This relates to the discussion about project context.
Hookmark is a tool for linking documents and other objects across the filesystem, note-taking apps, email, etc.
I’ve tried it a few times and it’s never stuck with me. I’m thinking about giving it another go.
Anybody out there currently using Hookmark? How are you using it?
I’m usually pretty good with new software, but I tried Hookmark recently and couldn’t figure it out. I need a good tutorial, but haven’t been able to find one. It seems like such a good app!
I’ve used it for several years (the pro version) and use it every day.
Not that I use all the features: I mainly use it as a shortcut for easy linking. E.g. if I wanted to create an Omnifocus task from your post, I’d simply run cmd-shift-space to bring up the Hookmark bar with the webpage link already highlighted,
Then cmd-n to create a new linked task in OmniFocus. Then if I invoke Hookmark again on the task, it will automatically show the linked website.
Of course, Hookmarking this website again will now show the linked task:
This makes it easy to switch between the various documents you’ve linked.
But mainly I use it as a simple method of getting Markdown (and RFT) links to any type of document for inserting as links into other documents. There the sequence is simply;
cmd-shift-space and cmd-c to get the link.cmd-v to paste in the link.It ‘knows’ about various different document times and link-schemes, so I can use the same method to link images, DEVONthink documents, files, emails, and so on, without worrying about the specific link format.
That’s only a small part of what it can do, but that’s useful enough that I would miss it if I didn’t have it.
It’s a key app for me. I use Hookmark across various Mac apps like Things, DEVONthink, OmniOutliner, Mail, and files such as PDF and Excel docs.
For a complex project, I like having Things link to an OmniOutliner file. And that could have links to other files.
I’ve used Hookmark daily for a number of years in much the same way as @brookter
The usefulness of easily obtaining a link to whatever web page, document, pdf, note, email, task etc you’re working on so you can paste the link elsewhere or “hooking” all the related items you’re working on together is what developer, @LucCogZest, and @MacSparky call “contextual computing”. It makes it so much easier to jump between related items without having to search for them. It reduces the cognitive load and chance of getting distracted while looking for that site, email, document etc (a huge help for those of us with ADHD).
Hookmark is always one of the first applications I install, even though I probably only use a third of its features.
I like the idea of Hookmark, but the design and process of using it is frustrating. I run into panels like this one
which feels like it’s straight out of Windows 95.
Katie
I used it for quite a while by putting the links into Things 3 for SOP type work. Have since moved to my own custom URL’s with keyboard maestro.
My opinion? Hookmark is good for navigation once you have an entry point. Finding the entrance is the awkward bit. To that end there is a very good (although now quite old) tag centric file manager called Leap (sorry, can’t get a link to the macOS App Store from my phone). You might want to take a look.
The other thing with Hookmark is that you need (or at least I need) to keep the number of hooks per file low. I used these 5 sources to write this chapter is manageable; I used these 50 for this paper is not. You still need a (tagged) file manager, Zotero, DEVONthink type application for that.
Yep. One of my favourite apps.
Leap is no longer in the app store. I’m not even sure it is workable on macOS. The Ironic software page is still reachable,
I use Hookmark all the time. Linking projects to websites to emails.
Handy, but I do agree with @KVZ that the user interface is far from user friendly.
I think I’ll give Hookmark another try. Why not?
I think one of my problems with Hookmark in the past is that I like an outline view of all documents in a project, not a list of documents related to whatever document I am looking at.
That’s a shame, still works on my Intel iMac although it’s still on 18 something.
I found can alternative for Linux called TagSpaces, which is cross platform. Also an open source project called TagStudio, again cross platform.
I make my project outline in Obsidian and then use Hookmark to easily make Markdown links for all the important docs, then I past those links into the project outline so it’s easy to navigate to any document using its Hookmark link.
So I rarely use the Hookmark dropdown but I use it to make links nearly constantly throughout the day. Links to email messages are especially useful — which is one of the reasons why I continue to use MailMate for email.
I was using Hookmark heavily as a means to link Outlook emails together.
Sadly, when search all but stopped working, I was compelled to update to the new Outlook, which no longer supports/incorporates AppleScript. Hookmark therefore no longer has a “hook” (sorry) into anything email related.
This is (of course) not Hookmark’s fault—but it has seen my use of it plummet, to the point where I forget it’s a thing. In the absence of Outlook offering that integration in the future, not sure I will continue updating/upgrading it.
Can you hook to Outlook mail in the web? I tried it out this week and it seems to work. It has not worked in the past.
If your browser is supported by Hookmark yes. Unfortunately the “modern” desktop Outlook client distant yet support AppleScript (although it’s been promised by Microsoft for well over a year). The legacy Outlook desktop client still supports Hookmark
I use Hookmark as untrustworthy quicklinks to files in Finder. They are normally stable, regardless you are moving files around.
Links look like this:
hook://file/8MwF2pgKI?p=cHJvMnR5cGUvRG93bmxvYWRz&n=FredensLogikCover%2Ejpg)
So I have been experimenting by simply shorten it to hook://file/8MwF2pgKI
That will work for a couple of days.
I have no idea what the rest of the app is supposed to do. All instructions are quite uphill, and I like to keep things simple. It would be nice to have a more simple alternative.
Their process requires staff to think for five years about which Word template they’ll use for the requirements document. 
Katie
