(Archived) An alternate approach to note linking

[Windrider 0]

Hey Evernote people,

We all know that note links have been on the roadmap since just about forever. If I could have note links, Evernote would literally be the only notetaking tool I need; right now, I rely on a hodgepodge of Evernote, OneNote, and Tomboy Notes.

This isn't real note linking, but how about allowing magic links to searches, using wiki-like syntax?

If I surround a phrase with double square brackets, it should immediately convert into a specially-marked link that, when clicked, would run a special search in Evernote. If, capitalization aside, there is exactly one note by that title, it immediately opens that note; otherwise, it opens the search results with, at the top, an option to create a note by that exact name.

That's all I need, and it eliminates all the complexity of trying to make note links stable. If I change a note title, I break a link; so be it, links are fragile. Links have to show the note name; so be it, it's much better than nothing, and if that's a real problem, then just let there be arbitrary EverSearch links with text different from target. Register the evernote:// handler to either search all notebooks for the query, allow a syntax to search a specific notebook, and allow another special syntax to search someone else's shared notebook, and note links can be implemented with very little extra mechanism.

This is basically a ripoff of the Tomboy Notes approach, except without automatically converting every instance of a note title to a link, which is impractical on Very Large notebases where I probably don't want links to highly disparate topics.

--Windrider

[jfwarrior 6]

Using the double square brackets, which I assume you are talking about [ and ], is a bad idea. Sometimes you really need to use [ ]. For example, when you are writing an essay, a letter, or whatever form of writing in English, you need to use the []. I can't remember the name of the technique, but it's generally like this:

For example, we have a statement by a person here that we need to quote.

Person and their statement: "Throughout the many years, I have gone through the wide vast jungles of the Amazon rainforest, traversed through deadly natural trenches and have sailed through a hurricane. I have also set up the Green Cross Medical Station off the coast of the Atlantean peninsula."

If we need to quote this person, for example, let's name him Alfred, we would usually do:

Fernando Alfred is a renowned explorer that had discovered the sinking point of Atlantis. Throughout the many years, [he had] gone through the wide vast jungles of the Amazon rainforest, ... [He has] also set up the Green Cross Medical Station off the coast of the Atlantean peninsula.

Basically, if we delegate the [ ] symbols, it would ruin many people's essays or writings. I think using the HTML < >s would be a better idea.

[jefito 5,589]

I'm not really sure that I see the sense in introducing a stopgap solution to linking rather than the full-blown system. It's still not an insignificant amount of work to make the temporary fix happen, and then once full-blown linking is in place, Evernote would still need to support the old stopgap solution.

~Jeff

[jefito 5,589]

Basically, if we delegate the [ ] symbols, it would ruin many people's essays or writings. I think using the HTML < >s would be a better idea.

I think that the proposal is to use double square brackets; e.g. [[My Note Title]].

~Jeff

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I'm not really sure that I see the sense in introducing a stopgap solution to linking rather than the full-blown system. It's still not an insignificant amount of work to make the temporary fix happen, and then once full-blown linking is in place, Evernote would still need to support the old stopgap solution.

~Jeff

I agree.

Here's a self implemented alternate that I've used on occasion. Although definitely a workaround, it works, it works now & is easily implemented.

viewtopic.php?f=53&t=17613&p=77162&hilit=password#p77162