Version 160 of Hook software integration: Enables you to link Caliber ebooks

Version 160 of Hook software integration is now available, with support for calibre - E-book manager (an open source app by Kovid Goyal). This software integration is courtesy of @Patrick : Using Hook with Calibre for creating a hook to a book - Share your Hook scripts - Hook Productivity Forum

How to get the updated integration

Hook’s automatic software update (if enabled) automatically updates Hook’s integration scripts without you needing to relaunch Hook. Using Hook’s Check for App Updates and Update Scripts command also updates the scripts, without you needing to relaunch Hook.

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Also discussed on Twitter.

I saw there is now a v6 of Calibre. Among the features/updates listed is a url scheme, and the site indicates:

Clicking on calibre:// URLs can be used to have calibre perform various actions. This can be used to create links to individual books and even locations inside books that can be accessed from other programs. For details, see: the manual.

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Does this mean that deeplinks using Hook are possible with Calibre? I have only been able to link to the book in Calibre.

It’s wonderful to be able to simply link to a specific location in a Calbre ebook using Hookmark (the way one can now in Kindle). One can create such links within Calibre, but it would be faster and easier to be able to create this link with Hookmark. Is it possible? I have not been able to do it.

To be more clear: I mean it would be wonderful to create deeplinks with Hookmark to specific locations in books in Calibre library. The capability is supposed to be in Calibre (according to the Calibre manual), but I have not been able to make it work. What I would like is to be able to create deeplinks with Hookmark in the way one can now do in Kindle. Is it possible?

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Thank you for asking, @Harold_Sjursen . That would be possible if Calibre provides an API ( AppleScript, x-callback-url or something) to get a deep link. I couldn’t tell from looking at that page.

Is there a command in a menu to get the deep link ? I have not used the app in a while.

I know this issue has been discussed, but Calibre keeps releasing updated versions and some of what may have been possible (and may still be possible) is not clear – the Calibre manual is hard to follow. Anyway, what I can do is highlight a section in a book in my Calibre library and then export that highlighted portion + any notes I want to add, in md format. A link comes along with it. I can paste this highlighted portion + notes + link into an Obsidian note, where I will have already written something on the topic. Of course the Calibre export is way more than I want in Obsidian, so I delete the highlighted text and leave the link and my note. This works OK, but is rather cumbersome. I was hoping there was a way I deeplink to locations within the Calibre library book (as is easy to do with Kindle) using Hookmark. Calibre is supposed to have an API that you can access – but I know nothing about that.

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There are two ways to copy the deep link of the current location to the clipboard in Calibre E-book Viewer:

  1. Right click, Go to → Location → Press the Copy button next to “URL for this position…”

  2. Use the keyboard shortcut for Interface → Copy current location as calibre:// URL to clipboard
    On MacOS this shortcut defaults to Ctrl+Shift+c, but it does not work for me (calibre-6.16.0.dmg).
    I was able to get around this bug on my version by changing the key combo to contain a character other than an alpha character (i.e. number, symbol, function key).
    To change the shortcut key combo, right click in the Calibre E-book Viewer and select:
    Preferences → Keyboard shortcuts → (Interface → ) Copy current location as calibre:// URL to clipboard
    Then change the the shortcut to something without a letter like: Ctrl+Shift+1