Linkable Mac Applications

This document lists apps that we know can be used with Hook, meaning that you can link their items together with Hook. The data are the result of our testing and/or Hook customers’. (See also : What’s a Linkable App and Why Does Linkability Matter? – Hook).


Legend

  1. πŸ‘ : The app has reliable automation for linking which is used by Hook. Those apps are the best apps to use with Hook. Linking should work regardless of the language of the app.
  2. πŸ€” : The app does not have an adequate API for linking (possibly no API). However, Hook can currently link with it via “UI scripting” (user interface scripting). However, UI scripting is not as reliable as an API. Also, unless noted below Hook can only control the app in English, but supporting another language for a particular app just requires tweaking a script.

For apps in categories 2, 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 you their customers.

There are likely many other apps that work out of the box with Hook 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 via the Hook productivity forum or email (hook@cogsciapps.com).

Scientific/academic

PDF Readers

PDF Readers supporting deep linking (to specific pages)

Hook enables you to copy deep links to specific selections in a PDF ! Paste them share them anywhere.

PDF readers lacking adequate automation

Web browsers

  • πŸ‘ Brave
  • πŸ‘ Chrome
  • πŸ‘ Microsoft Edge
  • πŸ‘ Opera
  • πŸ‘ Safari

  • πŸ€” Firefox: (English only)

  • πŸ€” Firefox Nightly browser: (English only)

Ebook readers

Diagramming, graphic organizers and mind mapping

Email apps

πŸ€” Email clients that expose non-standard email IDs

The following three email apps are supported but we cannot recommend them because 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.

  • πŸ€” Mailplane – Gmail client app
  • πŸ€” Microsoft Outlook: Archiving Outlook Exchange emails, or other events [Γ  la Microsoft] may change their IDs
  • πŸ€” Spark 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 office apps (spreadsheets, presentations)

  • πŸ‘ Apple Contacts
  • πŸ‘ JeditΞ©: per forum.
  • πŸ‘ Apple Keynote
  • πŸ‘ LibreOffice (Calc, Writer, Impress, Draw, )
  • πŸ‘ Microsoft Excel
  • πŸ‘ Microsoft Powerpoint
  • πŸ‘ Apple Numbers

  • πŸ€” BusyContacts: (Currently, in English only)

Integration with Microsoft Office requires Office 2016 or Office 365. Hook 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.”

Task managers, Calendar apps, and Date-Focused note-taking apps

Outliners

Finder utilities, extensions and cloud storage

Information managers

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)

Reference management software

  • πŸ‘ 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.
  • πŸ‘ 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.)
  • πŸ‘ Zotero: (As of v. 124 of integration. However see this forum post for recent issues and a possible fix.)

Other (misc)

Web services

Hook can be used to link any web page to 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 Hook: Roam Research. Compare Hook 1.4 release notes.

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

If your favorite app is not yet linkable, in many cases it is possible for us or Hook users to add scripts in Hook’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, as described here, to request they make their app scriptable (or support the appropriate x-callback-url’s.)

Many apps are discussed on the Hook productivity forum.

Language and internationalization

The Hook display language is currently only English. Unless otherwise noted, apps marked as πŸ€” (UI-scripted) cannot yet be controlled by Hook if the macOS display language is not English.

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 third party app developers (including Apple) ceasing to support their software or changing them in ways that make them less helpful for their customers and ours.

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 work differently. News readers return an address (http//: or https://). When accessing web addresses, typically macOS invokes a web browser.