Hook Part 3 - Searching

Intro

As your database of hooked links grows, Hook offers a slight alternative in the use case. 

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we looked at the primary use case - copying links to resources and hooking them to one another, eliminating the need to switch context when you are deep in focus and need to open a related article. Simply invoke Hook, select the link to your hooked resource and press Enter. 

The larger the database, however, the greater Hook becomes as a Search tool in its own right for those resources you use most often. 

If you’ve gone to the trouble of hooking one resource to another, then it is reasonable to assume you are dealing with a resource that holds a degree of importance - otherwise, you wouldn’t have bothered in the first place. So your Hook database could very well equate to being a database of your most important ‘stuff’. 

When you search within Hook, you are not only searching for files. It will search for anything that it has been involved with - so web pages, e-mails and all manner of resources from any linked apps. 

How To Search

Searching within Hook is every bit as easy as it needs to be. 

• Invoke Hook

• Either press Command and F or Click on the Search icon (magnifying glass)

• Type in your search criteria and hit the Return key

Here you will be presented with a list of your results. As you can see from my screenshot, there are 49 resources that, somewhere, contain the word Hook. This is quite lucky because I believe that, at this point in time, the search results are limited to 50 results!

Just like other tools, like Alfred, you can key in a shortcut to quickly open one of the results. In the example above, I could press ⌘0 to open an Apple Note called My Hook Notes, or ⌘4 to open an OmniOutliner file that somewhere, within the title or URL, contains the word Hook. 

Alternatively, I can use the arrow keys or mouse/trackpad to select the result I would like and open that resource. 

The developers at CogSci Apps have sweated the details when it comes to searching for your stuff and whilst above I have outlined the simplest way to use the search functionality, this page on the Hook Productivity website goes into a lot more depth on the types of searches that can be carried out, including information on Boolean Operators, Tokenised Search, Using Launchers and much more. Check it out

Hook Part 2 - Copying and Pasting Links

Introduction

In my last article on Hook, I looked at what the application is and why it’s such an important part of my workflow. Today, I want to touch on some of the core functionality and how I use it day to day to keep my brain a little less frazzled, knowing that everything I need for a given project is the touch of a button away. 

Universal Copying of Links

The first - and I dare say primary - use I have for Hook comes with the copying of links. Anyone that uses a Mac finds themselves utilising resources from a variety of different sources. They may be web pages, image files, project plans, calendar items, notes, spreadsheets. I’m no different from any of my readers in that respect. Having the ability to copy raw links to these resources using one global command helps:

• build muscle memory for utilising just one command to achieve a common result no matter the application or resource

• Reduce friction when trying to recall where a given resource is - you can click on the copied link and be taken there straight away.

In this example, I’ve opened up a help page at Hookproductivity.com that contains some great information on how to copy a link with Hook (including a video from yours truly that helps you visualise). This is going to be a useful resource to me as I compose this article, so to copy this link I’m going to:

• Invoke Hook with my keyboard shortcut (the default is ⬆⌘Space however using BetterTouchTool I’ve modified my shortcut to Caps Lock and H)

• Press Command C to copy (you can use the inbuilt menu within Hook to find this as well, as shown below)

This link is then able to be pasted elsewhere, using the standard Command V for pasting. 

Now some of you may be thinking ‘Lee - come on - I can do the above by using Command and L to get to the address bar, and then Command and C to copy’ - at which, I’d say you are bang right! Of course, you can. Yet those are Safari specific commands, and you need to learn the Command L/Command C combination to execute this. Invoking Hook and pressing Command C to copy will work in any application, no matter where you are within it, as long as it is supported by Hook and the list of supported applications is growing at a steady rate. 

You’re not just limited to pasting the link elsewhere. Far from it. The best use for the link you have copied comes with the Hook to Copied Link command. 

