Using hook to connect different items?

Hi all! I’m a Hook newbie, but excited to get to use this!

Here’s my question: it seems like when you hook files together you need a “main” file? In other words, let’s say I have file A and I link it to file B. Then I come across a new file and want that one linked to both A and B … Is there an easy way to do that?

Welcome to the Hook Productivity Forum, @eroxx

The set of objects Hook exposes to the user — does not currently include aggregates (e.g., tags, projects or the like). However, one can select a file or an object (such as a Things or OmniFocus task) as the hub of a project.

For example, I am currently working on an infographic for a paper I recently co-authored. I created a file in TaskPaper SMR Infographic PROJECT.taskpaper. I linked a bunch of items to it:

A lot of my work on this mini project gravitates around that TaskPaper file. The source of the infographic is the SMR-Pre-sleep cognitive activity Infographic.graffle file which has items that are linked to it but not to the TaskPaper file. So this project effectively has two hubs.

As of Hook 1.3., the Hook window enables you to navigate the Hook-link network without closing the Hook window. So you can normally quickly navigate the network (via the hub).

Hook does not currently have an explicit notion of “hub”, but you can treat any resource as a hub (again, that resource does not need to be a file, it could be any resource that Hook can work with). That way, you don’t need to mesh link.

Near future

  • Several users have requested we add aggregates to Hook. We have provisionally settled on a design, which I hope to publish this month for feedback. It involves the concept of “hub” mentioned above. The concept of hub is thus more general than tags or projects. There are different kinds of hubs: projects, documents one is reading (more generally resources one is delving), resources one is creating, etc.; Hook doesn’t need to know the type of hub it’s dealing with. (That is not to say that tags will not be supported explicitly in the future).
  • We also intend to enable users to view 2-degree linked items without needing to navigate from the current item, which will address some of these requirements in a different way.

While we’re on the subject, there’s also mesh linking via the menu bar icon:

You can also use the “Copy All Links” function and Link to Copied Addresses.

After the final version of the infographic was created, by our graphic designer, I then shared the information on the mySleepButton blog, Infographic for “Pre-sleep Cognitive Activity in Adults: A Systematic Review” – mySleepButton, and LinkedIn. The dissemination effort became a project in itself. I created a TaskPaper file for it, which became the hub for dissemination. I also linked the prior TaskPaper file to this new TaskPaper file.

Personally, I find some networks grow “organically” or “opportunistically”, whereas others grow more deliberately, often with a central hub resource.

Many ways to proceed. More on all this later.