Link-friendly Mac Apps

Linkable Mac Applications

This document lists apps that we know can be used with Hookmark, meaning that you can bookmark and hook (bidirectionally link) their items together with Hookmark. The information results from our testing and/or Hookmark customers’. (See also : Whatโ€™s a Linkable App and Why Does Linkability Matter?).

Legend
  1. ๐Ÿ‘ : The app has reliable automation for linking which is used by Hookmark. Those apps are the best apps to use with Hookmark. Linking should work regardless of the language of the app. And their software developers should be commended for supporting linking and automation.
  2. ๐Ÿค” : Hookmark integrates with the app using UI scripting because the app lacks an adequate API for linking (possibly no API).

Technical/quantitative computing/programming

PDF Readers

Some other apps have PDF readers built-in to them with which you can use Hookmark, such as DEVONthink’s PDF reader.

PDF Readers supporting deep linking (to specific pages)

Hookmark enables you to copy deep links to specific selections in a PDF ! Paste the links and share them anywhere. That means you can send colleagues a link that will open the specific PDF at the specific page and location on the page! Save yourselves time and use these links rather than referring to page numbers/paragraphs in writing.

Shared hook://file/ links require that the file has the same name on both Macs (good for sharing files via: cloud sharing (like Dropbox); email; version control systems; document management systems).

See: Deep PDF Links Take You Right Where You Need to Focus.

You’ll also love Using Hookmark with Appleโ€™s QuickTime Player! It gives you deep links to specific timestamps ๐Ÿ˜Š.

PDF readers supporting “Copy Selection and Link”

See Copy Selection and Link.

PDF readers lacking adequate automation

  • ๐Ÿค” PDFoo supports deep linking, but you’d need to use its Copy Link function. Not as robust or convenient as Hookmark’s deep links. If they add an API for deep linking we would likely support it. Deep-linking aside, PDFoo works fine with Hook.
  • ๐Ÿค” PDF Expert by Readdle: it lacks automation; however, you can try this script.

Reference management software

  • ๐Ÿ‘ BibDesk: Free LaTeX-compatible Mac bibliography manager app BibTex front-end. See Using Hookmark with BibDesk.
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Bookends: The recommended reference manager for Mac users. Copy Link currently returns bookends:// URLs. hook://file/ If you open the PDF in a different app: refer to that app. Normally that’s a hook://file/ URL.
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Papers 3 (Readcube, formerly Mekentosj): (uses hook://file links which means even if you stop using Papers, your links will work. It works with PDFs that remain on file system.)
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Zotero: (As of Hookmark’s v. 124 integration.

Web browsers

  • ๐Ÿ‘ Arc Browser.
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Brave
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Chrome
  • ๐Ÿ‘ DEVONagent Pro
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Microsoft Edge
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Opera
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Safari
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Wavebox Browser (Chromium based)
  • ๐Ÿค” Firefox: (English only; but you can change command names to your language)
  • ๐Ÿค” Firefox Nightly browser: (English only; but you can change command names to your language)

Ebook readers

Diagramming, graphic organizers, mind mapping, images and photos


Email software

๐Ÿค” Email clients that expose non-standard email IDs

The following email apps are supported with qualifications. But please note that the email IDs or URLs they expose are not compliant with RFC 5322 – Internet Message Format. This means the links cannot be shared with others and are not guaranteed to work on different Macs – even of the same user. For linking/bookmarking purposes, it is strongly recommended to use other email software than the three below.

  • ๐Ÿค” Missive. See the discussion in Hookmark Forum for a script, which we expect to incorporate into Hookmark in May 2022.
  • ๐Ÿค” Mailplane – Gmail client app
  • ๐Ÿค” Spark 2 by Readdle (Forum topic. This uses Spark’s email links. It is not yet clear whether these emails can be shared, but Spark users report they can be used across devices of the same user.)

Other

  • ๐Ÿ‘Ž Spark Desktop is an Electron app by Readdle which does not meet the automation requirements of the Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking.
  • ๐Ÿ‘Ž Microsoft Outlook: Previous versions had automation for linking. But New versions of Microsoft Outlook are not URL-friendly. See Using Hookmark With Microsoft Outlook. That mentions that Microsoft has pledged that they will have AppleScript in the new Outlook.

