Quickly Linking Notes (Backlinks, Wiki Links, etc.)

[Jeremy England 141]

To preface, I am a huge fan of the new updates to Evernote. I think it's the beginning of new functionality and we are seeing some of that come to fruition. 

I have also been playing with Craft a lot lately (I'm primarily Apple) and it's pretty wonderful. I think there are a couple of killer features that draw me to it. First is the way it can display its notes. (See attached screen shot) There is also a list view and a view where all cards are the same size, but this view is pleasing. 

Second, and the point of this post, is the ability to quickly link notes together. I think we are on the way with the reintroduction of quick switching (which was a vital part of my workflow, and was, until recently, one of the advantages of Craft). I'm not looking for line by line linking (though I think you are close to that with things like the blocking system used with checkmarks, bullets, tasks, etc.), but just note linking. I think tags can work that way, but there is something very nice about having the link directly inline with the note content. It is also nice to see how things are connected together. I feel sometimes I can get lost on everything I have for a particular project and don't have a good handle of what relates to what in it's context. I recognize this may be the way my brain wired, but the rise of a multitude of apps with this feature (and this feature being a prominent part of who they are) indicates it's a popular way of working. 

 

 

[@ruygiraldes 13]

This post is already old, but I take the opportunity to reinforce the request regarding the functionality of the backlinks, to facilitate the management of the knowledge base built through Evernote.

It would be great to have backlinks, as well as being able to link specific blocks of text within notes that appear in other notes as a 'pop-up'. This functionality, similar to the Obsidian application.

[Jeremy England 141]

I want back links

[PinkElephant 8,242]

Me too - back links would be great !

[timshel 11]

It would be great with a feature link Notion's "links & backlinks": type a command to link to a Note

[mcdebugger 5]

I'd like to give my vote to better linking option.

The first and the obvious one - backlinks support. I need this feature for my knowledge base to grow faster. Relations between notes are important and it's very helpful to see them when I do some research.

The second one - some sort of quick links creation. I really like the way it's implemented in Obsidian. Just typing [[ and you're almost done!

[Tudy 3]

Backlinks are a big must these days. It's such a useful idea, not having it will be a big drawback.

I saw that other feature requests have been consolidated into one to show the total number of votes and give more weight.

Can someone with the right access level look for and consolidate all the backlinks requests into one? I saw several in the feature requests, all with less than 100 votes each, but together it should elevate this topic. Also, maybe edit / update the feature request name/title to include "backlinks" in it for ease of finding.

Thanks!

[PinkElephant 8,242]

Could be done, and I support this request to add backlinks, as other do.

But from my gut feeling even taking all threads about it together will leave us with a low 2-digit number of votes. This candle is not burning hot yet.

[Petsolb 55]

Yes please!!! Backlinks are needed to quickly connect different posts.

[rpnaves 0]

Up

[Paul A. 633]

8 hours ago, @ruygiraldes said:

This post is already old, but I take the opportunity to reinforce the request regarding the functionality of the backlinks, to facilitate the management of the knowledge base built through Evernote.

It would be great to have backlinks, as well as being able to link specific blocks of text within notes that appear in other notes as a 'pop-up'. This functionality, similar to the Obsidian application.

 

1 hour ago, rpnaves said:

Up

 

On 2/18/2022 at 2:20 PM, mcdebugger said:

I'd like to give my vote to better linking option.

The first and the obvious one - backlinks support. I need this feature for my knowledge base to grow faster. Relations between notes are important and it's very helpful to see them when I do some research.

The second one - some sort of quick links creation. I really like the way it's implemented in Obsidian. Just typing [[ and you're almost done!

 

On 2/16/2022 at 11:50 AM, timshel said:

It would be great with a feature link Notion's "links & backlinks": type a command to link to a Note

If you haven't already, don't forget to vote up the request using the up arrow at the very top of the page on the left hand side.

[M31415926 21]

Looking into the most cost effective way for enhancing the Evernote capability, back linking (bidirectional linking) is No 1.

[WilliamL 656]

Please add this - using the @ symbol for creating back links is such a handy feature. Especially for daily notes or anything of that nature it’s so easy if notes can be quickly and simply joined with content. 

[chiahua 1]

I also want the backlink feature, even if it only works for internal links!

[PinkElephant 8,242]

Hhhmmmm - you try to explain, but what is the idea of this thread, stripped down to the bones ?

• Linking notes together ?
• Backlinking of notes (bi-directional) ?
• Visual presentation of notes that are linked ?

Maybe you could explain it to me (and maybe others).

[Mike P 2,718]

9 hours ago, TinaCee said:

I was coming here to search if this is currently possible, to allow links to notes in other notebooks in a single note, and seems it's not yet? Have upvoted this

I'm not quite sure what you want. You can already add a link to any note in any other note. The notebook is irrelevant. This thread, as I understand it, is about adding automatic back links. So if you add a link to note A into note B a link to note B will automatically ve created in note A - so you automatically get links in two directiuons.

