Links connect two notes or a note with an external (web or local) resource. There are two discrete forms of link origin, basic links (linked at note level) and text links (based on a selected section of text) which are described in more detail in the notes linked to below (scroll page to see these links).
External links. As well as internal links, links may be created outside the file to web URLs, RSS feeds, etc. Although these are termed web links—see more on Web links—they can actually link to local resource too, such as DEVONthink or Bookends items.
Inbound links into Tinderbox documents can be made using the Tinderbox URL schema. Note that these will only work if the calling app, Tinderbox and the destination Tinderbox are all on the same computer.
Most Tinderbox objects can use linking:
- Notes: yes
- Container notes: yes
- Separator notes: yes (this was not original intent but can be used)
- Aliases: yes (see extra notes below)
- Agents: yes
- Adornments: no
- Picture adornments: no
- Map backgrounds: no (though the parent container note they represent can be linked to, by using another view window at different scope)
Creating links via the UI
See various methods. Do not forget that it is also possible to use action code to generate (or remove) links.
Aliases
Basic links to and from aliases are supported. This is useful for hierarchical documents like aTbRef that make use of aliases as it enables each alias to be exported as and linked to as a discrete note in its correct location in the document hierarchy. However, be mindful that aliases inherit the original's text and web links and these cannot be added to except by altering the original. More on 'Linking & aliases'. Note below, behaviour of aliases and links during export
Links and duplication
When duplicating a linked object, there are slightly different behaviours for inbound and outbound links:
- Outbound. All links (basic, text and web) are all duplicated.
- Inbound. Inbound links are not copied. Thus all inbound links remain pointing to the original object. If necessary, they must be re-created for the duplicate object.
Properties of Links
Links are uni-directional, from source to destination. Links do not have note-type attributes. Agent queries can interrogate data based on specified link types. Likewise action code can act on the existence of links between notes with optional filtering based on link type.
Every link has 'link type' property. More on link types.
Self-linking
A limitation on a note linking to itself has been removed in order to support some more esoteric uses. In principle, for general use, notes should not be linked to themselves.
Other Aspects of Links: