# Obsidian tip: link directly to a header

> I like to cross-link from Things to Obsidian. Here's how to link directly to an Obsidian header within a document.

When I'm working on project-level stuff (which is larger than task-level stuff; see [upcoming JDU course](/22.00.0128/)) I typically (~always) have a task in Things, serving as the reminder, and notes in Obsidian, because it's a notes app and Things isn't.

I **always** cross-link the two. When you're in one place, you should make it obvious to yourself that there's relevant stuff in another place; otherwise you have notes over there that you'll forget to look at. Links make it trivial to switch between these two places. They're worth the ~minute it takes to set up.

## Deep-linking to an Obsidian header

This didn't work with the native Obsidian URL scheme, but the Advanced URI community plugin [[Obsidian](obsidian://show-plugin?id=obsidian-advanced-uri)|[GitHub](https://github.com/Vinzent03/obsidian-advanced-uri)] by Vinzent does the job.

You need to add a [block](https://help.obsidian.md/links#Link+to+a+block+in+a+note) to the header you want to link to. These don't seem very well documented on the Obsidian site (am I missing something?). But they're simple: just add `^xyzabc` to the _end_ of your header (or any paragraph).

It must appear as the last text on the line, and `xyzabc` can be any string of, it seems, arbitrary length. They _can_ start with a number, which is nice. So I have a subheader within JDex entry `21.41`:

```jd
### +WP1 Map out the course structure ^2141wp1
```

– and you can see how natural it is to create a block ID to link to that. The block ID represents the header's location within my system.

### Creating the link in Things

I make these 'cross-links' look the same every time, using a dash (i.e. Markdown bullet list) and the unicode `⇄` 'rightwards arrow over leftwards arrow'. Raycast's **Search Unicode Symbol**, bound to **Ctrl+Opt+U**, enables me to type that easily.[^ai] (Hopefully it does the same for you Windows users?)

[^ai]:
    Fuck AI for making use of proper typographic symbols some sort of indicator of slop. On a Mac it's trivial to type these symbols, and you should be using them all the time. An en-dash, for example, is just **Opt+-**; for the em-, also hold **Shift**. I've used it 20 times a day for the last decade (though I've never liked the em-dash in my own writing – just feels way heavy. I go with space-en-space.).

    (Also FWIW I have **Ctrl+Opt+I** bound to the emoji palette and **Ctrl+Opt+C** to the clipboard history. I use all 3 many, many times a day.)

If you use the Advanced URI plugin to **Copy URI for current block** you'll get the full path to the file:

```jd
obsidian://adv-uri?vault=D25%20JDex&filepath=20-29%20Products%2C%20suppliers%2C%20equipment%2C%20processes%2C%20%26%20inventory%2F21%20Products%20%26%20services%20%F0%9F%92%88%2F21.41%20JDU%20-%20Task%20%26%20project%20management%20with%20Things%20%26%20Obsidian.md&block=2141wp1
```

🤮 Long URLs are ugly.[^things_markdown] I wonder what happens if we just delete the `filepath` part...

[^things_markdown]: And Things' Markdown support is a bit lazy in that it 'supports' Markdown, but does nothing with it; that is, a long link is always displayed, and never replaced by the `[text of the link](uri://…)`.

```jd
- ⇄ obsidian://adv-uri?vault=D25%20JDex&block=2141wp1
```

Works. Nice.

## Linking back to Things

This is much easier. Right-click the Things task > **Share…** > **Copy Link**.[^ellipsis]

```jd
- ⇄ things:///show?id=HRZD78hvnWd3zW24vruy22
```

[^ellipsis]: On a Mac, the `…` ellipsis is **Opt+;**.

---

- Tags for this post (that [aren't really tags yet](/22.00.0127/) but let's just pretend for now):
  - Apps/Obsidian
  - Apps/Things
  - Content/Tips 'n tricks

_100% human. 0% AI. Always._