like this would involve rather large changes to the way the renderer works, which I don’t think I want to undertake—it is already quite complicated. And no, a PR would not make me more inclined towards this, since that would still put the work of reviewing and dealing with subsequent fallout on me.