(Archived) Feature Request: Intra-Evernote links....

[kent7854 0]

I admittedly have not thought this fully through, but I was thinking it would be a nice feature to be able to create links within the Evernote database between notes.

For example I often use this for work and take notes about a particular project at many different times. I tag all of those projects with a common tag of course, but in one note there may be a reference to something I covered in another note that may be in an entirely different project. A simple hyperlink between the two could be a good way of jumping back to the reference note if needed.

As I said it's a basic idea and not fully thought out as far as it's usefulness, but I think it could have potential. The technical aspects could be difficult. Not sure.

[engberg 89]

Thanks for the suggestion, this is definitely something that we're planning to add.

[Jims 0]

I agree with the suggestion. This was a feature present in Evernote 2.2 and was dropped in the initial 3.0 betas, so the basic code is likely mostly there.

The 2.2 implementation allowed for links to notes from outside Evernote as well, which I also liked, but presents some challenges for the web interface.

[daveb 0]

I was just looking for this functionality and found this thread. I replying to let you know this is something users are looking for.

[ludu 0]

Intra-Evernote-Links are very important for me.

I want to change my Notes from a wiki into EN3.

[allen 39]

Intra-Evernote-Links are very important for me.

I want to change my Notes from a wiki into EN3.

I absolutely love the idea of a synchable, searchable Evernote Wiki.

[davewhittaker 0]

+1

[cdbeckman 1]

I as well would love this.

[jvano74 0]

+1 as well - would allow migration of wiki style notation to Evernote (including the inter-note linking available with Microsoft's OneNote).

[Fuchsteufel 0]

+1 I would love this too. EN has so many useful features, but it lacks some capabilities for general document and hypertext authoring, and mind-map type info organising.

Inter-note links would be a great step there.

[patnpm 30]

+1 - not sure I'd use it all that much, but occasionally would be enormously useful.

[elponderado 0]

+1 Sooner the better!

[iNik 46]

Heck, how about a URL handler for Evernote so that you can create evernote://[noteid] links in any program? How nice would it be to put a link to your related Evernote documents in your task manager or a Microsoft Project database?

Yes, web links work, but only for published/sync'd notebooks.

[utility73 0]

+1 - the one big feature missing in evernote for me.

[k1351 0]

+1 voice for hyperlinks between notes in the Evernote. It would make all kinds of references possible.

If there's a chance to get links to tags or saved searches or notebooks (i.e. all kinds of views), that would help immensely. I am also migrating my personal knowledge base from wiki to Evernote and I kind of got used to saved searches as links in notes, so that I don't have to keep them all in the sidebar, making it crowded with all kinds of searches for different occasions.

[Alice-the-Camel 0]

+1 for hyperlinks between notes.

Could be in the form of a OneNote style copy and 'paste hyperlink' option, linking to content within a note.

In addition, link to an entire note (not just a specific piece of text). (Perhaps done by copying the title, and pasting it as a hyperlink in another note).

Chris

[drknoerz 0]

+1

was just searching for this function - surprised its not there yet. quite essential, one would think!

happy new year everybody!

keep the good stuff coming evernote team!

[magnon 0]

I'd like to see an evernote:// URI scheme, and having dragdropped notes be referenced by this outside of Evernote. Thus, I could link things inside Evernote, between Evernote and OmniFocus, and share public notes with friends over IM

Spotify, of course, has a nifty workaround where spotify:// links are http://open.spotify.com/... links in unsupported places, which in Evernote would mean that you can share things with people, have them not being able to see the link, and be able to sign up for Evernote right from there. Increases both my superiority *and* Evernote's market all at once!

But linking to notes from other apps is integration's parallel to cheesecake (it's yummy). I would really, really, really love to hook up actions in OmniFocus to notes in EN. It would be super. Oh, and throw in the internal links in EN as well, especially the link-to-tags one.

[planetscooter 0]

I also came here because I wanted to suggest such a feature - and now I support the existing request. Links between Evernote notes are really essential.

Links to files/folders (NOT included files!) would also be great.

[mtin79 0]

+1 here too!

