When I exchanged emails with Steve Jobs in 2010, I sent him the white paper he requested, recommending—among other things—that Apple introduce system-wide linking in what was then called OS X (now macOS). Years later, Apple rolled out Quick Note, a feature introduced with macOS Monterey (version 12) in 2021. I hoped it would reflect some of the ideas I had proposed.
Quick Note is potentially a handy feature on macOS and iOS. In practice, however, its execution is so poor that it’s nearly useless—and it has barely evolved since its debut. Hookmark, in contrast, delivers what Quick Note promised (and much more) by enabling you to hook almost anything to almost anything. A hook is a two-way link between items, so you can always get back to where you started.
What is Quick Note?
A Quick Note is a note in Apple’s Notes app that can be created rapidly and, in principle, connected to an item such as a web page. Apple’s marketing suggests Quick Note works across apps, but on the Mac it effectively works only between Safari and Notes.
Method 1: From Safari
There are several ways to create a Quick Note. The most obvious is from Safari:
- Visit a web page, say hookproductivity.com.
- Select some text.
- Control-click and choose New Quick Note (or Add to Quick Note).
If you’re lucky, macOS will:
- Create a new note in Apple Notes.
- Insert into that note a link back to the page.
You can also trigger Quick Note with a hot corner or the Fn + Q shortcut—but in those cases, the note is blank and contains no link to the source.
Problem 1: Hit-and-Miss Reliability
Even in Safari, Quick Note is unreliable. Sometimes the link gets inserted; other times, it doesn’t.
Method 2: From Notes
You can also create a Quick Note from within Notes itself:
- Open a web page in any browser.
- Create a new Apple Note.
- Click the 🔗+ button in the Notes toolbar.
- Choose the web page you want to link.
This does produce a link—but it only addresses part of the problem.
Problem 2: Links Are One-Way
Suppose tomorrow you’re on hookproductivity.com and want to jump back to your note. You can’t. Quick Note creates a one-way street: from the note to the page, but not the other way around.
Problem 3: Safari-Only (More or Less)
Quick Notes effectively only work between Safari and Notes. They “half work” in Chrome.
On the Mac, you can’t create Quick Notes from Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, Messages, TextEdit—or any third-party apps. Apple documentation claims support for Maps, News, Podcasts, and Stocks, but in my experience those integrations don’t work. The only place it kind of works is Safari (plus the toolbar in Notes).
Problem 4: Mouse Required
Another limitation: to get a linkback you must use the mouse. Selecting text, right-clicking, and choosing Add to Quick Note is mandatory. No smooth keyboard-only workflow.
In Sum
Quick Note was introduced in 2021 with macOS Monterey as a showcase feature. Yet several years later, it remains half-baked, unreliable, and confined to a narrow set of Apple apps. My most recent tests on macOS 15.6.1 (24G90) confirm this. Maybe macOS 26 improves the situation, but so far I haven’t found evidence of that. I’ll update this post if testing proves otherwise.
Quick Note fares slightly better on iPhone and iPad—but still feels unfinished, and in any case that’s beyond the scope of this post.
Enter Hookmark
Where Quick Note stumbles, Hookmark shines. Hookmark was designed from the ground up to solve exactly the problems Apple left unaddressed. Instead of half-baked, one-way “linking,” Hookmark gives you a universal, reliable way to create and use two-way links between just about anything on your Mac.
Hook to New
Need to take notes on a web page, a PDF, or even an email? With Hookmark, you can Hook to New: instantly create a new document (in your favorite app, not just Notes) that’s automatically linked back to the source.
- Reading a research paper in Safari? Two keystrokes (⌃H and ⌘N), and you’ve got a linked note in Obsidian, DEVONthink, BBEdit, or wherever you prefer to write.
- Processing an email? Hook it to a new task in OmniFocus, Things, or TaskPaper, and you’ll never lose the connection between the two.
Unlike Quick Note, the links are two-way. You can always get back to the source, and from the source you can always jump into your note.
Copy Link + Hook to Copied Link
Another Hookmark superpower is its flexibility with links you’ve already copied. Copy any link (to a file, an email, a task, a web page—anything), and then invoke Hook to Copied Link to connect it to your current item.
This means you’re not locked into Apple’s Notes app, Safari, or any limited workflow. You can link across apps, across formats, across contexts. If it’s on your Mac, you can hook it.
Quick Note vs. Hookmark
| Feature | Quick Note (macOS) | Hookmark |
|---|---|---|
| Link direction | One-way: from Note → source only | Two-way: jump back and forth |
| Reliability | Hit-and-miss; links don’t always appear | Consistent: links always created |
| Supported apps | Mostly Safari + Notes; partial in Chrome; almost nowhere else | Universal: works across files, web pages, emails, tasks, PDFs, third-party apps |
| Note creation | Only in Apple Notes | Hook to New: create notes (or other docs) in any app (Obsidian, DEVONthink, BBEdit, OmniOutliner, etc.) |
| Cross-app linking | Not supported | Hook to Copied Link: connect anything to anything |
| Keyboard workflow | Requires mouse (right-click menus, toolbar clicks) | Fully keyboard-friendly |
| Integration with workflows | Locked to Apple Notes; limited customization | Fits into your personal toolset and workflows |
| Automation | No automation support | Full automation: AppleScript and Shortcuts integration |
| Longevity | Half-baked feature, stagnant since 2021 | Actively developed, designed for productivity and knowledge work |
Why Hookmark Wins
- Reliability: No “hit and miss.” If you invoke Hookmark, the link will be there.
- Universality: Works across your apps, not just Safari and Notes.
- Two-way street: Navigate back and forth seamlessly, instead of getting stuck in one direction.
- Keyboard-friendly: No forced right-clicks or mouse gymnastics.
- Automation-ready: Hookmark supports AppleScript and Shortcuts, so you can weave linking directly into your automated workflows.
Example: Automating Hooks with AppleScript / Shortcuts
With Hookmark, you can automate linking in ways Quick Note simply can’t. For instance:
- Automatic note-taking workflow: Every time you open a PDF in Preview, Hookmark can automatically create and hook a new note in Obsidian (or DEVONthink, or BBEdit). That way, you never have to remember to make the connection—it’s just there.
- Email-to-task pipeline: With a Shortcut, you can hook every flagged Mail message to a new OmniFocus task, so the task is always linked back to the original email.
- Context-rich journaling: Use AppleScript to hook the document you’re working on to your daily journal entry in Day One, so you can trace what you were focused on.
These are just a few examples. Hookmark’s AppleScript and Shortcuts support means you can bend linking to fit your personal workflows—something Quick Note doesn’t even begin to address.
Hookmark turns the dream of ubiquitous linking into reality—something Quick Note only gestures toward.