wikilinks

DEVONthink Tips
1
  1. I’m having a strange problem with wikilinks. I am new to trying them out, so perhaps I am missing something. I have created a new file with the single word I want linked. The links are being created—I see them in my documents just fine. I move the mouse over a linked word and see the correct destination/link in the navigation pane (where the back/forward buttons are located and where links are displayed).

However, when I click on the linked word, the linked file which was correctly listed in the navigation pane does not appear. I get ‘no selection’ in the entry note pane, no file pops up, nothing.

This seems to be happening with some links and not others. I’m able to link up to other words/files in the same entry just fine.

What could cause it to happen that all looks as it should, where I see the correct link displayed, but nothing happens when I actually click the link?

  1. A second issue: When pasting in text or with text that is already existent in an entry, sometimes words will automatically show up as linked, which should be since there is a file that has that name, but when I click on it, it creates a new document and does not refer to the already existing file of that name. For example, I have a file titled “Salman Rushdie.” I was pasting in quotes by him with his name at the end of each quote. Some of the resulting new links worked fine and took me to the correct file. Other new links when clicked took me to new files that were created, one for “Salman,” another for “Rushdie,” instead of the already existing “Salman Rushdie” file. I retyped the name Salman Rushdie in these instances and it worked okay. But it is totally random—sometimes the links worked, sometimes they didn’t.

Does this make sense? I’m getting really inconsistent behavior in both of these instances. Any thoughts from the wise ones of the DT forum?

Alexandria

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It seems I’ve always had this problem, too. I’ll use Capture Rich Text from a web page and, if the first line of the text is a wikilink, clicking on it will either take me to the linked file or create a new file with that text or one with some portion of that text as Alexandria describes above.

Mark

3

I noticed seemingly random behavior with them similar to what your first item describes (if I’m understanding it correctly) during my wiki link testing. I concluded they’re still too fragile and unmanageable for me to rely on, with a few “don’t care if something goes wrong with them” exceptions.

4

Wow, that’s disappointing if true. I don’t see a whole lot about wikilinks on the forum (did some searches) so surely people are using them and not finding problems? I don’t know, but I was very excited initially about the prospect of having them. I reorganized my db (changed some titles, created new folders to store linked information, etc.) and thought this would work well for me.

Is there anyone who can shed more light on what might be happening here? Thanks.

Alexandria

5

It’s now happening with more than one or two wikilinks, perhaps when they are referring to files I have recently created. I get a link (underlined, etc.) and it shows up correctly in the navigation pane (shows link in form of “folder>subfolder>file linking to”), but when I click on this supposed link, I get nothing except “No Selection” in the entry/note pane.

I’m completely at a loss. All seems to be set up as it should be. Is there anyone with experience with wikilinks that can help me understand what is happening and what needs to be done? I really would like to make this work.

Thanks,

Alexandria

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And now links that were once working are not working. And sometimes I get a separate window that pops up when it does work, and sometimes the linked file shows up in the entry/note pane with the back button in the navitation pane made available.

This seems highly inconsistent to say the least. Do wikilinks actually work in DT or am I wasting precious time?

Alexandria

7

Hi, Alexandria:

Wiki links do work in my experience. I’ve noted that it’s best to save (Command-S) a document after adding a new Wiki link, then test it.

I only use Wiki links for rather special purposes, and prefer the precision of “static” links created using the contextual menu option Link To.

Here’s an example of why I generally don’t use Wiki links: Many of my groups are named descriptively, with names such as “Biophysics”, “Toxicology”, etc. So when I have Wiki links turned on every instance of the terms “Biophysics”, “Toxicology”, etc. are underlined as Wiki links. But I neither wanted nor needed all those links for each occurrence of “Biophysics”. True, I could turn off Wiki links to groups, but I sometimes want to link to a group. In any case, Wiki linking can result in more links in my documents than I intend.

Another example: I sometimes have different documents with the same name in my database, and find that can be very useful so that I do it deliberately, e.g. in some organizational schemes. There are other times when I’ve downloaded documents that have the same name as one or more existing documents in my database, and I don’t want to need to go looking for such cases. If I used Wiki linking this “same name” case could introduce uncertainty.

It’s true that I could use mashed words or aliases to add precision to my Wiki links, but I hate to see mashed words in my text and aliases involve a step I usually don’t want to take. For those of you who love Wiki links, please just regard me as an eccentric – I’m not putting you down. :slight_smile:

As several of my databases are pretty large with tens of thousands of documents and/or tens of millions of words, I can see a perceptible slowdown when I turn on Wiki links. So I stick with “static” links almost always.

When do I use Wiki links? Sometimes I’ll do this in a small new project database, as it’s an easy way to create new documents corresponding to selected test. Here’s where some of you will really think I’m eccentric. Once I’m satisfied with a linking layout, I’ll turn off Wiki linking, set up a group organizational structure and redo the links as static links. Of course, I’ll go to that much trouble only if I’m going to make continued use of that database, or if I’m going to merge it with another database.[/i]

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Thanks, Bill, for sharing how you use links. I myself use static links quite often and find it quite satisfactory.

I am having issues with wikilinks, which I would now like to use. I’ve made adjustments with file names to make it work, so I don’t have the problem of too many links. I also test my links after adding a new one, which is why I posted my two problems above—those were issues I encountered when trying to make wiki links work. Some work, some don’t. I’m wondering why.

So I would be interested in hearing from those who use wiki links more extensively. Have you encountered these issues described above and if so, have you discovered why it’s happening and how to prevent it? Right now I have several ‘broken’ links even though my file names are as they should be and the terms in files are underlined and it shows up correctly in the navigation pane when I pass the mouse over the underlined word (e.g., “Folder>Subfolder>file with wikilink name”). I click on the underlined word in my file and get “No Selection” and no linked file. Doesn’t make any sense at all.

Thanks,

Alexandria