Change Location of Hook Resources?

[andreamocko]

I was wondering if it was possible to change where Hook saves its resource files (e.g. Help, Hook Files, Notes, Templates). Currently, they save in ~/Documents, but I prefer to keep app resources out of my Documents folder as it clutters up my actual documents. I searched the forums and also searched throughout the preferences but could only find a way to change where notes are saved not the rest.

[LucB]

Thanks for bringing this up, @andreamocko. We (@ CogSci Apps) should/will write a help page on this topic.

Preamble. Hook has no special purpose UI to change the location of its main (~/Documents/) folder per se. Our rationale was that we wanted to make it super easy for users to address what we expected to be the most common case, which is to change the default location of the Notes folder. Many users (we assumed) would want the default location to be in personal information manager like EagleFiler, or somewhere indexed by DEVONthink. And we didn’t want to confuse matters by having two different folder location widgets.

Fortunately, the effect I think you are asking for can be achieved with symbolic links.

After taking certain precautions, described below, you can address your problem by moving the ~/Documents/Hook folder and then creating a symbolic link in its old home. I know you know how to do this, but for the benefit of those who do not: suppose you move the Hook folder to your home folder, then from the command line you would do this:

% cd ~/Documents
% ln -s ~/Hook Hook

which creates a symbolic link named “Hook” in your ~/Documents folder that points to Hook in your home (~) folder.

Precautions

Before moving the ~/Documents/Hook folder,

1. quit any applications that may have some of its files open. This is because the double operation of moving and creating a symbolic link can confuse some apps (nothing to do with Hook).
2. quit Hook.

Summary of steps

So the order is:

1. Quit Hook and various apps.
2. Move the Hook folder.
3. Setup the symbolic links from the Documents/Hook folder to its new location.
4. Relaunch Hook and all your apps
5. Enjoy

Possible future alt

Some users won’t even want a symbolic link in their ~/Documents folder. So we might provide a UI or terminal command to choose a different Hook folder location.

[LucB]

Also, if your Notes folder has many notes, you’ll want to make sure that your Spotlight index is functional so that they can reliably and quickly be found after you migrate the folder.

[andreamocko]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to this! This makes my day!

[jonathanbuys]

Just my 2¢, but it sure looks like what Hook puts in ~/Documents would probably feel a lot more at home in ~/Application Support.

[LucB]

Thanks, Jonathan.

I agree that a case can be made for the templates to be in Hook’s “Application Support” folder. The reason we put them in ~/Documents/Hook is that we want them to be very visible to the user, and used freely. Apple wants Application Support to be used for files that are not to be modified by the user. (The ~/Library folder is often hidden, for instance.) We feel that by making them visible, users are more likely to manipulate them (a good thing) and understand them.

At some point, we might well add a template manager, like OmniOutliner did with its templates. (Its templates are in Application Support.) At that point the templates could be in “Application Support” (because they would not be directly modified in Finder).

The “Hook Files” and “Notes” folder really belong where they are in our opinion. Notes are documents. Users will refer to them and move them around.

[stevelw]

I agree a template manager then removing them from Documents makes most sense (in a future version).

[davem]

+1. My first experience of Hook was to find complicated clutter around my documents folder, which I could not see a sane way to clean up. My second experience was finding a set of shortcuts for software I never use, nor have installed.

Definitely worth putting the templates in the Application Support folder. Create a button in ‘Preferences’ to open this folder directly for people who may not know how to navigate there manually, as many other applications do.

[LucB]

welcome to the Hook Productivity Forum, @davem. And thank you for the vote and feedback.

@davem

Definitely worth putting the templates in the Application Support folder.

agreed.

@davem

Create a button in ‘Preferences’ to open this folder directly for people who may not know how to navigate there manually, as many other applications do.

we hesitated to put the button because editing Applications Support is a bit much for some users. There are files there that we would not want them to accidentally move. OmniOutliner has a nice template manager as mentioned above. But that’s more work so we prioritized other requests.

@davem

My second experience was finding a set of shortcuts for software I never use, nor have installed.

what shortcuts or menu entries would you like to see removed? There’s Copy Markdown Link which is available for Pro users, but not everyone uses Markdown. The Link to New menu is only supposed to contain entries for installed software. The content of that menu can be edited by editing the custom templates folder.

Our todo list includes making Hook’s contextual window configurable. For instance, some people want the title commands in the main Hook window, where it was before 1.3, and we intend to do, though we don’t have a public ETA for it.

