Hook 2.0 (and 2.0.x) Release Notes

Text Hook 2 is now available from Hook’s Download page and as an in-app update.

The Hook 2.0 update is free to any Hook customer with a valid Updates license of Hook, or in valid trial or Lite mode. (Hook Pro and Hook Essentials each come with one year of free updates.) If your Updates license has expired please note that Hook 2 will be in Lite mode. In that case, applying an Updates license will give give you access to the full Essentials or Pro functionality.

Please note: if, after running Hook 2, you later revert to versions prior to 2.0 (1.8 and prior), please follow these instructions .

Hook 2.0.3 notes are near the bottom of this page.

Hook 2.0

In a nutshell

In addition to being the first truly universal linking app, as of Hook 2.0, Hook is the first truly universal automatic bookmarking app. By truly universal we mean that you can bookmark not only web pages (across browsers), but items in any compatible app (files in Finder, emails, tasks, notes, etc.) By automatic, we mean that whenever you use Copy Link, Copy Markdown Link Hook will add a bookmark; when you hook items together, Hook will add one bookmark for each side of the ‘hook’ (if they are not already there). You can also manually add bookmarks (⌘D). More info below.

Hook 2.0 sports a new search bookmarks tool, optional new window sections (PINNED and RECENT), a new configurable toolbar, QuickLook (⌘Y), additional commands, reorganized menus, ability to copy links with a keyboard shortcut without even invoking the Hook window, a new automation interface (Hook’s AppleScript API), an extended General Preferences tab, a beautiful new app icon, many fixes, and updated integrations with your favorite apps.

Documentation

The new search feature has a public help page. We will gradually update the online documentation and add new screencasts (some of which will be linked on this web page)

New Features

  • The Hook title bar is now configurable and contains new buttons: Copy Link, Hook to Copied Link, 🔍 (which means it is a title bar)
  • You can now configure global keyboard shortcuts for Copy Link and Copy Markdown Link. That means that you can perform these operations more quickly, without even using the Hook window !
  • New Quick Look feature. Preview any item in the Hook widow by typing ⌘Y, as you would in Finder, or use the Gear > View > Quick Look menu.
  • Major improvements to Hook’s AppleScript.
  • We’ve extended and reorganized Hook’s menus (Title menu (⌃T), Link menus (⌃L), Gear menu (⌃G))
  • Added Curio document template for use in Hook to New
  • Tooltips available on buttons
  • You can now Pin bookmarks (via keyboard shortcuts or the Title menu or the Link menu)
  • The Hook window now has an optional Pinned section for your pinned bookmarks. (You can show or hide it with a keyboard shortcut or via Hook’s Preferences > General tab)
  • The Hook window now has an optional Recent section (You can show or it with a keyboard shortcut or via Hook’s Preferences > General tab)
  • Pinned and Recent sections can also be expanded and collapsed (with buttons or typical outlining keyboard commands).
  • New Big Sur friendly Hook icon, which better reflects the key concept of ‘hook’ (efficient contextual information retrieval), while also imputing the One app, infinite applications concept. Thank you to Diagrams UI designer, Alexander Käßner for the app icons !
  • Miscellaneous improvements.

New (truly universal) bookmarking features

As noted, Hook is the world’s first truly universal and contextual bookmarking app, enabling you to bookmarking any linkable item in any linkable app!

  • Whenever you call Copy Link, or hook items together, Hook now automatically creates a bookmark for the item in the database.
  • When a filename changes, Hook already automatically updates the corresponding link name, if there is one. New: Hook 2.0 automatically updates names of bookmarks and links to anything: when Hook is invoked on a previously bookmarked item (tasks, web pages, notes, etc.), if the item (URL) has a new name, Hook will automatically update the name of the corresponding bookmark.
  • You can now search your Hook bookmarks. Just type ⌘F in the Hook window. Please read these search tips!
  • The Pinned section of the Hook window, mentioned above, is of course also a bookmarking feature 😊 .

Changes to General preferences tab

The General preferences tab has been significantly redesigned. It is structured to mimic the top to bottom view of Hook.

  • You can show/hide each of three toolbar buttons: Copy Link, Hook to Copied Link, 🔍
  • You can show/hide the Pinned Items and/or Recent Items sections.
  • You can configure the number of items shown in the Recent Items section of the Hook window.
  • There are keyboard shortcuts for these commands too.
  • We’ve removed the option to ‘open hook on login’ option. It is better for users to configure this directly in Apple menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options > Login Items.

New automation ( AppleScript) interface for controlling Hook itself

As you probably know, not only can Hook enhance your favorite apps through its automation integrations. Hook itself can also be controlled via automation. (“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” 😊 ).

As we announced in August, Hook 2.0 has a significantly improved AppleScript dictionary. If you have written scripts to control Hook, your automations may need some updates. (This does not affect integrations in Hook’s Scripts preferences.)

Brett Terpstra has kindly updated his free command line interface for Hook and will publish the update any moment now.

We have also published a Hook 2 compatible LaunchBar action and Alfred workflow.

Fixed

  • Fixed a glitch with Apple Books integration
  • When, in the context of an item with a very long name (such as a long tweet), you create a new file using Hook to New, Hook now truncates the new file’s name if needed.
  • Fixed a glitch with Apple Books integration
  • Fixed a problem that appeared only on macOS 11 (Big Sur) that prevented Show Hook button in menu bar window from working.
  • .hook files no longer contain an app icon, so they now have a very small footprint.
  • If you had access to Hook 2.0 private beta: FYI this fixes a bunch of glitches in the private beta that did not apply to Hook 1.8.
  • Various other fixes.

Updated integrations

NB: The latest Evernote has removed Mac automation, which means it’s not possible to auto link to it. Links you created with Hook should still work. You will see them contextually from the other side of Evernote hooks, but not contextually on the Evernote side of Hook window yet. You can find them, however, from Hook’s new search tools (mentioned above). Evernote may improve its automation, and we will research a UX-scripting option.

See Hook’s forum discussion of alternatives to Evernote, including DEVONthink and KeepIt — by developers who are firmly committed to Mac automation! Consult their forums for tips on migrating from Evernote to them.

Hook 2.0.2

  • Tweaked the app installation dialog box shown when a valid Updates license cannot be found.
  • Fixed a rare crash.
  • Updated the Hook icon contained in the Hook installation disk image (.dmg file)

Hook 2.0.3

Disk image (DMG file) containing Hook

After copying Hook to your /Applications folder (or elsewhere), please compress its disk image (.dmg file) and delete that disk image. This is to avoid a rare case where the disk image may spuriously be remounted when you launch Hook.

Reverting to Hook 1.8

If you ran Hook 1.8 before upgrading to Hook 2 and want to revert to Hook 1.8 (which is not recommended), please follow the instructions published here.

Influence the future of Hook productivity apps!

We will soon share a link to a survey where you can help us prioritize our extensive list of future Hook features and products. Thanks for participating.