Get more out of your launcher with Hookmark

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100% of Hookmark users who responded to our survey said they use launchers, whether it be Raycast, Alfred, or LaunchBar. We love and use launchers too. They’re great for quickly randomly accessing frequently used information and many other purposes.

Launchers are even better when they are used in conjunction with Hookmark. In this article we look at how Hookmark’s superpowers complement launchers.

  • Context sensitive. The big difference between Hookmark and launchers is that Hookmark is context-aware whereas launchers are context-independent. Launchers are mainly search tools, meaning you need to type in a query to get desired results; these results are the same regardless of what document happens to be open or selected in the foreground. In contrast, when you invoke Hookmark’s context window, it is tuned to the currently selected or open item. For example, if you open Hookmark in an Obsidian note, Hookmark’s content and commands will apply to that specific note.

  • Copying links. Hookmark is unique in that it can copy links to many kinds of items, which you can then paste anywhere, for future immediate access to those items.

  • Hooking items together. Hookmark can create bidirectional links between items. These links are called “hooks”. Hooks show up in Hookmark’s context-sensitive window on either item. Thus, a hook is like a bookmark that is presented in the context of an item. It’s as if the item was a bookmark folder for its hooks. This has innumerable benefits. A common use case is to hook a draft to an outline, emails from co-authors, notes, and ancillary materials (web pages, PDFs, etc.). With hooks, you can access information without even typing a search query. Just open Hookmark and access the hooked information.

  • A navigator. Once you set up hooks, Hookmark’s context window enables you to navigate networks of hooked items. That is especially useful for quickly following a crumb trail to get to a specific item.
  • Hook to new…. With its “Hook to New> item” command, Hookmark can instantly create items in the app of your choice and hook them to the current item. That’s very handy for note-taking, for example. For instance, in the context of a task item (e.g., in OmniFocus), you can instantly create an Obsidian note and hook it to that specific task in your task manager.
  • Convert custom links to universal links. What’s more, Hookmark can convert custom links (specific to the app) to a universal URL format. Universal URLs are useful for pasting in Google Docs, Notion, and other web applications that don’t accept custom URLs.
  • Compatible apps. With its extensive app [integration library](https://hookproductivity.com/help/preferences/script-editor/, Hookmark can access items that may be opaque to launchers or require a special plugin, such as emails, notes, and tasks.
  • Reveal files in Finder. Hookmark can reveal files in Finder from the app in which they are currently open, enabling you to quickly see the folder structure of files.
  • Copying paths. Hookmark enables you to copy the path of the currently open or selected file to the clipboard.
  • Bookmarks window. Hookmark maintains a bookmark repository for all your links. This is a list of links to precious information items. You can search, tag and operate on these bookmarks.
  • .hookmark files Hookmark supports .hookmark Finder files which are like Finder aliases but can contain a link to anything that has a URL. These files are plain text so you can easily edit them. They are normally created contextually with the Make Hookmark File command.
  • Bookmark service integration. Hookmark can integrate with several bookmarking services: Pinboard, GoodLinks and Instapaper, enabling you to add bookmarks to web pages you link.

What’s more, there are Hookmark extensions for Raycast, LaunchBar, and Alfred, which enable you to access Hookmark bookmarks directly from the launcher. In addition, the Raycast extension allows you to access some Hookmark commands directly from the Raycast interface.

So why not get more out of your favorite launcher with the context-sensitive capabilities by trying Hookmark today? There’s a 30-day free trial, and the Basic mode is free beyond that.