For years, power users of note-taking apps have sung the praises of backlinks. This seemingly simple feature allows you to create connections between notes, forming a web of knowledge that unlocks new levels of organization and insight. While other apps like Obsidian and Roam Research have built their entire philosophy around backlinks, Apple Notes remained stubbornly behind the curve. Until now. With the release of iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, Apple has finally brought backlinks to its native note-taking app, and as a long-time Apple Notes enthusiast, I couldn’t be more thrilled.
This update is a game-changer for anyone who uses Apple Notes for more than just jotting down shopping lists. Students, researchers, writers, and anyone who deals with complex information will find that backlinks transform the way they use the app. But what exactly are backlinks, and why should you care? In essence, backlinks are clickable links that connect one note to another. Imagine you’re writing a note about “Productivity” and you want to link it to another note about “Time Management Techniques”. With backlinks, you can easily create a connection between these two notes, allowing you to seamlessly jump between them with a single click. This creates a network of interconnected ideas, making it easier to see the relationships between your thoughts and discover new connections.
Now, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of how backlinks work in Apple Notes. When you’re editing a note, you’ll notice a new “Link” button in the toolbar. Clicking this button brings up a menu where you can choose to add a link to a website, an email address, or, most importantly, another note. Simply select the note you want to link to, and voilà! A backlink is created. But Apple has gone a step further and introduced a dedicated “Backlinks” section at the bottom of each note. This section displays all the notes that link to the current note, providing a clear overview of the connections within your digital knowledge base.
This is where the real magic happens. Imagine researching a topic like “Artificial Intelligence.” You might have separate notes on “Machine Learning,” “Deep Learning,” and “Neural Networks.” With backlinks, you can create a central “Artificial Intelligence” note that links to all these related notes. As you delve deeper and create more notes on related subtopics like “Computer Vision” or “Natural Language Processing,” you can link them back to the relevant parent notes. This creates a dynamic web of interconnected notes that allows you to explore your ideas in a non-linear way, much like our brains work.
Personally, I’ve been using backlinks extensively to organize my research for articles and blog posts. I can now easily jump between different sources, connect related ideas, and see the bigger picture of my research. It’s like having my own personal Wikipedia, tailored to my specific interests and needs. Another area where I find backlinks incredibly useful is in project management. I can create a note for each project and link it to related notes like tasks, deadlines, and resources. This keeps everything organized and accessible in one central location.
However, the implementation of backlinks in Apple Notes isn’t without its limitations. Currently, there’s no visual representation of the connections between notes, like a graph view. This would make it easier to understand the overall structure of your notes and identify key connections. Also, while backlinks make it easy to navigate between notes, there’s no way to filter or search within the backlinks section. This can be a bit cumbersome if you have a large number of backlinks in a note.
Despite these minor shortcomings, the addition of backlinks is a significant step forward for Apple Notes. It bridges the gap between a simple note-taking app and a powerful knowledge management tool. If you’re an Apple user who values organization and interconnectedness, I highly recommend exploring this new feature. It might just change the way you think about note-taking.
