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I need to use deeply-buried files/folders on a hard disk at work. I can create aliases, which is helpful. An alias gives me an icon that I can double-click to open the original. But I would like to create clickable text "hyperlinks" to use in things like Excel spreadsheets, TextEdit, to do lists, etc.

Clicking one of those links would open the corresponding file/folder in Finder. It would function essentially as an html hyperlink, only referencing a local file. That would let me set up my workflow in advance with all the links in place for each project.

Use case:

TODO:
• Read the Quarterly Report
• Review new applicants in the Product Manager Applicant Folder

I have researched automator and aliases but haven't found anything to create text-based aliases. I appreciate any help.

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  • How about creating template files? Then you can use the alias feature to open the template file and use a "Save as..." feature on the application to create a new file based on the template. – Ricardo Oct 24 '18 at 0:05
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I'm not aware of any way to do this without 3rd-party software.

However, you can definitely do this with OmniFocus.

You can "attach" files, but have that attachment simply be a "link" to the file, so it's not actually moved inside your OmniFocus database, it still exists on your filesystem.

Then your reminder/to-do could be something like "Review Quarterly Report" and have that report attached as an OmniFocus link.

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  • Awesome, thank you for your answer. I don't have enough reputation yet to show you that I voted you up, but I did. I've actually spent the last month digging into OmniFocus. It seems like that is the solution to my problem. I can now create task lists and link files and folders from anywhere the internal structure of my hard drive. Cheers! – excel-ent Nov 20 '18 at 22:30
  • Great! Thank you so much for letting me know. I’m glad to hear it’s working for you. I’ve used OmniFocus for years and think it’s a great app. Lots of power, lots of features, so it can seem daunting / complex, but it’s worth the effort, IMO. Also, welcome to SE! – TJ Luoma Nov 21 '18 at 3:12

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