Hook to Copied Link

This is where Hook shows its teeth and the whole premise of contextual computing starts to take shape. Taking the URL that I have copied earlier - and is now sitting in my clipboard, I’m going to open up MindNode which I use for mind-mapping ideas and outlines. This is where things germinate, ready to grow. 

With the document I need open, I’m going to:

• Invoke Hook with my keyboard shortcut

• Press Command V to hook the copied link to this document. Once more, I can do this from the title menu within Hook and I’ve shown this in the screenshot below

Now, this does something that if I didn’t have such a scientific mind, I’d swear was just a little bit magical. It creates a bi-directional link between the two resources which can be utilised by invoking Hook once more. So if I have my mind map open and I want to get to that Copy Link webpage, I can simply invoke Hook and press Enter on the link below

I said this was bi-directional - and I was right, because if I was reading the Copy Link webpage and wanted to go straight back across to my mind map, I can invoke Hook and switch back

This is, of course, a very simplified use case for linking resources together with Hook. If you start to think bigger, you’ll realise that the possibilities are almost exponential:

Academics can use this for creating lesson and lecture plans and gathering all of the resource materials they need using one, easy to learn command

Developers can hook applications like Xcode and Quiver together with web resources to minimise the friction that comes with switching between applications and help keep their brains in the zone for the magic they create

Project Managers have all initiation, process, planning, financial and web resources linked together - which when asked about something during a particularly intense board meeting (this is my raw experience), makes it easy and somewhat impressive to give an immediate answer. 

Plus so much more besides. 

In upcoming articles, we’re going to dive into some of the deeper functionality of Hook. I’m hoping these first two articles sow the seeds. however, in why you need the app and how easy it is to get started.

Hook Part 1 - What is Hook and Why Do You Need It?

Every now and then I come across an application that just fits how I work. It doesn’t happen too often but when it does, it’s a really special thing. It’s very much like when you go into a clothing store, see something and you don’t even need to try it on - you just know it’s going to be right. 

Well Hook, by the team at CogSci Apps is one such application. It just seems to get me - and a lot of others as well. 

What Is Hook?

Hook is a macOS application that has one primary aim - to keep you focused. In an age where information overload is a genuine thing, it’s hard to keep track of where our files or relevant websites are and this can generate friction when it comes to focused working. Why can we not just search for this material, using a tool like Alfred or Spotlight? Well, of course, we can. As long as we have a general idea of what it is we are searching for. How often do you find yourself carrying out repeated searches because you can’t quite remember how you named the file or the spelling of a website. 

Hook counters this by letting you hook resources together via bi-directional links. So if you have an OmniFocus project that requires you to access certain files or websites, you can use Hook to create links that hook these common resources together. This is known as contextual computing and anything I can use to help me get on board this train, I’m all over because contextual computing is the way forward (Here is a link to a MacSparky article on this very topic). 

One OmniFocus Project - three websites for research through the Hook Interface

Why Is It Great?

When I’m setting up any kind of project, I use Hook to gather together the main resources I need. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a small project, like a personal screencast, or something larger for a corporate client - knowing that I can access any file I need with just a couple of keypresses saves me two main things

• Time - this is important because whenever time disappears into the ether, that’s exactly where it has gone. It’s never going to come back. When you waste money on something, you can take measures to ensure that somehow, you can get it back, whether by selling something or earning it another way. Time, however, is very much not a bi-directional concept. It goes one way, so anything I can do to make the most of the time I have is welcomed

• Attention - every bit as important as time, if not more so. We have 24 hours in a day, every day, never going to change. We certainly do not have 24 hours of full attention. Or 12. If we were to halve that and go for six, we’re getting much nearer the mark. Every time we switch context to try and get to another file or resource, we chip away at a tiny bit of that attention because there is an element of friction involved. By linking to resources from one hotkey enabled interface, this friction is dissolved.

That’s pretty much it. Next week we’re going to look at how to get started with Hook however I did create a video for the team at CogSciApps (that’s how much I love it) so go check it out and see it in action.