Another request for creating a “mesh” of links

Hookmark Feature Requests
1

I am new to the Hook beta community. I am still working out exactly how and for what purpose to use Hook, but it is clearly something that is going to be of major use!

I share one problem/feature request that others have also pointed out. Quite frequently, what I am looking for in linking is neither a one-to-one or a one-to-many link setup, but rather a mesh.

For instance, it is very common that I have several files of various formats (Numbers, Pages, text files, PDFs, etc) along with other links such as emails, OmniFocus tasks, web pages etc, that are all part of something I am working on.

What I need here is a mesh of links, so a) everything is linked to everything else, and b) importantly, if I link something else into the project, I want it to be linked to everything else int he project, not just to one specific item.

Previously, this could be accomplished in a few different ways on MacOS. One is to create a folder for the project and put aliases to each file into the folder; another is to create a tag for the project, tag every file, and create a smart folder accumulating all files with that tag. The problem with this approach is that is it not smooth or convenient, and linking in non-file objects is difficult to impossible. Thus, Hook is really the solution I am looking for.

I therefore support the feature request that others have proposed: it would be great to have a “group” concept in which all items are intrinsically linked to all other items in the group, in addition to the more “standard” one-to-one concept in which a link is between two specific items. In creating a link, ideally the menu would have an entry for linking document to document and also provide a listing of all groups the document “belongs” to and selecting that group adds the new document to the group instead.

Thanks!

4 Likes
2

This proposal is very interesting and I will be happy to see it in future releases.

3

Just wanted to start to write a similar request :slight_smile:

Came up with the same name: “Mesh Links”.

When adding a file to an other file (part of a mesh), it would be nice you can choose between a direct link or adding the file to the mesh. So you can create a kind of connected meshes (via two linked files).

1 Like
4

We could add some new commands to the Hook window:

  1. start mesh (say ⌘+). get the name and address of current resource, add it to do a new mesh, Foo;
  2. add to mesh (⌘+). get the name and address of current resource, add it to Foo.
  3. end mesh (⌘.). next time start mesh is invoked, it will start a new mesh.

These commands wouldn’t copy addresses to the clipboard.

In initial releases of this feature, the meshes would not anonymous, and not persisted after “end mesh”.

In later releases, we could (and currently intend to) introduce tags and show all items to which a tag has been applied. We currently intend to integrate Hook with Finder tags in the future, and to unify Finder tags with Pinboard tags (and if possible, Pocket tags). Hook’s tag mechanism will thus cross ontologies. If another app has its own tag or keyword ontology (e.g., OmniFocus), as long as they expose it via JavaScript or AppleScript, Hook could in principle tap into it.

5

I 100% agree - in fact, this would be my primary use case.
I also suggest this as a premium feature - well worth $30.

@LucB You’re suggesting the meshes are named, right? In that case I would merge the tag and name and tag the files in Finder with the name of the mesh. (Though so many files would have tags like “project__3__temp__finished_really__imeanitthistime__” :wink:

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Thanks, @Shruggie. I was suggesting to go “lean”, in the first release of the feature: the meshes would be anonymous. It is sometimes useful to create anonymous meshes (it’s quicker, and less cognitively demanding, so it promotes psychological “flow”).

We’d then roll out a set of tag-related features. When you’d invoke Hook on an item, we’d show all its tags, in the context of which you could see items that have the same tag (could be a hierarchical menu item for each tag, with a count of items that have the tag in question). At this point, users could create virtual meshes by applying tags. (Hook would then be able to apply tags, which could be combined with a variant of the ⌘+ way.)

(The tagging feature has been on our road map from the beginning. This ⌘+ mesh-maker is a response to forum discussions.)

7

Great. You’ve got a purchase from me, then :slight_smile:

1 Like