# Using Text Expansion Apps to Access Web Links

**URL:** https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/using-text-expansion-apps-to-access-web-links/9944
**Category:** Discussion & Help
**Created:** [October 15, 2026, 4:06pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/using-text-expansion-apps-to-access-web-links/9944 "2026-10-15T16:06:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![LucB](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/user_avatar/discourse.hookproductivity.com/lucb/32/2228_2.png) [@LucB](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/LucB)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2026, 4:06pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/using-text-expansion-apps-to-access-web-links/9944/1 "2026-10-15T16:06:05Z")

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[Hookmark](https://hookproductivity.com/) 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:

> **[Using Text Expansion Apps to Access Web Links](https://luccogzest.substack.com/p/using-text-expansion-apps-to-access)**
>
> A Complement to Hookmark

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](https://cogzest.com/2015/08/the-value-of-textexpander-snippet-conventions-web-addresses-citations-bibliographical-references-markdown-and-more/). 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](https://cogzest.com/books/) I got that link by typing `[bks`, `[` standing for markdown link, and bks being my abbreviation for `books`.