Back in 2010, when Steve Jobs and I exchanged emails, I sent him a white paper recommending that Apple introduce system-wide linking in what was then OS X. Years later, Apple unveiled Quick Note in macOS Monterey (2021). It looked promising at first — a way to capture notes tied to what you’re working on.

But Quick Note turned out to be half-baked. On the Mac it’s mostly limited to Safari and Apple Notes, links are one-way only, reliability is hit-and-miss, and there’s no automation. Worse, it hasn’t evolved much since its debut.

That’s where Hookmark comes in. Hookmark was designed from the ground up to deliver what Quick Note promised — and much more. With Hook to New, Hook to Copied Link, and two-way, universal links, you can connect almost anything on your Mac to anything else. Add in automation via AppleScript and Shortcuts, and Hookmark becomes a true linking engine for your workflows.

I break down the details here: Quick Note on macOS: Still Limited in 2025 – Hookmark