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How to link to other notes in the MacOS Sonoma Notes app

In MacOS Sonoma, a host of new helpful features can be found, including within the Notes application. Here’s how you can improve your productivity by adding links to other notes.

Written by Jack Wallen, Contributing Writer on

Reviewed by Min Shin

When you think of note-taking apps, your mind probably ventures to simplistic tools that make it possible for you to jot down shopping lists and basic to-dos. Sometimes, however, you might want a list that includes a few more options, such as formatting, images, bulleted lists, and maybe even links to other lists.

Also: How to remove tracking info from links from links in MacOS Safari

That’s right. Imagine you have a basic shopping list, as well as lists for other categories. You might create shopping lists for:

General items
Groceries
Gifts
Work
School

The list of lists goes on. You might even create your General shopping list and want to link to the others from within, so you don’t have to constantly hunt through your collection of lists. By doing this, you can make your shopping adventures a bit less chaotic.

If that sounds like something you could use, you’re in luck because Apple added the feature to Notes in MacOS Sonoma. Linking to other notes is very simple to do and makes for quick access to whatever notes you want to link.

Keep in mind, this is different than adding a link to an external website. When you add a link to another note, if you click on the link, it simply switches from the current note to the one you clicked on.

Also: Upgrading to MacOS Sonoma? Do these 7 things first

There are two ways to add links to notes, and I’m going to show you both.

How to add a list from the Add Link pop-up

What you’ll need: To make use of this new feature, you must have MacOS Sonoma installed on your device. I’ll demonstrate this on an iMac running the latest version of the OS.

1. Open Notes

The first thing to do is open notes, which you can do from either the Dock or the Launchpad. I’m going to assume you’ve already created a group of lists that you might want to link to. I’ve created the shopping lists above for my example.

2. Open the note to house the links

Next, open the note for which you want to add the notes.

The Apple Notes app on MacOS Sonoma. — If you haven’t already created your notes, do so now.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

3. Add your first link

Click in the body of the note and then use the Cmd+K keyboard combination to open the Add Link window. When the Add Note window opens, type the title of the note you want to add.

Also: How to add widgets to your MacOS Sonoma desktop

Then, when it appears in the drop-down, select it, give it an optional name, and click OK to add it to the list.

The Apple Notes add link pop-up. — You can also access this pop-up by right-clicking (or two-finger tapping) in the body of the note and selecting Add Link.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

How to add from a list of lists

1. Open the note in question

Again, open the note for which you want to add links.

2. Add from a list

Click on the location in the note where you want to add the link to another note. Type >> and a drop-down of lists will appear. Locate and click the link you want to add and it will automatically appear in your note.

The add link drop-down list. — You can select from any note you’ve already added.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

Once you’ve added links to notes, they’ll appear in your note. If you want to open any of those linked notes, just click on the link and that note will open.

Also: How to password-protect your Private Browsing in MacOS Sonoma and Safari

And that’s how easy it is to link from one note to another in Apple Notes. This feature will come in very handy when you want quick access to other notes and don’t want to have to search through a long list before you find the one you’re looking for.