Backlinks

Every document has a Backlinks panel: the list of every journal entry and page that links to it, each with the line the link sits on. It is how a note you made in March turns up when you are back on the subject in October, without you filing anything.

Backlinks is a tab of the right sidebar, beside Tasks. Alt+B brings it to the front from anywhere; Alt+R shows or hides the sidebar. On a phone it is the first tab of the right drawer.

What is listed

The panel follows the document you are reading and shows everything that links to its name, under the heading Backlinks: Name with a count. A link counts however it was written: by the page's name or by any of its aliases, in any case. A draft, or a name that has links but no page yet, has backlinks too; they are what make it worth a page.

References are grouped by the document they are in. Select a group's heading to open that document at the position you left it. Each reference shows:

• The chain above it. For a link inside a bullet, the bullets it is nested under, root first, separated by ›. For a link in a paragraph, the headings above it. This is what lets a line like "yes, but only above 40°C" make sense out of context.
• The line itself, rendered as the editor renders it: wikilinks you can follow, hyperlinks that open, images shown as thumbnails, files as their labels. A bullet's nested children come with it.

A page whose name is scoped by this one, [[Physics]] Quantum Mechanics for Physics, is listed under a Title label: its name is the reference. That is how a folder of files named that way brings their subjects with it without a single link in the text (Scoped Concepts).

Select a reference to open its document at that line, with the cursor at the start of it. A wikilink inside the reference opens that link's page instead, and an image or file carries the same Copy image, Download and Open in a new tab actions as in a note, but no Delete: removing a reference is done in the note that holds it.

Highlight reference

The Highlight reference switch dims everything in a reference except the link to this document, so the link stands out in a long line. It is remembered per graph on this device.

Pin the panel

By default the panel follows whatever document is in front. The pin button keeps it on the current document while you open others, which is useful when you are working down a list of references. The heading says Pinned to Name while it is pinned; select the pin again to follow the editor. The pin lasts for the session, and Reset workspace clears it.

What is not counted

• Links inside a protected document are never indexed, so they never appear as backlinks, even while the document is unlocked (Protected Documents).
• Links inside a code block are text.
• Web links and file links are not wikilinks and have no backlinks.

On a published site

A published page lists its backlinks beneath its content as Linked references, built from the published documents alone, so a private document never shows up there (Publishing Your Notes As A Website).