[amgalitz 0]

another vote for linking between notes.

also, allow a way for a quick jump to one of the tags for the current note in cases where the left side pane is not visible such as when using a small screen.

[ataylor 0]

+1 for adding this feature ASAP. There was a comment by an Evernote staffer on July 31 2008 saying this feature is going to be added...anybody have any idea when we might see it?

[kennethmgreen 1]

also, allow a way for a quick jump to one of the tags for the current note in cases where the left side pane is not visible such as when using a small screen.

Oooh! You mean sort of like a live link for a saved search? Should be able to be done - link to a specific tag or a saved search, as well as a specific note.

Something like:

[[notebook]]

[[tag]]

[[search]]

[missdipsy 2]

how about a URL handler for Evernote so that you can create evernote://[noteid] links in any program? How nice would it be to put a link to your related Evernote documents in your task manager or a Microsoft Project database?

Something like:

[[notebook]]

[[tag]]

[[search]]

There are some great ideas here! I've wanted a feature like this ever since I started using Evernote, specifically internote linking and linking from external applications. These features would revolutionise how I use Evernote, and would reduce the need for complicated workarounds.

[missdipsy 2]

I had another thought about how something like internote linking could be done, and it might not take such a massive redesign of the inner workings of Evernote as it might do if implemented some other way. (Sorry about the length of this post!)

Basically, it would entail a sort of wiki-like functionality, where any words in [[double square brackets]] would be made into a link, but rather than having it linked directly to another note, it would use the existing search function. So whatever is in the square brackets just becomes a search term. This way, it would actually be even more flexible than simple internote links; instead of linking to just a single note, the wikified text would link to all of your notes containing that text, or all notes with that particular tag (or both). Of course, if you want to link only to one specific note, you'd just use the exact text of the note's title as the link, or some other unique term or phrase from the target note. And if you want to jump to a particular place within the target note, you'd either add a piece of "bookmark" text to link to, or just use the first sentence at that point in the note, then use the existing F3 shortcut to jump to it once the search results come up. Anything that could be searched for could be used as a link, so more advanced users could set up more sophisticated search links.

I like this way of doing it as it would hopefully be less hassle from a programming point of view (since it largely uses existing functionality), is familiar to anyone who's used a wiki before, and isn't too hard to grasp for people who aren't familiar with the concept. The other reason I like this way of implementing it it that it could be platform-independent. A "search link" could function in exactly the same way on both the desktop and web clients, and perhaps even the mobile versions, although even if you didn't add the feature to the mobile version it wouldn't break the current functionality; all you would have would be some text in square brackets (which could be manually copied and pasted to the search box if you wanted to "click on it"). Of course, you could do something similar without the square brackets, say by having a right-click menu item (possibly underneath "hyperlink") which converts the selected text to a "search link", but that might not work as well if notes were viewed on a platform which didn't support the links.

I came up with this idea when trying to come up with a workaround to simulate internote linking; I decided to do pretty much the same thing that I outlined above, but just copied the "search link" text to the search box manually. It's an acceptable workaround for now, but it would be much better if this was easy to do automatically.

Of course, this doesn't include the ability to link to notes from external applications, but it might be possible to use the same route for external links, using an URL protocol handler something along the lines of: evernote://[search link text]. A while ago I tried to create hyperlinks to Evernote Web searches (e.g. "http://www.evernote.com/Home.action#Thumbs/McClure*%2520%25282004%2529*") in my task list as a way of linking to things in Evernote, but for some reason it doesn't let me, even when I'm already logged into Evernote, it just takes me to my home page. Allowing us to do this would be an acceptable workaround for me at the moment (obviously we'd only be able to view the search output if we were already logged in, so it wouldn't be a security risk).

Layers of complexity could, if necessary, be built on top of this "search link" idea without radically changing the basic functionality, for instance UI could be added to Evernote to simplify the process of finding the text to use as the link (e.g. a right click menu item might bring up a dialog where you could choose the note to link to, and a link would then be created for you using the note title as the link text). But that's all just an optional extra; even without any additional bells and whistles it would still be a huge leap forward for Evernote, and would keep many of us happy!