Other office apps (spreadsheets, presentations)

  • ๐Ÿ‘ Jeditฮฉ: per forum.
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Apple Keynote
  • ๐Ÿ‘ LibreOffice (Calc, Writer, Impress, Draw)
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Microsoft Excel
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Microsoft Powerpoint
  • ๐Ÿ‘ Apple Numbers
  • ๐Ÿค” Apple Contacts : however Apple’s contact IDs are local to the current installation. Unsyncing from iCloud and resyncing can lead Apple to provide different IDs. macOS 13 Ventura has a bug that prevents Hookmark’s context window from opening in Contacts. You can find and open your Contacts bookmarks and hooks using Hookmark’s search tool. This is fixed in Ventura 13.1 beta 4..
  • ๐Ÿค” BusyContacts: (Currently, in English only)

Integration with Microsoft Office requires Office 2016 or Office 365. Hookmark is not necessarily qualified for Microsoft “Insider Fast Builds”, which are pre-general release builds. Microsoft says those builds are “Best for Insiders who […] don’t mind the bit of risk involved in using unsupported builds.”

Time Tracking, Task managers, Project Management, Calendar apps, and Date-Focused note-taking apps

Videoconferencing

Outliners

Finder utilities, extensions and cloud storage

Information managers and bookmarking apps

Development and automation tools

Word processors, text editors, note-taking apps and writing utilities

News Readers

News readers are not designed to open URLs. The reciprocal http(s) link back to the copied address will be opened in the default application (typically a web browser).

Media players, Audio-video editors

macOS Utilities (misc)

Other (misc)

Web services

Hookmark can be used to link any web page to almost any other resource!

Given its emphasis on linking, for example we will simply pick one of a nearly infinite number of websites with which you can use Hookmark: Roam Research. Compare Hookmark 1.4 release notes.

There are Electron apps that are merely wrappers around a web app, such as the following where you can simply use the web app. Or you can copy their items’ URLs using the UI of the apps and feed them into Hookmark using Hook to Copied Link, for instance.


What to do if your favorite app is not listed above as ๐Ÿ‘

There are likely many other apps than those listed above that work ‘out of the box’ with Hookmark that are not mentioned here. We frequently discover new ones. If you know your favorite app works but is not listed here, please let us know.

Apps of type ๐Ÿค” lack an API. That means communicating with them is not as robust. In some cases, Hookmark simply does not support Copy Link and showing hooks directly in them (but there are workarounds). Unless Hookmark just sends such apps keystrokes, as is the case with Apple News, then the interaction is language dependent. So please consider getting in touch with the developer to ask them to add the required API (AppleScript, JavaScript or x-callback-url) support. It’s easy for them to do, and it would be win-win for them and their customers (including yourself).

If your favorite app is not yet linkable, in many cases it is possible for CogSci Apps Corp, or Hookmark users, to add scripts in Hookmark’s Scripts preferences to make the app linkable. But if the app is not currently sufficiently scriptable, you may wish to contact the app’s developer to request they make their app scriptable (or support the appropriate x-callback-url’s.)

Many Mac apps are discussed on the Hookmark forum. Please search for your app there.

Language and internationalization

The Hookmark display language is currently only English.

Unless otherwise noted, apps marked as ๐Ÿค” (UI-scripted) might require the macOS display language to be English. However, we are gradually updating all UI-scripted integrations to be available in all languages. E.g., Bear writer app and Busy Cal currently work in all languages.

If your macOS language is not listed for your favorite apps and you’d like support let us know.

Caveats

We are not responsible for other app developers (including Apple) who cease to support their software or make them unfriendly to URL automation.

The definition of “compatibility” is different for certain applications. For instance, apps like browsers are read-only, so they don’t require a “scripting interface” for creating new objects. News readers and some information managers return addresses (http:// or https://) that they cannot handle. When accessing web addresses, typically macOS invokes a web browser. Some apps may be URL-friendly and yet not yet linkable via Hookmark without configuring scripts in Hookmark. Hookmark Pro is highly configurable: users can augment Hookmark to make Hookmark work differently with any app.

Hook is now called Hookmark! See the FAQ for details.