# Links between documents?

**URL:** <https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949>\
**Category:** Scenarios\
**Created:** [March 26, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949 "2019-03-26T21:19:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![pete31](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/d26b3c/32.png) [@pete31](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/pete31)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 1:47am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/21 "2020-12-23T01:47:32Z")

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Definitely 🙂

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**Author:** ![shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/shmavon/32/17857_2.png) [@shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/shmavon)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/22 "2020-12-23T15:04:44Z")

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Well, it is called “product”, but the concept is applicable to features within existing products - all depends on what you call product.

If it be less confusing, let’s call it Minimal Viable Implementation (MVI) of a feature.

Hope the concept is clear though.

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**Author:** ![rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/rkaplan)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/23 "2020-12-23T16:36:28Z")

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We are all really good at thinking up “nice to have” features here on this Forum.

That said, there is nothing “minimal” about the implementation of “Linking” in DT3. There is no other software I know of on Mac or Windows which comes close to what DT3 can do in that regard.

But yes, that does not stop me from still having a wish list. It’s the nature of the beast.

That said, I suspect some combination of Links, Smart Rules, and Smart Groups can probably achieve what you want to do quite nicely.

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**Author:** ![shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/shmavon/32/17857_2.png) [@shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/shmavon)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/24 "2020-12-23T18:24:03Z")

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Thanks @rkaplan,

To be honest I am not sure I understand first part of your post, but would really appreciate recipe of how to link two image files in DT3 using existing functionality.

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**Author:** ![rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/rkaplan)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/25 "2020-12-23T18:43:25Z")

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> [@shmavon](#):
>
> To be honest I am not sure I understand first part of your post, but would really appreciate recipe of how to link two image files in DT3 using existing functionality.

Assign the same tag to each one and then create a smartgroup for that tag

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**Author:** ![shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/shmavon/32/17857_2.png) [@shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/shmavon)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/26 "2020-12-23T19:47:56Z")

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Thank you @rkaplan,

This indeed will work for linking documents of any type!

However, this method would not scale well, especially when items could belong to multiple document clusters.

Direct linking does not increase management complexity with database growth and adds value together with already existing features like text-based document linking and “See Also”.

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**Author:** ![rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/rkaplan)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/27 "2020-12-23T20:04:21Z")

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Another good solution would be to use the Hook app - it integrates very well with Devonthink and creates bi-directional links.

> **[Home](https://hookproductivity.com/)**
>
> Home

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**Author:** ![shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/shmavon/32/17857_2.png) [@shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/shmavon)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/28 "2020-12-23T20:25:26Z")

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Thanks for the tip, will definitely try this application, didn’t know of its existence!

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**Author:** ![rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/rkaplan)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/29 "2020-12-23T20:28:42Z")

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The developer of Hook is very responsive to any inquries/suggestions and the app is scriptable if it does not do exactly what you want or if you want to tweak the integration somewhat. He is a professor who has written books on how to efficiently use links to improve workflow so the app is well thought out and evolving as well.

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**Author:** ![Blanc](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/blanc/32/8008_2.png) [@Blanc](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Blanc)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/30 "2020-12-23T20:35:25Z")

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That’s really interesting, thanks. Have you any experience in retaining hooks when reinstalling macOS? I’m especially interested in whether I can hook e-Mails to documents in DT and retain those hooks even if I reinstall macOS, and Mail then reloads my imap mailboxes. Thx.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/shmavon/32/17857_2.png) [@shmavon](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/shmavon)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/31 "2020-12-23T20:45:14Z")

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I would be interested in that as well, but it might be a topic for a different forum: discourse.hookproductivity.com\_notalink

Just want to make sure we don’t loose the original feature request for DT in discussions about different app…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/rkaplan)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 9:13pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/32 "2020-12-23T21:13:51Z")

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@Blanc

See some pertinent Hook discussion threads below.

I upgraded from Catalina to Big Sur and Hook works fine. It also works on other Macs where the same files are installed.

As for email, it may or may not work between different email accounts, different software, and/or between sender/recipient depending on what software you are using. Or you might need to tweak the Hook integration scripts. So that depends on exactly what you plan to do.

> **[Preservation of link created in Mail if message is archived into Keep It or...](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/preservation-of-link-created-in-mail-if-message-is-archived-into-keep-it-or-eaglefiler/2059)**
>
> My university has recently announced that they will be moving all email older than a certain age from our Exchange server to a separate archive. We can access this archive, but only through a different web-only interface. I refer to old email not...

