thymer docs
Documentation/Writing/Links and backlinks

Links and backlinks

A link to a page keeps working when the page is renamed or moved, and a link to a line keeps working when the line moves to another page.

Link to a page

Type @ and start typing a title. Pick a page to insert a reference to it. If the page doesn’t exist yet, the same menu creates it. Select some text first and press @ to turn that text into the link.

A link’s menu can show it with an icon or as a button, which makes a tidy row of links at the top of a page. The @-menu also inserts people and dates, which is how you mention someone or set a date on a task.

Type @@ or choose Link to Line to search for a specific line, such as a task in a meeting note or a decision in a project page. A line reference, called a block reference in other apps, shows the line’s text and keeps working when the line moves.

Every page shows the pages and lines that link to it, its linked references, in a Backlinks section at the bottom. A line that is referenced elsewhere shows a small count at its end; click it to see where. With backlinks, a project page gathers the meeting notes, Journal entries and tasks that mention it, so nobody has to keep that list by hand.

Transclusions

A transclusion shows content from one place inside another: a line with its children, a heading with its whole section, or a whole page. There is only one copy. Edit it in either place and both update, tick a transcluded task and it is done at the source, and the source’s backlinks show where it is transcluded.

Four ways to make one:

  • Type @, find the page in the @-menu, and press ⇧↵Shift+Enter instead of Enter.
  • Drag a line by its handle, hold Shift as you drop it, and choose Transclude here….
  • Select lines, choose Copy Transclusion from the copy menu (⌘⇧CCtrl+Shift+C), and paste where you want them.
  • Copy lines the normal way and choose Paste Transclusion from the paste menu (⌘⇧VCtrl+Shift+V).

Go to source in the transclusion’s menu takes you to the original. A transclusion folds like any section, so a long shared page can sit collapsed inside a short one.

Transclude a shared checklist into each project, or this week’s priorities into your Journal. Make a plain copy instead when the two should drift apart.

Copy Page Link copies a URL you can send to a teammate. Only members of the workspace can open it.