[kennethmgreen 1]

Thanks for posting this explanation. That was the idea I was getting at with my examples. I used a Palm for years and thoroughly enjoyed a desktop/Palm app called NoteStudio (which is no longer in development). NoteStudio had the functionality you describe. It was, essentially a personal, portable wiki that used the notebook idea.

[SamHasler 0]

I thought I had a really neat solution for this, but the way Evernote handles links doesn't allow it.

It's an extension of missdipsy's idea of using searches. I created an evernotesearch:// protocol and a script to handle the protocol by passing whatever was after evernotesearch:// back to evernote as a search (using ENScript.exe).

Unfortunately if you create a link with a custom protocol like evernotesearch:// in an evernote note it will revert to plain text next time you view the note.

Still, it could be useful for linking into Evernote from external applications. If anyone is interested here is my code:

evernotesearch.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\evernotesearch]
@="URL: evernotesearch Protocol"
"URL Protocol"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\evernotesearch\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\evernotesearch\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\evernotesearch\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\evernotesearch.bat\" %1"

evernotesearch.bat

@echo off
setlocal
set ENS="c:\Program Files\Evernote\Evernote3\ENScript.exe"
set params=%*

REM Strip evernotesearch:// protocol and trailing slash
SET params=%params:~17%
SET params=%params:~0,-1%

set params=%params:"=""%

%ENS% shownotes /q "%params%"
exit

[nanderthol 0]

Just wanted to add a voice to the call for note to note evernote links.

I'm a biologist and I've been using evernote as my lab notebook for ~6 mo.s now. It's not perfect for this, but it beats the pants off a paper notebook. I often need to specify when things were made and what protocol I used, either of which might have its own note. Rather than just put a date and use tags to try and make it reasonably easy to find this past information, it would be such a benefit to immediately jump to the previous note. If I am looking at an experiment that used something that was the product of a previous experiment and want to know the details of that previous experiment without re-entering that information, this feature would make it trivial.

Thanks

[dan7000 26]

SamHasler, you rock. Very nice solution. Now if EN would make a minor change to stop stripping out custom protocol handlers, we'd be set.

[Ataraxia 0]

Basically, it would entail a sort of wiki-like functionality, where any words in [[double square brackets]] would be made into a link, but rather than having it linked directly to another note, it would use the existing search function. So whatever is in the square brackets just becomes a search term.

This is absolutely brilliant and would catapult EN's value as a resource aggregation tool to a whole new level!

The only thing I would add to MissDipsy's idea is that this capability should include the ability to search on the creation date and time of a specific note to create a direct link to that note.

[heather 604]

This is actually something that is being internally developed, so I'm not sure the development team will make the changes you need to make your process work (since it will be obsolete eventually).

[SamHasler 0]

This is actually something that is being internally developed, so I'm not sure the development team will make the changes you need to make your process work (since it will be obsolete eventually).

Was that referring to the http(s) link limitation that makes my evernotesearch:// protocol unusable? Although links to specific notes would be useful, a way of having links to saved searches inside notes would be much more versatile. Especially since they could be shared in public notebooks.

And there are plenty of other protocols that users might find useful that Evernote doesn't support such as mailto, skype, search-ms, and many more. I don't think it's wise to enumerate allowed protocols without reason as it needlessly limits the number of tools that Evernote can interact with.

[heather 604]

It was to the way they're designing the internote links. It *may* include external hooks as well.

[missdipsy 2]

I've created an AutoHotKey (http://www.autohotkey.com/) script that (amongst other things) will send highlighted text to Evernote's search box & run the search; essentially this means you can use text in any document as an Evernote "search link". The shortcut key for it is a bit wierd, since I needed to find a combination that seemed logical but that didn't interfere with any existing shortcut keys I might want to use; it's Left Mouse Button+F6. So if you highlight text in a document using the mouse, just keep the mouse button held down and press F6 at the same time. The logic of this is that F6 is the key that jumps to Evernote's search box, so it's easier to remember if I use the same key! If you want to use a different hotkey, you need to change the bit that says "~LButton & F6" to something else (see the AutoHotKey documentation if you're not sure how to do this).

