Very soon, sorry about the delay!
Sorry for bringing back this topic but the Menu visibility next to the bullet (Hamburguer) is still not quite fixed. As you can see, I have this list with bullets and sub-bullets next to the root. And the new backlink number is there, which is nice. But the menu gets so much deslocated to the left that it gets hiddenā¦
This is what happens. I can move the mouse to the left until I hover the menu but itās like going blind until I hit something. I only know itās a menu because of the tooltip that appears.
This doesnāt happen, though, whne I have the narrow layout or the document border applied (from the Advanced settings), but both are not pleasant to me to look at.
If my document shows me backlinks for levels deeper, this thing doesnāt happen because naturally the document is already more deslocated to the right rather than when itās closer to the root. Hope what Iām saying makes sense.
Thanks for the great support once again!
I have the same issue of Fabio:
Basically there is a gap between the magnifier and the backlinks counter, which pushes the Hamburger menu under the Files pane. The tooltip is also cut.
Any update on completed items in the backlinks being hidden please? Things are getting quite cluttered already when it has all my completed stuff that I canāt hide.
And wasnāt the Android app with backlinks imminent?
Thanks
Edit: while Iām here, is it possible to apply custom CSS on the content in the backlink area, without affecting nodes in the main outline area? Iād like to set all the backlinks to ~70% text size, but they seem to use the same class as the main outline content
Thereās a parent class that you can use to distinguish items in the backlink area vs the main documentument.
It will be released soon!
Thanks. God CSS is so frustrating, as a novice in it.
I tried for an hour last night, using the > selector with various parent classes but couldnāt get it to work. Any help would be appreciated!
>
selector means itās one level deeper (direct children only). So for backlinks, you want to skip the >
part.
Just do .parentClass .childClass
instead.
I donāt mind the backlinks when zoomed in to the node, but I donāt like the blue icon by the item when zoomed out.
If you agree, here is the fix:
/* Remove backlink counter icon */
.node-backlink-counter{ display: none; }
I am not a clever man.
Can someone give an example of backlinks being useful? EDIT: appearently I missed this, nevermind https://blog.dynalist.io/2020-june-update/
Also, do you have to manually create links to have them show up in backlinks? Like you have to type the full [text][https://dynalist.io/d/bazinga28358432#z=bazingoo3245328]
markdown to create a link right? Or is there some easier way I donāt know about?
How did you make all those solar system links?
Iām still playing with backlinks myself, so my thoughts are definitely a work in progress. But hereās what Iāve learned so far:
To me, backlinks seem most useful when you use Dynalist like a wiki. For example, when you have one node that is the āhomeā for a topic or person, and any time you refer to that topic or person, you create a link to it. (Both Markdown and raw links work this way.) Then when you zoom into the āhomeā for that topic, you can see all the places that refer to it. Itās a way to (re-)discover associations between things.
Right now it only works for explicitly created links. Many people have asked for displaying āmentionsā as well as backlinks, to allow you to see where the topic name is used even if itās not a proper link.
Iām on the fence as to whether this approach is more or less successful than tags. Maybe it depends on how your data is structured. Still thinkingā¦
You should type [[
to create links. Please do not type those out manually, please!
Oh my god. This is so much better than what Iāve been slogging thru all this time lol. Maybe now that I just learned how to make internal links easily Iāll start using those backlinks too.
I am really loving this feature, itās definitely helping me build outlines to prep for my MA comprehensive exams! One suggestion/thought: would it be possible to show backlinks at the bottom of a document, rather than just on zoomed items? Visually it would help me to see whatās in the document together with the backlinks. Anybody else feel the same? Would it make sense as an optional feature?
Iām not as technical as the average Dynalist user, but I would love to see a tutorial about how to use Backlinks. Would anyone be willing to make a quick video that shows how to use Backlinks?
Thank you!!
Make a link to another part of the document. Click on it. See thereās a number on the left and you can click to go back. If you donāt see the number, your platform doesnāt have the feature.
Would an example help? Maybe Iāll write this up in a post properly someday but I havenāt settled on an exact structure yet. At the moment I have 3 Dynalist files:
- Daily log
- Actions
- Projects
I use backlinks is to be able to have actions and logged events appear under the project they related to. So in my Projects file I might have
Project: Move house
+This is a breakdown of the steps involved
+Sell current house
Ā±----Estate agents
+Buy new house
Ā±----Mortgage
Then under the Actions file I may have
Phone calls to make:
Ā±ā Ring around estate agents to get valuations
Things to do online:
Ā±ā Get a quote for best mortgage rate
And under Daily log file I might have:
29th September
Ā±ā Called BlueBricks - they want 2% commission, calling Tuesday
Now without backlinks itās hard to keep track of all that. In the past Iāve tried tags to link things together. So I personally use the itemās note to insert a backlink wherever I want to say that an action or log refers to a project, e.g.
Ring around estate agents to get valuations
[[Project: Move house]] <<this is what I type in the note but it gets changed to [Project: Move house](http://dynalist.io/d/89782u3hd8489yfe/...)
So now, when I zoom in (I think doing this is more useful than the blue numbered bullet, though thatās an indicator for me there are things linked to it) to my move house project, I see:
Project: Move house
+This is a breakdown of the steps involved
+Sell current house
Ā±----Estate agents
+Buy new house
Ā±----Mortgage
Backlinks:
Ring around estate agents to get valuations (Actions > Phone calls to make)
Get a quote for best mortgage rate (Actions > Things to do online)
Called BlueBricks - they want 2% commission, calling Tuesday (Daily log > 29th September)
Thatās just my way though. That can be reversed so you can keep your actions within your project plan and then backlink to an action list to see all e.g. phone calls across all projects, but with my way I can do different ordering across projects within the actions file.
Other example: I also put a link in the note under an action, to the day entry in the day log before I move it to the Actions file, e.g.
30th September
Ā±āTake car in for service
[[30th September]]
So similarly when I zoom into 30th September I see everything I logged on that day, plus backlinks to the actions I created on that day that are now in the action lists.
Iād like to experiment with creating a knowledge management system where backlinks link topics, but thatās just an idea for now.
Hi Stuart! Thanks so much for your example. I actually created the same 3 files that you listed and added identical content. But after that, I wasnāt able to follow the rest of the example. Iām so sorry.
I wish I could see you in action doing it (maybe using the Loom recorder?). I really appreciate all the time you put into that example.
Hi Stuart, thanks for taking the time to detail your system. I follow almost the same process (I put the links in the note also, primarily so that when you click on the node, the note doesnāt expand to show the full hyperlink address; keeps thing looking neater!)
I currently have one single document but am experimenting with having a separate Actions document having read your summary.
Quick question if you donāt mind - how do handle recurring, routine tasks that arenāt linked to a project. Do you just keep them in the Actions doc or do you use another method? Also, do you delete completed tasks, hide them etc?
Apologies, there was more than one question thereā¦
Thanks,
Richard
Hi Richard, no limit on questions!
I use notes for the same reason, looking forward to a WYSIWYG editor that keeps being mentioned to avoid those expanding links - I also have URL links back to OneNote which are really long!
First thing I should mention regarding separate files is that the URLs change, and therefore backlinks will break, if you move an item to a different file, so be careful. It would be great if items had globally unique IDs but apparently this is a big job to change.
To be honest, I donāt hold those recurring tasks in Dynalist, I want them in my face on the day and use a more ātraditionalā todo app like Todoist so I can have an Android widget. But I do have an entry in Dynalist for each regular meeting I have, and keep the preparatory tasks as children. Iām a Pro subscriber so get repeating due dates - I complete the meeting entry once itās finished and it automatically updates the due date based on the repeat cycle I set.
Generally I hide completed tasks, I should probably delete them from time-to-time.
Hopefully this works:
I have some custom CSS applied so yours wonāt look exactly like mine