This page describes two Hookmark Pro features.
Suppose you want to refer to many files that contain some text, or that match some other Spotlight criteria. For example, you might want to refer to all files that contain “Foo bar baz”. For this purpose, you can use the Copy a Search Link from Clipboard.
- Copy “foo bar baz” to the clipboard.
- Select the Copy a Search Link from Clipboard command (⇧⌘S) from the Advanced Gear menu.
Hookmark will create this link: hook://search/?q=Foo%20bar%20baz. When you use that link, Hookmark will invoke Spotlight to search for files matching that query.
Suppose you want to refer to all files that contain “Foo bar baz” in the title. For this purpose, you can copy this spotlight expression to the clipboard: name: Foo bar baz, and invoke the Copy a Search Link from Clipboard command. It will create this link: hook://search/?q=name%3A%20Foo%20bar%20baz. Again using this link will invoke Spotlight to search for files matching that query.
You can even use Hookmark to generate a new unique ID that you paste in as many files as you would like to reference. You would use the Copy a New Unique ID command (⌘U) from the Advanced Gear menu. And then you can Copy a Search Link from Clipboard (⇧⌘S) command to create a link to search for that ID.
For example, the Copy a New Unique ID command might generate this ID: P19OH-5KPM8. You can then paste this ID in as many files as you would like to reference. Then you can use the Copy a Search Link from Clipboard command which would create this search link: hook://search/?q=P19OH-5KPM8. Try it: paste P19OH-5KPM8 and click on the previous link.
You can even turn those links into universal links by focusing on the link and choosing the Copy As Universal Link command from the Action ☰ button.
Dealing with apps that are not link-friendly
This can also be used to reference information in an app that is not link-friendly or whose files are not easily visible on the Finder, but whose data are indexed by Spotlight. Just copy and paste unique IDs in the app’s target object, and create search links to find them (with Copy A Search String From Clipboard).