Here's the code for just the bit that sends selected text to an Evernote search:

;*****************************
 ;search EN for selected string
   ~LButton & F6::       ;hotkey - hold down left mouse button & press F6
   clipboard =           ;Empty the clipboard
   sleep 100
   Send ^c
   sleep 50
   ClipWait              ;Wait for the clipboard to contain text.
   WinActivate, Evernote ahk_class ENMainFrameWindow        ;activate EN window
   Send {F6}
   Send ^v
   Send {Enter}
   return

And here's a version that also checks to see if Evernote is running when you launch the script (if not, it presents you with the option to open Evernote):

; ***********************************
; check to see if Evernote is running
IfWinNotExist, Evernote ahk_class ENMainFrameWindow
{
	MsgBox, 4, Activate Evernote?, Evernote doesn't seem to be running. Open Evernote now?
	IfMsgBox Yes
	   Run, Evernote
}
IfWinExist, Evernote ahk_class ENMainFrameWindow
{
	TrayTip, , Evernote is running, 5, 1
}


 ;*****************************
 ;search EN for selected string
   ~LButton & F6::       ;hotkey - hold down left mouse button & press F6
   clipboard =           ;Empty the clipboard
   sleep 100
   Send ^c
   sleep 50
   ClipWait              ;Wait for the clipboard to contain text.
   WinActivate, Evernote ahk_class ENMainFrameWindow        ;activate EN window
   Send {F6}
   Send ^v
   Send {Enter}
   return

I've also made a hotkey (ctrl+CapsLock) that clips to Evernote and opens the Tag Assignment dialog (it makes use of the built in shortcuts of pressing CapsLock twice to clip & ctrl+shift+t to open tag dialog):

 ;**************************************************
 ;ctrl+CapsLock to clip to EN & auto-open tag dialog
   ^CapsLock::          ;hotkey "ctrl+CapsLock" pressed
   Send {CapsLock 2}       ;sends two capslocks 
   WinWait , Evernote ahk_class ENAlertBox
   WinActivate, Evernote ahk_class ENMainFrameWindow        ;activate EN window
   Send, ^+t            ;sends ctrl+shift+t to open tag dialog
   return

My full version of the script also includes jayp's script (http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=9202), which launches the Tag Assignment dialog when you click on a note's tag field.

Disclaimer: I'm still learning AutoHotKey, so I can't promise these scripts will work perfectly, but they work fine for me!

[missdipsy 2]

I just made a version of the Evernote search HotKey that uses Ctrl+Shift+F6 instead of Left Mouse Button+F6. You can have both versions in the script to give you the option of using either; I sometimes use the keyboard (shift+arrow keys or shift+ctrl+arrow keys) to select text instead of using the mouse, so now I don't need to move my hands from the keyboard to search Evernote!

 ;***********************************************
 ;search EN for selected string - keyboard version
   ^+F6::       	;hotkey - ctrl+shift+F6
   clipboard =           ;Empty the clipboard
   sleep 100
   Send ^c
   sleep 50
   ClipWait              ;Wait for the clipboard to contain text.
   WinActivate, Evernote ahk_class ENMainFrameWindow        ;activate EN window
   Send {F6}
   Send ^v
   Send {Enter}
   return

[jayp 0]

Quick suggestion if the developers are still reading this thread.

In addition to linking to other notes, it would be useful to have Evernote look within its own notes for a given URL instead of always following that URL out to the web.

A few examples.

You have page one:

http://www.site.com/one/

And you have page two:

http://www.site.com/two/

You capture some or all of both pages as two separate notes in Evernote. Inside the note of page one, it includes a link to page two. Now, by default, if you click on this link in Evernote, page two will open in your default web browser. Two scenarios come to mind where this is problematic.

Let's say that page-two is no longer online. Either it's url has changed or its been deleted completely. Or consider that page-two had a ton of information that wasn't really important to you. You captured just a small part of page two inside evernote.

