Hook 1.5.1 (3334) is now available

Releases
1

Hook Version 1.5.1 (3334) is now available as an in-app update and from Hook’s download page.

These notes describe the difference between Hook 1.5.1 and Hook 1.4. If you’re one of the few users who installed Hook 1.5 (which was very briefly available), please read this page.

Highlights

Details below.

User interface changes

1. Link to Copied Address renamed to Hook to Copied Link, and Link to New to Hook to New

n order to help newcomers quickly understand Hook, we have renamed the Link to Copied Address menu item to Hook to Copied Link. This creates a clearer parallel between Copy Link and this command. A typical usage of Hook involves Copy Link followed by Hook to Copied Link. Hook users have already been speaking in terms of “hooking items together”. The meaning of the command hasn’t changed, which is to establish a bidirectional link between the current item and the one referenced in the clipboard.
The Link to New menu item has accordingly been renamed to Hook to New. And we have renamed the “LINKS” section of the Hook window to “HOOKED LINKS”.

For even more symmetry, the main keyboard shortcut for Hook to Copied Link is now ⌘V (which also worked before). ⌘L still works for that.

2. The gear menu is now in the Title bar

The gear menu, which used to be in the Status bar, is now on the far right side of the Title bar. So you can hide the status bar without making the gear menu inaccessible. The gear icon is displayed when the cursor hovers over it.

3. Reordered menu entries

We have reordered the menu items in the Title and Links menus. We have also introduced separators between them. This will make the commands easier to find.

New! Hook automation

You can now control Hook programmatically thanks to its new AppleScript dictionary. You can get a list of all bookmarks created by Hook. For any bookmark, you can everything hooked to it. You can also automatically invoke Hook on a particular bookmark. There are some other functions.

The Automation of Hook help page has more information including links to Alfred workflows we’ve developed for Hook.

A version of the Trickster app (by Apparent Software) that leverages Hook’s automation is coming soon. It will mark Hook-linked files with a special icon, so you can easily see which files have hooks.

Please consider sharing your Hook automation scripts, LaunchBar actions, Alfred Workflows, Keyboard Maestro macros and other automations of Hook in the Share your Hook scripts category of the Hook productivity forum and elsewhere.

Other enhancements

  • Before, only document-based apps could be the default Hook to New (⌘N) app. Now you can select a database app as the default too (for example, DEVONthink, Drafts, OmniFocus, or Things). This is configured on the Notes tab.
  • Also improved wording of Preference window’s Notes tab.
  • The Title and Links menus now contain a share sheet function. This provides a fast and uniform method for sharing information about the current item, or the hooked item. In Finder, this shares a link to the current file and the file itself. For other items, it currently only shares the title of the item and a link to the item.
  • If a .hook file contains a link to another .hook file, Hook will not open the link.
  • Added a command to the menu bar window’s Gear menu to show / hide the status bar.
  • Hook links can now track files moved to a different volume.

Issues fixed

  • Fixed conditions where attempting to drag the title bar would show Hook’s Title menu.
  • Now, newly added scripts are shown without one needing to restart Hook.
  • Fixed a case where Hook sync would consume too much CPU even after de-activating sync.
  • Optimized the number of files created by the sync process, and its efficiency.
  • Fixed a problem that could cause the default app’s name to appear twice in the Link to New menu (now called the Hook to New menu).
  • Fixed crashes in cases when the clipboard had unexpected content.
  • Fixed an occasional scroll problem in the Preferences window’s Scripts pane.
  • Fixed an issue with “Make Hook File” that prevented it from working if called on a web page containing a / character.
  • Optimized import, export and other functions.

Changes to support for Apple Notes

As discussed last year on the Hook productivity forum and help pages, macOS 10.15 has AppleScript bugs, and there are limitations to how macOS uses Notes’ ID’s. At that point, we added cautions to Hook’s linkable apps page regarding Apple Notes.

Given that Apple still has not fixed the issues with Notes’ AppleScript, we felt it prudent to add a warning dialog box to the Copy Link and Copy Markdown Link commands in the context of Apple Notes. If you want to proceed, just cancel the dialog box. We realize this is an extra step, but it will prevent accidental reliance on Apple Notes. And we expect most users will avoid copying links to Apple Notes.

Pro users who don’t want this warning can edit the script prior to updating the app (customizations take precedence over the built-in script). Or they can edit the Notes script using instructions accessible via the dialog box.

You can, of course, continue to paste links garnered by Hook (Copy Link) into your Apple notes. That means you can continue to link from your Apple notes. You can also use Hook’s search links to link to Apple notes.

You can find out more at Apple Notes App and Hook.

Additional and updated integrations

The Hook integration server automatically provides updates to Hook clients. They are also bundled into new versions of the app.

For more information

For more information please visit the Hook productivity forum, and upcoming Hook productivity blog posts.

Gratitude

Thanks to everyone for using Hook and contributing to it!

2

Hi Luc,

If you’re one of the few users who installed Hook 1.5 (which was very briefly available), please read this page

It looks like the link for those who have installed v. 1.5 leads to a page that does not exist.

3

thanks for letting me know! Apparently I don’t know how to use the permalink manager tool on our WordPress. This strange link works:

I will ask our system admin to setup redirects so other links work.

I had to shorten the link for the in app release notes (and a lot of other text) because Microsoft App Center has a character limit in its release notes field. and they count Markdown characters as significant!