Wiki Links & Backlinks
Connect notes with [[wiki links]]. memrynote tracks links bidirectionally, so every note knows what points to it.
Creating a Link
Type [[ and start typing the title. An autocomplete dropdown appears with matching notes.
- Match found: press Enter or click to insert a link to that note.
- No match: pressing Enter creates a new note with that title and links it.
- Audio file found: pick Link for a normal reference or Embed for an inline audio block.
The link displays the target's current title, but the underlying reference uses a stable ID — renaming the target doesn't break the link.
Following a Link
Click any wiki link to open the target in a new tab. ⌘+click to open in the background; ⌥+click to open in a split pane.
Formatting a Link
Write the formatting around the link in markdown and it is kept, on screen and in the vault file:
**[[Roadmap]]**stays bold*[[Roadmap|the plan]]*keeps both the alias and the italics- strikethrough, inline code, underline and text or highlight colour work the same way
Colour and underline have no markdown syntax, so they are written the way memrynote writes every coloured run — as a <span style="…"> around the link, which Obsidian renders too.
Formatting applied to an existing link chip is not saved
Selecting a link chip in the editor and pressing ⌘+B styles it on screen, but the change reaches neither the synced document nor the file — the same is true of a link inserted through the [[ autocomplete inside already-bold text. Formatting is carried only when the markdown is written or pasted with the link already inside it, as above. Tracked as a known gap.
A link inside a formatted sentence stays plain text
When the formatting covers more than the link — ~~Cancelled: [[Meeting]]~~, or **See [[Roadmap]] for details** — the link is left as plain [[…]] text rather than turned into a clickable chip. Splitting the formatted run around the link produces markdown whose delimiters GFM reads as literal characters, so the file is left exactly as written instead. Put the formatting on the link alone to get the chip.
WARNING
Inline code combined with bold, italic or strikethrough on the same link is displayed and written correctly, but reading the file back keeps only the code formatting. This is a limitation of the markdown parser and applies to ordinary text the same way.
Image Embeds
A wiki link written with a leading ! and pointing at an image embeds the picture instead of linking to it. This is the syntax Obsidian vaults use, so notes written elsewhere render their images without any conversion step:
![[photo.png]]— looked up anywhere in the vault by filename![[Images/photo.png]]— a path relative to the vault root, or to your notes folder![[photo.png|300x200]]— the size hint is ignored; resize the image in the editor
Only real image files embed this way. ![[Some Note]] and ![[report.pdf]] stay as they are, and a target that doesn't match any file in the vault is left untouched rather than rendered as a broken image — so a typo stays visible and fixable.
TIP
Editing a note that contains ![[photo.png]] rewrites the embed to memrynote's standard image syntax the next time the note is saved — . The picture and its position are unchanged; only the markup differs.
The rewritten link is relative to the note, so it keeps working after the note syncs to your other devices, and the vault stays readable by Obsidian.
Backlinks Panel
The collapsible Backlinks section at the bottom of every note lists every other note that links to it — including notes that point to it through a [[wiki link]] or through a Relation property.
Each entry shows:
- The source note's title
- A snippet of the surrounding text (for a relation, the property name and value instead)
- A timestamp
- A click target to open the source note
Graph View
The sidebar Graph entry opens a force-directed map of your notes and the links between them. Useful for finding orphan notes or unexpectedly large clusters.
- Nodes are notes; edges are wiki links and relation properties (drawn thinner, to tell them apart from wiki links).
- Click a node to open the note in a tab.
- Hover to highlight neighbors.
- Drag a node to pull it around — linked notes follow it, and the graph settles again when you let go.
The layout is a live simulation: it arranges itself when the view opens, comes to rest on its own, and wakes up again whenever you drag something. Node positions are not saved, so each time you open the graph it settles into a fresh arrangement.
Edits made while the graph is open are folded into the arrangement you are looking at. A new note or link slides into place and the neighbours shift to make room; nothing else moves, and the graph does not rebuild itself from scratch on every save.
Turn the motion off with Live motion under the gear icon → Display if you prefer a still graph — the same forces then run once and stop, which is also the lighter option on very large vaults.
Renaming Targets
Renaming a note:
- Updates the display text in inbound links
- Preserves the link target (stable ID)
- Updates search and the backlinks panel immediately
You don't need to find-and-replace [[Old title]] references — memrynote rewires display text everywhere.
Deleting a Linked Note
Deleting a target leaves "broken" wiki links rendered with a strikethrough. Recreating a note with the same title doesn't automatically restore the link — wiki links bind to IDs, not titles.
If you need to repair broken links, use the inline link menu: it lets you re-target to an existing note or create a new one with the displayed title.
Practical Patterns
- Index notes — a note titled "Inbox" or "Daily" that links to many others. Backlinks make navigation trivial.
- Tag-as-link — type
[[topic]]once at the bottom of any note. Click it later to see everything that mentions the topic. - MOCs (Maps of Content) — short curated notes that link out to a topic's key references.
Power Tip
Wiki link autocomplete also matches on tags and audio files. Typing [[#topic]] searches notes that carry that tag. (Tags themselves are tracked separately — see Properties & Tags.)