Linkable Mac Applications

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

Legend

1. 👍 : 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. And their software developers should be commended for supporting linking and automation.
2. 🤔 : Hook integrates with the app using UI scripting because the app lacks an adequate API for linking (possibly no API).

Technical/quantitative computing/programming

• 👍 ‎CalcTape Paper Tape Calculator . See the Hook CalcTape forum topic.
• 👍 Mathematica — neural networks, machine learning, image processing, geometry, data science, visualizations, and others.
• 👍 Math | LibreOffice – Formula Editor
• 👍 RStudio | Open source & professional software for data science teams – RStudio
• 🤔 Soulver by Acqualia. See forum post

PDF Readers

• 👍 Adobe Reader
• 👍 Adobe Acrobat (requires Hook 2.2.2 or newer)
• 👍 Highlights – PDF Reader for Research
• 👍 PDFPenPro: Includes deep linking to PDFs. See Using Hook with PDFPenPro – Hook
• 👍 Reader — Augmented Text.
• 👍 PDFoo
• 👍 Preview
• 👍 Skim PDF reader: See Using Hook with the Free Skim PDF Reader app: Deep Links!.

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

PDF Readers supporting deep linking (to specific pages)

Hook 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.

• 👍 Adobe Reader (requires at least Hook 3, Big Sur): select an annotation like a highlight before Copy Link, Copy Markdown Link
• 👍 Acrobat Pro DC (requires at least Hook 3, Big Sur): select an annotation like a highlight before Copy Link, Copy Markdown Link.
• 👍 PDFPen Pro: Includes deep linking to PDFs: Using Hook with PDFPenPro – Hook
• 👍 Free Skim PDF reader: See Using Hook with the Free Skim PDF Reader app: Deep Links!.

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 Hook with Apple’s QuickTime Player! It gives you deep links to specific timestamps 😊.

PDF readers supporting “Copy Selection and Link”

See Copy Selection and Link.

PDF readers lacking adequate automation

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

Reference management software

• 👍 BibDesk: Free LaTeX-compatible Mac bibliography manager app BibTex front-end. See Using Hook with BibDesk.
• 👍 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.
• 👍 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.)
• 👍 Zotero: (As of Hook’s v. 124 integration.

Web browsers

• 👍 Brave
• 👍 Chrome
• 👍 DEVONagent Pro
• 👍 Microsoft Edge
• 👍 Opera
• 👍 Safari
• 👍 Wavebox Browser (Chromium based)

• 🤔 Firefox: (English only; but you can change command names to your language)

• 🤔 Firefox Nightly browser: (English only; but you can change command names to your language)

Ebook readers

• 👍 Apple Books app: As described in this post .
• 👍 Bookreader

• 👍 Calibre. See this forum post for configuration.

• 🤔 MarginNote 3. Before invoking Hook, rather than selecting text on the right, select a node in the left navigation pane .

Diagramming, graphic organizers, mind mapping, images and photos

• 👍 Adobe Illustrator
• 👍 Curio: Hook can make deep links within Curio documents. (Curio 13 links are to entire documents only.) See forum.
• 👍 Diagrams: A Brand New Diagram Editor for Mac
• 👍 FreeMind – free mind mapping software
• 👍 Freeplane – free mind mapping and knowledge management software . ( Freeplane is a fork of FreeMind)
• 👍 iThoughts X
• 👍 MindNode: to entire documents (See Using Hook with MindNode – Hook).
• 👍 OmniGraffle Pro
• 👍 LibreOffice Draw – Based on OpenOffice
• 👍 Adobe Photoshop
• 👍 Apple Photos. See Using Hook with Apple Photos.
• 👍 Sketch
• 👍 StorySpace
• 👍 Adobe InDesign: (with a single document. Its book documents and library are not yet compatible with Hook.)

Email software

• 👍 AirMail
• 👍 Apple Mail
• 👍 Fastmail.com web interface. See also this forum topic.
• 👍 MailMate
• 👍 Postbox Mac app, which has account groups, gmail labels, subscription views, etc. On Hook’s forum.

🤔 Email clients that expose non-standard email IDs

The following three 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 3 below.

• 🤔 Mailplane – Gmail client app

• 🤔 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.)

