Amplenote allows you to invoke an "Express Link" dialog by typing [[
, then linking to either an existing note, a section of a note, or a new note you create.
Simplest case: creating links to an existing note or a new note (without any tags, unless you're in Jots mode):
How it looks to link to an existing note, or declaring a new note to link into. More animated examples at bottom of article.
Creating a double bracket note link from mid-line context:
Once you add a single
]bracket at the end of your input, then the dialog will narrow down to less choices. We are open to changing this to automatically truncate suggestions to cursor position (without the
]requirement) if someone adds it to thefeature voting boardand others vote it up🙂Update: When typing the double brackets
[[
before a whitespace character, Amplenote will automatically add the closing bracket]
. Which means you only need to pressEnter
after selecting the destination note to link to.
In some instances, newly created notes will automatically be tagged. Read more about this mechanism here: Control auto-tagging of newly linked notes.
When you want to create links to multiple notes, the fastest way to do so might be by dragging and dropping from the note list:
This proves especially useful if you want to create "Index Notes". What are "Index Notes, you ask?
Pop open the note details of the newly created "Look ma it links both ways!" note and you'll find the context from whence this inbound reference came, thanks to Amplenote backlinks.
Any note that is linked to keeps an index of who linked to it, and the context around that inbound link
When you enclose a string in set of brackets, it will link to a note (whether new or existing). It's always possible to simply link to a [[Juicy Topic]]
. But what if you live through 10,000 juicy topics? What then? Maybe it's best to make a Vault Note in [[vacations/spicy/Juicy Topic]]
so you can find this one later? Here's how it looks to generate a new note and tag hierarchy via express linking:
Linking to a newly created note within the hierarchy
You can jump into a newly linked reference using Ctrl
-Space
, and jump back to the previous note using Ctrl
-[
.
To add multiple tags while creating a note, separate the tags with a comma:
Sometimes it's not enough to link to a note, sometimes you want to link to a particular section within a note. This can be accomplished by entering #
into the double bracket dialog when a note is suggested:
The
#
key allows you to use the double bracket menu to link to a particular section within a note
Note that, after creating the link, if you then place your cursor on the it you will see the full contents of the section within the note that was linked.
Linking to a section within the current note is possible by entering [[#
. This can be especially handy when you have a note containing research that leads to tasks, and you want to be able to review that context when you're later browsing the task in Tasks View Mode and organizing task lists (to-do lists) or Calendar View: Detailed Visual Guide.
When you're creating a task, at the end of the task line, enter [[#
and then pick the current section:
The current section will be the default option when opening the double bracket selection dialog with
#
Now, when you visit the task in Tasks or Calendar View, you can review the full context that surrounded the task in its original note:
Viewing the task's note section from Tasks View mode
Typing the usual double-brackets for note linking followed by an equal =
sign instructs Amplenote to paste the selected content at the current cursor position. You can interact with this menu in two ways:
Insert the whole content of a note by searching for a note and pressing Enter
Insert a section of a note by highlighting a note, pressing #
and selecting a heading to paste
Inserting a section from another note using double brackets with the equal sign
Ctrl
-[
hotkey to link a selected word/phrase (optionally including the current note's tags)You can also link to a new or existing note using the Ctrl-[
hotkey, like so:
Using the
Ctrl-[
hotkey to promote a phrase to link to an existing note
If you would like the note being linked to take all of the tags from your current note (desirable if you're creating notes around a single project), use the Ctrl-Shift-[
hotkey instead:
Using the
Ctrl-Shift-[
hotkey links to a new or existing note, adding all of the tags from the current note. Read more about auto-tagging here: Control auto-tagging of newly linked notes#Preventing auto-tagging.
Yes, there are even more ways to create and link to notes! 💪 Using the contextual toolbar, you can move a selection of text to another note!
Contextual toolbar buttons for extracting text selection to a Rich Footnote or to a separate note.
Here is the list of rules that govern text extraction in Amplenote 👩🏫:
You can move the text selection to either a new or existing note;
Selected text is inserted at the beginning of the target note;
In place of the text selection from the source note, a link to the target note is inserted;
Tag-forwarding rules apply; that is, all of the selected tags will be added to the target note if it doesn't' exist.
Below is an example of extracting a section from a note to another existing note:
This is a section of a blog post that contains useful intel on note collaboration. Using the text extraction option, we can move this block of text to the dedicated help article on note collaboration, leaving behind a link to the article✨.
And here is an example of extracting a section from a note to a newly created note:
When looking up a note to move the selection into, Amplenote will let you create another note if no match is found.
💭 Text extraction is a useful tool to have for: