Custom Dashboard using Hook in OmniOutliner

Showcases and Use Cases
1

I’m posting this because I thought it might be useful to someone.

I routinely have a number of projects I’m working on, and during the day I find myself switching among various apps for each project.

I may open the Finder to look at a project’s folder, or consult the draft document I’ve been working on in OmniOutliner … or I might open up DevonThink where I keep that project’s research, or back to OmniOutliner where I process culls from the research … or even Apple Notes, where I keep a kind of daily log. It’s a lot of back and forth among apps, and then navigating inside each app to get to the right place, or Smart Group, or file, or database.

So I created a Dashboard in an OmniOutliner document.

Dashboard
Dashboard1466×1500 229 KB

Under each project are links I’ve created in Hook to the specific files. One click gets me where I want to go. I keep the Dashboard open on the side of my desktop, and it’s made it a LOT easier to navigate among all the different aspects of the projects I need to juggle throughout the day.

The coolest Hook trick was getting Apple Notes to open showing only those items that have a specific project-related tag. I created a Keyboard Maestro macro that would open Notes and then filter for the tag. I saved that macro as a Trigger File, and then used Hook to link the trigger file to the dashboard.

I was particularly grateful to be able to rename all the links so that I wasn’t stuck with long filenames.

Hook is one great app, and I’m finding it to be endlessly useful and increasingly indispensable.

3 Likes
2

Welcome to the Hook Productivity Forum , @Prob, and thanks for sharing that awesome way of organizing your work with Hook across all those apps.

3

And thank you for a terrific app. I’m finding new uses for it all the time.

1 Like
4

I would very much like to try this but don’t have a clue how to go about recreating it… Are you able to share the KM macro you created?

5

Happy to.

The Keyboard Maestro macro consists of 5 steps:

Open “/System/Applications/Notes.app”
Pause for .5 Seconds
Type the ⌥⌘F Keystroke
Pause for .5 Seconds
Insert Text “#[name of tag]” by Typing

Then I save that macro as a Trigger File, called “Open Apple Notes to #[name of tag]”.

I use Hookmark to create a link to that trigger file, then paste that link into my Dashboard, and then right-click to edit the name of the link to just the name of the tag.

Hope this helps.

2 Likes
6

Thank you! Much appreciated. I will give this a try.

1 Like