> **[Does Hook work with emails in different accounts?](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/does-hook-work-with-emails-in-different-accounts/2425)**
>
> Assuming both clients are compatible with Hook and me and Mary are using individual and private email accounts. If I send an email to Mary and later in another email I send her a link to that first email (linked from my sent items), will it work on...

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Blanc](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/blanc/32/8008_2.png) [@Blanc](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Blanc)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/33 "2020-12-23T21:24:48Z")

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Thanks very much @rkaplan ❤ Most kind of you.

@shmavon please excuse me for hijacking your thread. To return to your original question: I link documents in DT by using an annotation (Inspectors/Annotations & Reminders; ⌃3) to one of the documents into which I paste the relevant links. For any file who’s link is in the annotation, the annotation will be shown as an incoming link in the links section of the inspector.

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**Author:** ![chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrk)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 4:54pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/34 "2021-04-26T16:54:51Z")

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> [@Blanc](#):
>
> I link documents in DT by using an annotation (Inspectors/Annotations & Reminders; ⌃3) to one of the documents into which I paste the relevant links

That’s a great idea. I just tried that too.

I just noticed one thing after doing this. It could be a bug, maybe @cgrunenberg could take a look?

If you **add an item link to more than 1 other document as an annotation** , **the resulting annotation files (.rtf) are shown as duplicates**, even with stricter duplicate recognition enabled.

That is, try to use 3 files. In 2 of those files, add the item link of the third file as an annotation:

 ![Screenshot 2021-04-26 at 18.48.23](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/6/3/636172d05ab0e8c3630dde6aa18470fab4f30df0.png)

The annotation files that both have the link to the third document are shown as duplicates:

 ![Screenshot 2021-04-26 at 18.49.17](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/b/d/bd053812aab0b7d0269db8e96bd9e4da426c681f.png)

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**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 7:56am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/35 "2021-04-27T07:56:59Z")

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> [@chrk](#):
>
> The annotation files that both have the link to the third document are shown as duplicates:

How does the content of the files look like?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrk)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 11:41am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/36 "2021-04-27T11:41:12Z")

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The content of file 1 and 2 (the .rtf annotation files that are shown as duplicates) is just the copied item link from the third file in the first picture, i.e., `Links between documents? - DEVONthink / Scenarios - DEVONtechnologies Community.pdf` (as a clickable link to the PDF).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrk)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/37 "2021-04-27T11:55:44Z")

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It’s easy to recreate:

With any 3 or more files, copy the internal link of 1 file into the annotation box of at least 2 other files. I use bookmarks in the following example.

 ![files](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/9/7/9702fb8fa4cd3ec0cf75a28b8cff936a95c84f40.png)

Then, 2 of the newly created .rtf annotation files will be shown as duplicates.

 ![duplicates](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/0/f/0f3fbbe076721b5edbf11d4447c4591a540f4efe.png)

Both have the internal link to the `Google.webloc` file as their content, as something like this: `x-devonthink-item://13209BD1-5609-4191-B8E4-8987A1BFDCA1`

 ![content](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/d/0/d0eda5a006aff0b7541da3a1455a31ccabb9d97f.png)

Add at least another character or space to just one of the files in the annotation box and the .rtf annotation files will not be shown as duplicates any longer.

 ![character](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/a/9/a93a28d2a027aca1606fe28ac5015ddb78ad22dc.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 12:20pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/38 "2021-04-27T12:20:48Z")

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> [@chrk](#):
>
> Both have the internal link to the `Google.webloc` file as their content, as something like this: `x-devonthink-item://13209BD1-5609-4191-B8E4-8987A1BFDCA1`

Then it’s actually working as expected if the contents are identical.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@chrk](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrk)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 12:48pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/39 "2021-04-27T12:48:13Z")

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I see. I’d prefer if the name would be considered as well, especially with stricter recognition of duplicates enabled.

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**Author:** ![obadiahcruz](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/obadiahcruz/32/16823_2.png) [@obadiahcruz](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/obadiahcruz)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/links-between-documents/45949/40 "2021-05-27T20:12:27Z")

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I just asked in another thread, but has anyone found a solution for finding duplicates but with the names included?I already have stricter recognition on , but they don’t read them as duplicates

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