Speaking of menus, the menu items in the next release of Hook will be better organized, according to frequency of use, and with dividers (grouping of commands).

[davem]

@LucB

what shortcuts or menu entries would you like to see removed? There’s Copy Markdown Link which is available for Pro users, but not everyone uses Markdown. The Link to New menu is only supposed to contain entries for installed software. The content of that menu can be edited by editing the custom templates folder.

Hey Luc,

Thanks for the reply! (and despite my minor berating I’m about to buy a license!)

I understand your reservations about the ‘Library’ folder shortcut - however, this is quite a common pattern, and far less work than building a new interface to manage templates!

what shortcuts or menu entries would you like to see removed

oh god please digitally burn in a fire the Microsoft templates.

I’m very happy with just Markdown and plain text as a template format for notes; notes I manage elsewhere, where I see Hooks as a mechanism to connect things, rather than annotate them (though inevitably my use-case optimisation demands may not fit everyone else’s optimisation demands!)

I would very much like to see LaunchBar integration - I effectively use DTPro as a my document storage and working space, and use LB to open files out from within it (‘instant send’ is the name of my first child now). Being able to hit Hook connections on a file I’d sent to LaunchBar from DEVONthink would stop me from running for office ever again.

[LucB]

@davem

what shortcuts or menu entries would you like to see removed

oh god please digitally burn in a fire the Microsoft templates.

Templates should only be present for installed apps. (But some templates , like .rtf, can be used by multiple apps.) I’ve logged an issue for us to look into that. Please forgive me for asking, but are you sure you don’t have Microsoft Office apps on your system , such as in a subfolder for /Applications? Hook would then assume it should present the templates.

@davem

I’m very happy with just Markdown and plain text as a template format for notes;

We do all our internal and external documentation in Markdown here

@davem

I would very much like to see LaunchBar integration

glad to hear that, because barring some issues, we will support launchers in the next release (with an automation dictionary of Hook’s own, and a more) . This will be incrementally released; but quite a bit should be available in the first release of it. This will allow Hook to be used for all kinds of purposes that the UI does not yet explicitly support or make fast enough, such as showing all Hooked items and “hub” nodes.

[LucB]

@davem

I would very much like to see LaunchBar integration - I effectively use DTPro as a my document storage and working space, and use LB to open files out from within it (‘instant send’ is the name of my first child now). Being able to hit Hook connections on a file I’d sent to LaunchBar from DEVONthink would stop me from running for office ever again.

We released some LaunchBar integration recently. LaunchBar’s “Send to” > Hook works fine for files; but not URLs at this point. When you use “send to” in context of DEVONthink, do you send the files themselves (with the file path), or does the receiving app receive the DT URL?

The reason I ask is that Hook’s built-in scripts use DT native URLs. There may be a way to configure LaunchBar for that, or it might be something we need to do on the Hook side (I’m asking on this side). (My own use of LaunchBar’s ‘send to’ feature is with files).

Using file URLs is OK for items that are just indexed by DT (rather than in Hook’s database). But of course I wouldn’t recommend that for files in DT’s database.

[keith.adams]

Adding my vote for an option to change the location of the Hook folder (not just with symlinks). I keep my “Documents” folder organized a certain way and the “Hook” folder is currently the only folder out of place. Thanks!

[ChristinWhite]

Just wanted to drop in briefly and say I too very much dislike that the location can’t be changed, my Documents folder is organized the way I like for documents, not application files, this belongs in Application Support or — for me — my iCloud Drive/Application Sync folder.

I feel like I’m on Windows again where developers keep cluttering up Documents when more appropriate directories exist.

I can understand wanting to default to ~/Documents for users to see first but we need an option to move it. It’s weird that you give us the ability to move Notes and Hook Links but not the full application data folder.

I otherwise adore Hook, it’s an amazing app, but there’s a little bit of friction now every time I open my Documents and see something that doesn’t belong there for my workflow and organization scheme.

[LucB]

Thanks for the feedback. Sorry we haven’t gotten to that one yet. It’s getting closer to the top of our priority stack.

[ChristinWhite]

Oh, it’s planned? That’s fantastic! Thank you!

I lot of the friction disappears when I know it won’t be there forever. I do love Hook and I seem to be telling everyone about it lately

[john.catalano]

In the meantime, I’ve hidden the Hook folder.

chflags hidden ~/Documents/Hook

Keyboard shortcut to show/hide hidden files: command + shift + period

[LucB]

Thanks for all the input re this. For the record, this was added in Hook 3.2.