Would it be nice if Evernote could instead jump to the note that had page-two's capture in it? Since all the notes have URLs, it shouldn't be too hard.

I can think of several ways of doing this. A fancy way would be to have Evernote detect a 404 error or no browser response, and then check if the note exists in one of your notebooks. An easier way is just let the user hold down a modifier key like ALT or Ctrl Shift and click on note...

This could be especially useful if you wanted to capture a series of pages and know that you'd be able to link them all together.

[eEditor 0]

+1. I didn't realize I would need this until recently, but it would be fantastic to have. Evernote rocks.

[sleahcim 3]

+1

Been waiting for the return of this function since losing it in the update after 2.2. When it returns, and I'm confident the devlopers will find a way, Evernote will return to its once held position as my most valued tool.

If you search the older threads on the forum you'll find just how important this sorely missed function was to so many users.

[midtoad 4]

+1 on intra-Evernote links, except in my case I would be delighted to have links within a single Evernote note. I've got one note that is a list of many items from A to Z. I'd like to, say, click on 'E' and jump down to the part of the note that contains all of the 'E' items.

[elponderado 0]

+1! Been waiting soooooo long for this! I was hoping the new release of the windows client would at least have a hint of this, but I see nothing. I agree that this one feature (even in its simplest form - links in notes to other notes) would enhance the usability of EN immensely.

[johahoff 0]

+1! Would love to see this! Is there any news on how far the development is on this?

[kayzaz 0]

Good idea. As mentioned, it used to be in the prior version, so it should not be so tough to do, unless the new version was a total rewrite. Not essential, in my opinion, but definitely a nice idea.

[sdipaola 0]

This is not only an essential feature but allows a universe of new uses and organization styles for evernote. Linking to notes both internally (like wikiwords) and externally ( through url syntax) is something that Onenote has as does all wikis. I bring this up because Onenote2010 will be in public beta-in a week with wild marketing for months after. Onenote has sucky tagging and no web support, but that could change in 2010, making the comparison/competition with evernote some serious stuff. Getting note linking into EN now (or soon) would help show its strength so you are not just making grouped notes but a mindmap or linked structure of your knowledge space. If I was the EN project manager, I would drop everything to get this in, cause the new uses and smarts of EN would quadruple.

[studymind 0]

This is not only an essential feature but allows a universe of new uses and organization styles for evernote. Linking to notes both internally (like wikiwords) and externally ( through url syntax) is something that Onenote has as does all wikis. I bring this up because Onenote2010 will be in public beta-in a week with wild marketing for months after. Onenote has sucky tagging and no web support, but that could change in 2010, making the comparison/competition with evernote some serious stuff. Getting note linking into EN now (or soon) would help show its strength so you are not just making grouped notes but a mindmap or linked structure of your knowledge space. If I was the EN project manager, I would drop everything to get this in, cause the new uses and smarts of EN would quadruple.

Does this feature exist in the present version? I am just getting started and would like to use the feature if it is available. Evernote has been of a great help in the academic setting while I maintain online degree. With this added feature I would probably never fail a test ever again. Thank you so much.

[jefito 5,589]

Does this feature exist in the present version? I am just getting started and would like to use the feature if it is available. Thanks you.

This feature does not exist yet. Evernote has said that it's something that they want to do, but haven't done it yet. Plenty of discussion on the forums abut it, if you care to search.

[JMichaelTest 19]

I admittedly have not thought this fully through, but I was thinking it would be a nice feature to be able to create links within the Evernote database between notes.

For example I often use this for work and take notes about a particular project at many different times. I tag all of those projects with a common tag of course, but in one note there may be a reference to something I covered in another note that may be in an entirely different project. A simple hyperlink between the two could be a good way of jumping back to the reference note if needed. . .

A recent post to this thread just brought it to my attention for the first time.

Interesting, it is now over 2 1/2 years later and we still don' have this feature even though there has been a large number of requests that has been sustained over the years.

It is also interesting there is another related thread that speaks to the same issue: Linking to individual notes, one year later. This thread was started on Oct 11, 2009 9:05 pm.