Letâs say Iâm writing an item on a certain Topic 1. The item touches on a Topic 2 on which I have not written anything yet. I would like to to create an inbox item about Topic 2 âon the flyâ by simply typing [[Topic 2]]. Since I havenât written anything on that topic yet, the link search should come up empty (at least for the intact expression).
Such a feature could turbocharge the writing of study and research notes, of linked notes of all kinds.
The developers should make an app like that. They could name it after a rock. (Kidding. I assume you know you just described the Dynalist developers other app, Obsidian, pretty much exactly.)
Ha ha, I did, didnât I? But thank you for giving me this opportunity to try and explain my request better.
This is how I looked at it: since the developers already gave us internal links and backlinks in Dynalist (great work, by the way), this looks more like a glaring omission. When you type that â[[â, you just expect a ânew noteâ option (or new item, in this case). It just seems logical to me. If the link search comes up dry, is it really better put a âplaceholderâ link and then leave your outlining to create the linked item? Why not create the link and the new item in one frictionless step, and get on with your outlining?
I donât know if this makes Dynalist too much like Obsidian. I do know that Dynalist is now in the business of linked notes. So this is really about just closing a circle. And making Dynalist better for me, and hopefully for others.
Would the new item be a child of the item you [[created]] it at, or a child of your inbox? It seems weird to link to a child thatâs right there below their parent. I donât envision myself personally ever using this feature, if it ever appeared. I do use it extensively in Obsidian, but thatâs because [[links]] are the only way to see children (unless you use the sidebar, which I donât). So in obsidian, I donât feel like Iâm âdoubling upâ the new item in two places. In dynalist it would feel doubled up. Actually I never use internal links in Dynalist come to think of it. Everything is ordered in a tree by me in dynalist, whereas Obsidians tree is generated in the mind map from the links. My 2 cents.
There wouldnât be any doubling of the new item, and the new item wouldnât be a child of the item youâre working on, since that would indeed be weird. The new item should be created directly in your designated inbox, since Dynalist doesnât know where you plan to put it in your docs. After youâve finished your outlining session, you can go to the inbox and work on the new items.
Of course, since the inbox is a temporary holding area, when you move the new item to another document (as you eventually would), the internal link that created the item must be automatically edited to follow it to its new location.
This extra work here, is all I meant by âdoublingâ. I know, not the best phrasing. I just mean it creates some clean-up debt for your future self to deal with. I like things to be tidyâd away in one action. Thatâs why Iâd never use such a feature. I only use it in Obsidian because the heirarchy is in a sidebar I hide and leave a permanant mess on purpose, so thereâs no tidying debt.
But isnât that what the designated inbox is for? A holding place for stuff to deal with later? Or maybe you donât use the inbox?
I use inbox when Iâm not at my computer
Iâm pushing, I know, but on the âWhy Dynalist?â page, it promises: âFarewell to cut-navigate-and-pasting grunt work.â But if you want to link to an item that doesnât exist yet (an inevitable use-case), then a form of âcut-navigate-and-pasting grunt workâ is exactly whatâs in store for you.
This âlink forwardâ feature that weâre talking about would alleviate that.
Maybe there could be a second inbox for it, so it doesnât clutter the primary inbox, then I might use it. Actually, since I only use the API for sending stuff to my inbox, it already lets me specify any node in the json as the destination, so I could set my own inbox already, and leave the default inbox to be a sort of âblack holeâ I let pile up with click-spawned orphan nodes.
I didnât get the API and json references, but âclick-spawned orphan nodesâ â I got that! 
Yes, that would be a hazard of this kind of feature. Caveat scriptor â let the writer beware.
Basically Iâve warmed up to your idea after thinking about it.
I appreciate that, coming as it does from someone of your knowledge and experience. I hope the developers are reading this.
I implemented this, in a keyboard macro. BetterTouchTool of Mac to be specific, but AutoHotKey for Windows should work too.
The difference being that instead of typing [[note name]], I just type note name and press the hotkey. It automatically creates a new note in a specified node deep in my hierarchy where I store them, and leaves a named internal link that I can click to go to it.
One hotkey triggers this
That is cool! You basically added functionality to Dynalist.
Iâm playing with mem.ai now, where creating new âpagesâ on the fly is an integral feature. Itâs not an outliner, so the problem we were discussing doesnât come up here.