[Skeuo108 2]

We need backlink functionality, including:

- The ability to create backlinks without pulling up an entire second note (cf. Obsidian)

- The ability to follow link paths in either direction 

- Charts/diagrams that show us link relationships at a glance, with the ability to select siblings, parents, and children at any depth desired 

- Lists within each document (perhaps as a context menu function) to show all bidirectional "neighbors" at a selected depth...with options to preview or open those notes

 

Evernote apologists have tried to make the case that Tags serve these functions...but I think you can see that some of this functionality would be awkward (or impossible) to replicate with Tagging as it exists now in Evernote.  That said...some of the same ideas I propose here could well be applied to Tags, making them far more useful.  

(could Tags ever eliminate the need for backlinking?  Normal tags are non-hierarchical, so they could not. But the Nested Tags of Evernote are a different animal...and with more robust support, could conceivably serve the same purpose)
 

[PinkElephant 8,242]

EN apologists suggest to use the feedback function to communicate valuable ideas directly to EN PM.

Posting in the forum will just make valuable ideas being ridiculed by EN apologists …

Personally I expect EN staff to be fully aware about the backlinking hype. I think it was started by Roam Research, but I may be wrong. I don‘t think tags would replace it - the idea of tags is different from its basic concept (oooops, just disqualified myself as EN apologist 😱 )

You can link notes to each other since long. This got improved by adding „link through drag&drop“ with one of the latest updates. If you want backlinks, you can add another link into the target note to build backlinks yourself. More work, not as elegant, whatever.

[gaparmer 1]

I really would value the ability to quickly store a quote away with an inline tag or hashtag, and be able to search for this inline item, while filtering on notebooks, tags, etc.

[PinkElephant 8,242]

You just need to define tags for this use, like „Read later“ or „Follow up“. Applying the tag is no issue, finding or filtering for them neither.

The only issue may be your ability to permanently follow up on these tags - because else they will one day be so extensively used, that looking for them doesn‘t help much any more.

GTD is based on this concept of collecting all „stuff“ in one place, and process it. EN is great for this, because of the excellent web clipper and the option to forward mail to your EN account (for subscribers). Maybe look this GTD & Evernote thing up on the web or YT - there are a lot of tutorials on how to set it up using EN. 

[Tschuege 2]

I'm playing with switching to Obsidian just for the back-linking feature. In my opinion an absolut must to be able to make sense and navigate in my many notes!

PLEASE add this feature!

[M31415926 21]

One side effect I am afraid about the backlinks is that the backlinks will become a distraction when the number of backlinks exceed some threshold. Maybe manually adding the backlinks, if needed, is a better approach.  

[TinaCee 1]

I was coming here to search if this is currently possible, to allow links to notes in other notebooks in a single note, and seems it's not yet? Have upvoted this

[iceman melb 10]

I just found the latest version with BackLinks mentioned! So this is a great outcome.

[ghon 78]

Yes, it is mentioned, however I did not understand how it works. Can someone explain?

[Sanjikyo 1]

I need this answer too

[wheiser 13]

version EN 10.51.7 has this backlink function - but how does this work ? 

[mczin 68]

Yes... How does this work? 🤔

[@ruygiraldes 13]

4 horas atrás, iceman melb disse:

I just found the latest version with BackLinks mentioned! So this is a great outcome.

Can you share how this works? 

[agsteele 2,964]

I think it has been announced early in error. Perhaps the next release...

[Paul A. 633]

15 hours ago, agsteele said:

I think it has been announced early in error. Perhaps the next release...

It's active on the Android version that I just received today. For what it's worth.

Edit: and I can't test it because it requires a paid subscription. I'll wait to see some folks give it informal reviews. If it works decently, it might actually nudge me back into a paying user. I do really want some of those Android fixes I've been clamoring about for years, though... Fixing those as well would definitely get me to subscribe once again.

[Boot17 1,482]

How it works:

On Desktop (and I presume Web, although it's not showing up for me right now on Web) - it shows up above the title in front of the URL (if any) and tasks (if any) like this:

On mobile, you tap the three dots button and then it shows a Backlinks menu item with a count of Backlinks:

And then when you tap that, it gives you the list of notes:

Note - I updated to 10.51.7 on Mac in the morning, but I didn't notice any backlinks until later in the day. On iPhone, they showed up for me right away when I updated this morning.

[mczin 68]

Thank you, now it's suddenly working 😊.

 

 

[Mike P 2,718]

Just don't put a table at the top of your note as the list of backlinks goes behind the table! Seems ok with text. I'm raising a support ticket although it would be nice to know if anybody else can preproduce it.

[fchandler 30]

3 hours ago, Mike P said:

Just don't put a table at the top of your note as the list of backlinks goes behind the table! Seems ok with text. I'm raising a support ticket although it would be nice to know if anybody else can preproduce it.

Yes, I can confirm that I have the same problem with my notes which have tables at the top. I too submitted a support ticket to address this issue. 

[fchandler 30]

On 1/6/2023 at 4:23 AM, fchandler said:

Yes, I can confirm that I have the same problem with my notes which have tables at the top. I too submitted a support ticket to address this issue. 

The Backlinks Table problem, described above, fixed by update 10.53.2.

[Grant837 120]

Next to the great addition of Backlinks, I think an important part of the solution to the question is creating a Table of Contents from all the notes selected.  This was in the legacy version a simple select, right-click, create ToC option (which you have to maintain thereafter), but in V10 you need to select them, then right-click and use the ' create app links to selected notes'  and then paste all those links where you want them, usually in a separate ToC document.

Here is a good video on this topic: