It has a standard callback url. So it works with such apps in iOS as well.
Awesome, so links will work, but are those links exposed somewhere in iOS? (To create them)
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I’m a user but it’s not quite there for me, yet.
The big missing feature, which is coming soon for macOS (but not iOS), is sync across devices.
In addition, Hook creates a link to a file, not a specific piece of the file (e.g. paragraph 10 on page 1,264 of a pdf) which sometimes makes the link way less useful.
Finally, if you link to web-based docs/apps (GDocs, Dropbox Paper, Fastmail, etc.) which I have to work with a lot, their URLs will be loaded in a new browser tab every time you invoke them via Hook, even when they are already open. This is so annoying I created an AppleScript and custom Hook handler that looks for the URL in an existing Safari tab but it is complex and the custom links can’t be exchanged with other Hook users so I don’t feel comfortable using or recommending that approach.
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I’ve tried to get going with Hook many times, but it seems unfinished — more of a proof of concept than a fully fleshed out product. Maybe someday.
Of course, it’s not a “notes app” in the sense I think this thread is focused on. Of course, with Hook you can relate a text file, on the one hand, with another document and take notes.
I noticed Ghostnote 2 in SetApp and think I’ll give it a spin. Looks more polished and less complicated than Hook.
Katie
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Yeah, Ghostnote looks pretty awesome!
Now where’s my credit card…
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GhostNote is pretty cool. i am using it for reminding myself what the app is for, keyboard shortcuts I am trying to remember, or reminders.
Now I am not the only one to ever mention this app on this forum, it has not made it into this discussion. I too am looking for a good balance of software for personal knowledge management. Personally, I think Devon think, Evernote, or something like bear app gets the closest. That is why I am jumping on the beta train with RoamResearch.com. My main concern within PKM is the interconnectedness of notes, thoughts, and knowledge. And the Roam app is the only one that has been able to drive me away from Devon think.
For me, the killer Feature is its ability to link together Knowledge using a relatively intuitive UX. In terms of workflow, here’s how I might think about it in an attempt to plainly states it’s virtue. Just imagine a note app that scans all of your notes for references and mentions to words, ideas, and concepts. The user is presented with connections between notes Simply based on key terms and words. If you were an Evernote user, just think of the “context“ feature on steroids.
This image doesn’t do it justice, but there is a good tutorial/feature example on their website.
The app is far more powerful than just that, but this is the one feature I can’t ignore. I have been building a second brain in a variety of notes apps for years, but the manual linking and relinking, and link maintenance has been tedious — both pair and Devon think you do this well.
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Ah, but in so doing, the links are a model of your thoughts and the connections you have made. When linking automatically, as it sounds like Roam does, your brain isn’t processing, or even aware of the links unless you go looking for them.
I looked at Roam, but decided Tinderbox is still a better tool in that the web of knowledge you create is readily visible (as an outline or a concept map). Another candidate to consider here is The Brain.
To see thoughts in action, check out @beck’s videos on the Tinderbox website, and a second series of videos on her own website.
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The virtue of Roam is that it offers the linking, it does not do the linking itself. It allows you to not only separate these two types of linkages, but in fact you can filter linkages as well.
You are correct, intentionality is important when building knowledge, but some friction points that I have discovered in creating an internal second brain wiki, have not worked for me. The combination of intentional linkages, suggested linkages, and the sidebar with all of the above and more, provides a pretty unique experience that is clicked for me. As the software’s name implies, I like to traverse through my notes and ideas and discover things and connections that I haven’t encountered before. It really is the closest notes app I have found that implements the Zettelkasten method most effectively. Don’t get me wrong, Roam has some significant friction points, most I would chaulk up to the fact that it is Still in early development. Notion.so is a popular contender as well.
Tinderbox is an interesting alternative, but I can’t get over the price (I got an education discount for DEVONthink). Also, I have heard that it is quite buggy. I will definitely explore some of your other suggestions.
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Not my use case. I don’t use iOS for creation much, only consumption. So,I don’t care how well DT does writing formatted text in iOS because I never write in iOS except in my Scrivener document during NaNo. But I can see how that could be a problem if you use your iOS devices differently.
Be careful as for Scrivener on iOS, as many (including myself) are reporting broken Dropbox sync on the newer devices.
Thanks for the warning. My current iPad is old enough to be unable to even run iOS 13. I do plan to get a new one next year (holding out for a new 11 inch iPad Pro and pencil system) but I won’t really need Scrivener on it until November. Hopefully it will be fixed by then.
Hasn’t been buggy for me over the last 2-3 years.
I do think it requires some concentrated attention to get the best from it, and it’s not cheap.
Thanks for the recommendation. Been playing around with it since yesterday and it has completely changed the way I approach my workflow.
It seems to be the closest mimic to a real second brain experience.
It’s early, but already has a distinct feature set. There is a lot of discussion on twitter under the #roamcult hashtag. In addition a gentleman who clearly knows more than I do shared a custom CSS strategy to tweak the visual experience. I am mainly adjusting tags for visual distinction. I could see this ramping up quite quickly to something far more powerful.
As people have mentioned fully featured usually means bloat, and anyway is a subjective term.
For me it’s Devonthink as it hold almost anything even though in my case 90% of what I add is markdown based. For cases where I want other formats I do not want to have things in different apps. I did for a while go down the siloed route Agenda for this, Drafts for that, Apple Notes for others etc, it just got too complicated.
Drafts on iOS with a send to DT action solves nearly all my iOS usage needs when it comes to Notes, plus I have Hazel watching a cloud folder on my always on MacMini to import PDF’s (invoices etc) into DT where they are automatically filed.
I resisted DT for many years, clunky, not pretty, but V3 made me have another look and I have now gone all in with it, and I can not see that changing. DTTG is not the greatest although I am expecting an update soon given the new Mac V3, however I really only use it to view rather than create, although I do save web links with it.
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#en4life !!! I don’t care what they charge and will pay it happily.
I’ve been all in on DT for a long time. To me D3 is a step backward. It’s taken a bit to try to get it back close to the interface I use and I still miss 3 pane view. I still use DT2 some of the time just because of that. The interface to me is not nearly as easy to navigate as DT2 was. For me pretty is irrelevant. I care about function and ease of use and DT3 fails in some ways.
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I use DEVONthink a lot less since v3 came out, mainly because the interface is now dependent on using the mouse for most navigation. I don’t understand what the designers were thinking of. I see in their forum that staff is defensive and dismissive when customers air their frustrations.
Katie
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