[FEATURE REQUEST] Link to a file in a note

Vinho

Dear Christian and Sascha,
as far as I can tell, at the moment it's not possible to create a clickable link to a (non-txt) file on my computer within a note. Through drag&drop the location of the file on my computer will be created in the note, but just as plain text, it's not clickable. Even if I add the syntax "" I can't open the file through clicking on the location text.
Are you planning to change this in the future?
Best wishes,
Vinho

ctietze

Well, I do have an open task to deal with file-system links differently in the future. When the new Markdown highlighter is ready, I think it's time to tackle that. Will take some time, though.

Basil

In the meantime, if you need a clickable link in The Archive, you can insert a file:/// link to the file instead of just the file path. They are basically a URL-encoded version of the file path and look something like this:
file:///Users/basil/Desktop/Screenshots/Screen%20Shot%202018-12-03%20at%2008.58.51.png
(for the file /Users/basil/Desktop/Screenshots/Screen Shot 2018-12-03 at 08.58.51.png)

When you click on such a link in The Archive, the file is not opened directly, but it is revealed in Finder. A quick ⌘↓ (or ⌘O) then opens the file.

Of course, creating these links by hand would be pretty tedious. Fortunately, there is (like for many other problems) a Keyboard Maestro based solution:
Copy encoded URLs of selected files

These links do not only work in The Archive, but in almost all other applications as well. I often include such links to files (or folders) in OmniFocus tasks, calendar events, etc. and find them immensely useful.

Vinho

Thanks, Basil – that is a very helpful post!
If I understand correctly, the file:/// link just works if there are no spaces in the file name or if you fill those spaces with %20 every time. That is indeed very tedious. I haven't used Keyboard Maestro so far and probably wouldn't buy it just for this purpose, but thanks for letting me know about this option.

In the meantime, I have also learned about the option to put files into the "media" folder in my archive and then link to them with ![](media/filename), which would be a relative link that would also work on other devices.
Again, the file name can't have spaces.

Thanks a lot!

ctietze

That's basically the trick: to "HTML-URL-encode" the path, which includes replacing spaces with %20.

URL encoding the text or file from the clipboard can be automated with various tools.

• AutoHotkey (Windows)
• AppleScript URL Encoding

A combination of "take the selected file from Finder" and "make it a file:// URL":
https://stackoverflow.com/a/9617705/1460929

You can put this into a new Service in Automator and then assign to it a shortcut from System Preferences > Keyboard (instructions]. Et voila! No Keyboard Maestro needed, even though KM is great

Vinho

That's great, thanks!

ctietze

Update on this: spaces in filenames work better now since v1.6.0 is in the cutting edge channel. You will likely not need to convert file names anymore.

Vinho

@ctietze: Thanks for the update! I have since then made it a habit to not use spaces in filenames, so for me it actually won't change anything

GeoEng51

@Vinho I’m not sure if this was mentioned, but creating a path for any (non-image) file you want to reference in a Zettel is really simple, at least in the MacOS. You highlight the file in Finder, then click on option-command-C. This copies the file path, rather than the file. You then go to your note and hit command-V to paste the file path.

Here is an example with one of my Zettels. Say I wanted to reference a letter that I wrote to my mom in 2017, while I was living in Australia. The above process would yield the file path:

/Users/johnsobkowicz/Documents/Mom/2017.12.12 Letter to Mom.pdf

As pointed out by @Basil, I need to add file:// in front of that path and I also need to replace all spaces with %20, to get

file:///Users/johnsobkowicz/Documents/Mom/2017.12.12%20Letter%20to%20Mom.pdf

(That is where the file:/// comes from).

Clicking on that link opens a Finder window with the desired file highlighted.

Vinho

@GeoEng51: Thanks for the tip with OPTION-CMD-C, I didn't know that! Have so far always right-clicked the file, then pressed OPTION in the context menu and then chosen "Copy ... as Pathname". Your method is much quicker!

GeoEng51

@Vinho - You are welcome! I think I learned it from @Will, though, or at least from someone else on the forum, so should give credit elsewhere.