Has anyone figured out a good way to paste links in notion from other applications like OmniFocus. The links from there or mail or other app-specific links don’t seem to play well in Notion. Considering how much @MacSparky likes contextual computing and having all the linking between apps, I’m curious how to best accomplish this.
Thanks!
I don’t use Notion, but in some apps you can wrap links in angle brackets, e.g., <obsidian://>, and it’ll make it a “real” link.
Without angle brackets:
obsidian://
With angle brackets:
obsidian://
Thanks for the info. That does not seem to work in Notion.
The only other thing I can think of is making a rich link, e.g., select some text, use insert link / cmd+k, then insert your url scheme link. E.g.: Obsidian
Although I’m not a Notion user, I guess that using Hookmark should work to generate links to external links. I use Hookmark extremely often to link all kinds of things together.
I use the Shortshare app to create a TinyURL link to the app link.
Specifically, I copy the app link to the clipboard (e.g., a link to a project in OmniFocus) and press the Shortshare keyboard shortcut. Shortshare places a TinyURL link to the app URL on the clipboard, ready to paste into Notion (or any other app/service that doesn’t support app links).
You’ll need to generate a TinyURL API Token, which requires a free TinyURL account. This is straightforward to setup.
An alternative is to use Hookmark to create a Universal Link. Their support page specifically references Notion.
I hope this helps!
I have tried hookmark and it doesn’t seem to like those urls either. But maybe I’m doing something wrong
I think this is what I was needing. Thank you!
I have tried hookmark and it doesn’t seem to like those urls either.
If you use Hookmark, you would need to create a Universal Link (https://hookmark.net/) instead of a standard Hookmark link (hook://).
A “Copy as Universal Link” option will appear if you open the Hookmark menu and hold down ⌥. Alternatively, you can invoke Hookmark and press ⌥⌘C to create a Universal Link.
Yeah, I’ve played with both now and I think short share will work best for me.
It is not just Notion that neuters custom links. Google Docs and Discourse forum web apps do the same thing.
We built a solution to this problem in our Hookmark app (i’m its designer). The specific command is called Copy As Universal Link. This command gets a custom link to the currently selected object in any link-friendly app and wraps a web link around it:
Copy As Universal Link from the Action ☰ button (or just do ⌥⌘C)This will create a universal link (a special kind of https link), such as [Video re-Generation 2025-09+ Misc](https://hookmark.net/hm/omnifocus//task/hHyRvOraTGk). This is a wrapper around the OmniFocus link, [Video re-Generation 2025-09+ Misc](omnifocus:///task/hHyRvOraTGk). (To be clear, there are 2 separate commands options for this: Copy As Universal Link or Copy as Universal Markdown Link).
(NB: invoking these links does not give hookmark.net any information about the object. (It’s just like any universal https link). It’s just a convention invented by Apple to deep link via web links.)
On this subject: in a recent MPU episode @MacSparky complained that you can’t paste custom links into Notion. That’s true. But again, Hookmark’s Copy As Universal Link and Copy as Universal Markdown Link were designed to get around this limitation.
When you click on a Hookmark generated universal link in Notion, Hookmark is invoked and Hookmark translates the link to its custom form (e.g., [Video re-Generation 2025-09+ Misc](omnifocus:///task/hHyRvOraTGk)) and Hookmark then tells macOS to open that link.
This works because of course web apps let you paste https(s) links. NB: universal links work in safari. Other web browsers may not be friendly to universal links.
Sorry I can’t remember what MPU episode David mentioned this problem in. I’ve been binge catching up on MPU episodes lately. If the iOS Podcast had an API for it, our Hookmark Pal app would support Hook to Copied Link from a specific time stamp in the current podcast… but that’s dreaming. As I argued on Substack, Apple’s macOS and iOS Apps Are the Weak Link, meaning they don’t provide sufficient linking support. We do what we can in Hookmark to provide linking using whatever automation we can, e.g., enabling users to create links in macOS Apple Mail and macOS Notes that can open on Mac or iOS (with Hookmark Pal), and that can be pasted in web apps like Notion, Google Docs and Discourse forums which neuter custom links.
In the recent (Dec. 2025) Keyboard Maestro episode David talked about how Keyboard Maestro allows you to create links to Apple Notes. An advantage however of using a solution like Hookmark is that you can get universal links to Apple Notes and paste them in web apps like Notion, Google Docs and Discourse. (Avid KM users can still use Keyboard Maestro here, to invoke Hookmark which has an AppleScript API.)
At 1 hr and 29 minutes in the Mac Power Users Podcast episode 828: Revisiting Keyboard Maestro, David Sparks criticizes Notion for neutering custom links.