• 👎 Microsoft Outlook: New versions of Microsoft Outlook lack AppleScript required for linking. Users are advised if they update Outlook they may lose links until MS adds support back. Archiving Outlook Exchange emails, or other events [à la Microsoft] may change their IDs. On behalf of CogSci Apps Corp., a Microsoft MVP is raising this issue with Microsoft. Microsoft has announced they will reintroduce AppleScript in Outlook but not specified the API yet. See Using Hook With Microsoft Outlook – Hook.

Other office apps (spreadsheets, presentations)

• 👍 JeditΩ: per forum.
• 👍 Apple Keynote
• 👍 LibreOffice (Calc, Writer, Impress, Draw, )
• 👍 Microsoft Excel
• 👍 Microsoft Powerpoint
• 👍 Apple Numbers

• 🤔 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.

• 🤔 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.”

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

• 👍 Fantastical (Calendar app) dates. See Using Hook with Fantastical.
• 👍 GoodTasks – Task Manager with iOS/Mac Reminders & Calendars. Supports linking of Reminders via x-callback-url. Hook to New and Calendar events linking not yet supported.
• 👍 Merlin Project. Professional project management software by ProjectWizards. Full automation as of Merlin Project 8.
• 👍 NotePlan 2
• 👍 OmniFocus by OmniGroup
• 👍 OmniPlan by OmniGroup: (For deep linking to specific content in OmniPlan, see this.)
• 👍 Things by Cultured Code: (but not to areas).
• 👍 Timing app by Daniel Alm. See Using Hook with Timing App – Hook.
• 👍 TaskPaper 3: (Linking to entire documents, as opposed to task filters; however see this topic discussing a user-contributed script for finer-grained linking)

• 🤔 2Do app by Beehive Innovations . For Hook to New consider this script by @SteveLW.

• 🤔 BusyCal: (Now in any language). For Hook to New, see this post.
• 🤔 Todoist: Many Hook users love Using Hook with ToDoist – Hook. Use Focus on Link in Clipboard once you have a todoist task in your clipboard.
• 🤔 Trello. You can Copy Link and hook items. Quite useful. (Based on UI scripting).
• 🤔 Apple Calendar: Partial “Hook to New> Calendar” is not available. Apple calendar IDs are not guaranteed to be the same across devices. Paste links from hook inside the notes or links field.

Videoconferencing

• Zoom . Release notes

Outliners

• 👍 Professional list making tool | Checkvist: (According to this Hook forum post, which also mentions caveats).
• 👍 OmniOutliner Pro
• 👍 Outlinely

Finder utilities, extensions and cloud storage

• 👍 Dropbox (Finder extension): (Consider these Dropbox idiosyncracies).
• 👍 Finder. This means regardless of the app, as long as you can select the file in Finder you can use Hook with it.
• 👍 HoudahSpot 5 and 6 (& HoudahSpot 4 with possible limitations)
• 👍 Path Finder
• 👍 Trickster: (per forum).

• 🤔 Forklift: (Currently, in English only)

• 🤔 OneDrive: Works by default if Office App Syncing is off, otherwise see Using Hook With OneDrive.

Information managers and bookmarking apps

• 👍 Anybox – bookmark manager
• 👍 EagleFiler by C-Command-Software : (See Using Hook with EagleFiler)
• 👍 DEVONthink 2 Office Pro.
• 👍 DEVONthink 3: (See Using Hook with DEVONthink).
• 👍 GoodLinks – bookmark manager. See Using Hook With GoodLinks
• 👍 Keep It (by Reinvented Software)
• 👍 Yojimbo

• 👍 Evernote: pre version 10 with automation.

• 🤔 With Evernote 10, Hook uses UI scripting because Evernote 10 lacks linking automation. So Hook to New is not available. English only at the moment.

Development and automation tools

• 👍 Base 2 (by Menial)
• 👍 DB Browser for SQLite
• 👍 Eclipse
• 👍 iTerm2 – macOS Terminal Replacement: (see this Hook forum post )
• 👍 Ninox Database: (per input from a customer).
• 👍 Quiver: (a note-taking app for developers).
• 👍 Script Debugger
• 👍 Visual Studio Code
• 👍 Xcode

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

• 👍 Author. macOS Word processor with integrated Concept Map, Fast Citations, & Automatic Export to Academic PDF.
• 👍 BBEdit
• 👍 Camtasia 3
• 👍 Coda 2
• 👍 CodeRunner
• 👍 Craft. Requires macOS 11 (Big Sur), works on open docs. See also Using Hook with the Craft Mac Writing App – Hook.
• Drafts: See Using Hook with Drafts – Hook.

