Hookmark is a powerful bookmarking and linking tool, but it doesn’t need to do everything. Other utilities can complement it in useful ways.
I often use a text expansion utility to insert web links in writing—in Markdown or plain URL formats. I have over 5000 URLs stored as TextExpander snippets. I.e., I use TextExpander as a bookmarking tool. These include links to blog posts, research papers, frequently visited websites, and other resources I regularly want to access or share. To be sure, some of those links are synonyms, in case I can’t remember the exact abbreviation for a link. I use TextExpander but Typinator, aText, TypeIt4Me, Rocket Typist, Alfred, Raycast, and Keyboard Maestro would do just as well for the techniques described here.
In fact, I used the abbreviation #sste (# stands for URL, “ss” for substack and “te” for TextExpander) to insert the following link here: https://luccogzest.substack.com/p/using-text-expansion-apps-to-access, which I recommend reading on the subject:
According to my conventions, to get a Markdown version of this link I would type [sste. I.e., all my markdown links start with [.
How can I possibly remember so many abbreviations? And why use a text expansion utility for this purpose when Hookmark already provides bookmarking and information retrieval facilities? The answers involve a rather interesting property of the human mind, one that I originally discussed in a 2015 CogZest article on TextExpander snippet conventions. But I recommend reading my more recent article on Substack first.
This is an example of how CogSci Apps and CogZest leverage cognitive science for Cognitive Productivity I got that link by typing [bks, [ standing for markdown link, and bks being my abbreviation for books.