• 👍 iA Writer: (uses hook://file URL scheme, not ia-writer:// due to its lack of automation)

• 👍 Inkdrop: with this plugin . This is proof that electron apps can be made linkable. The app’s developer just needs to put in a few hours of work.
• 👍 iTextPro: (per forum post)
• 👍 LightPaper
• 👍 MacJournal
• 👍 MacVim
• 👍 Marked2
• 👍 Mellel: (just be sure the Palletes window is not open when you invoke Hook in Mellel. Or invoke Hook via the menu bar window’s “Show Hook” button)
• 👍 MultiMarkdown Composer
• 👍 Nisus Writer and Nisus Writer Pro: (forum):
• 👍 Notebooks 2: (Not integated with the menu bar window).
• 👍 Notenik. For robust notenik:// links, please enable Notenik’s datestamp feature. See Notenik Notenik 9.0.1 – Hooked on Notenik.
• 👍 nvALT: (Currently, in English only; without “Hook to New”)
• 👍 nvUltra: Integration notes.
• 👍 Sublime Text (Plugin required to make pasted links clickable.)
• 👍 Textastic
• 👍 TextMate
• 👍 Tinderbox
• 👍 Typora
• 👍 UltraEdit
• 👍 VNote
• 👍 Voodoopad note-taking app by Primate Labs: See forum
• 👍 Apple Notes: (See Using Hook with Apple Notes).
• 👍 Microsoft Word
• 👍 Pages

• 👍 TextEdit

• 🤔 Day One. This app lacks an API. However, an approach to controlling it via Keyboard Maestro has been proposed by a contributor on the Hook forum. … Requires Keyboard Maestro.

• 🤔 FSNotes “Respects open formats like GitHub Flavored Markdown”. Release notes on Hook’s forum.
• 🤔 Obsidian. See Using Hook with Obsidian.
• 🤔 The Archive

• 🤔 Ulysses: (Your mileage may vary. If you really want to use this app, please contact the app’s developer requesting they support minimal AppleScript. See this post.).

• 🤔 Bear writer: (Any language.)

• 🤔 Scrivener: (Supports deep-linking to particular documents in Scrivener’s binder. Uses Scrivener’s x-scrivener-item: URLs rather than hook://file URLs.)

News Readers

• 🤔 Apple News. This can work in any language. See Using Hook with Apple News.
• 🤔 ReadKit

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

• 👍 Garage Band
• 👍 QuickTime Player. Get deep links to the specific timestamp in a media file! See Using Hook with Apple’s QuickTime Player.
• 👍 ScreenFlow
• 👍 Spotify: (capture a link to the track which is current playing (rather than simply selected in the user interface)).

macOS Utilities (misc)

• 👍 macOS Screen Sharing
• 👍 ChronoSync (backup software)

Other (misc)

• 👍 Daylite by Market Circle

• 👍 MoneyDance by The Infinite Kind

• 🤔 Notion. See Using Hook with Notion – Hook

• 🤔 Slack: (links to/from current Slack or DM channel. To link to a particular Slack message, get its URL directly from Slack per forum.)

• 🤔 Deliveries for Mac ~ Junecloud. Per Forum

• 🤔 Accordance

Web services

Hook 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 Hook: Roam Research. Compare Hook 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 Hook using Hook to Copied Link, for instance.

• Asana
• Trello

What to do if your favorite app is not listed above as 👍

There are likely many other apps than those listed above 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.

Apps of type 🤔 lack an API. That means communicating with them is not as robust. In some cases, Hook simply does not support Copy Link and showing Hooks directly in them (but there are work arounds). Unless Hook 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 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 Mac apps are discussed on the Hook productivity forum. Please search for your app there.

Language and internationalization

The Hook display language is currently only English.

Unless otherwise noted, apps marked as 🤔 (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 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. Some apps may be linkable by some definition and yet not be linkable with Hook yet, or not always linkable.