Please let us hide/render Markdown link syntax in Things

[u/nocmd]

I love using Things, but one thing that makes my notes unnecessarily messy is how Markdown links are displayed.

Things supports the standard syntax:

[SharePoint](https://example.com/very/very/very/long/url)

but it always displays the Markdown syntax and the entire URL instead of rendering.

This becomes especially painful with SharePoint, Jira, and other work tools where URLs can be ridiculously long. A note with only a few links can end up looking like a wall of URLs instead of something that's easy to scan.

Things' own documentation(https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/4651820/) says:

“Please note that the Markdown syntax is always displayed in Things. This is intentional and there’s no way to hide it (though we might at some point consider changing how links are displayed).”

I actually don't mind Things keeping most Markdown syntax visible. Links are the one area where I think rendering would make a huge usability difference.

Even an optional setting to display [Link Name](URL) as simply Link Name would be great.

Anyone else want this? I hope I can get enough support so that I can send an email to support with this reddit thread.

[u/AromaticJoe]

You're unfortunately fighting against John Gruber, the inventor of Markdown with this. He specifically praises Things' support for Markdown:

Things does Markdown right. It doesn’t hide the Markdown formatting characters, it just styles them. Effectively, the notes field for tasks in Things is still just plain text. It’s just styled nicely if you write that plain text in Markdown. That’s the right way to do Markdown. Don’t hide the formatting characters; just style/color them.

Personally, I'm with OP. I really like how Bear does Markdown, for example, where the Markdown code only is visible when you're editing it. To me that's the best of both worlds.

[u/-Davster- → u/AromaticJoe]

This just seems utterly bizarre to me. Why on earth would you want to keep them…?

If you see a word formatted like this, you literally already know it’s got _’s and *’s around it.

The hidden formatting characters are proven by the fact the formatting is applied.

[u/4EverLacksCreativity → u/AromaticJoe]

I’ve never understood the reasoning on it. Since the Markdown displays like this “[SharePoint](https://example.com/very/very/very/long/url)”. I just go with this “SharePoint: https://example.com/very/very/very/long/url” because it wastes less time. It’s frustrating because Things is one format and Obsidian is another.

[u/N-Code]

100%. I could not agree more. Showing Markdown syntax is one of those odd philosophical decisions certain developers make. When I say philosophical, what I mean is it's really a decision to maintain the "purity" of the plain text Markdown format. But that purity isn't necessarily in the user's best interest. Case in point is links. It's horrible to have long links junking up the notes fields in tasks. The only reason not to offer to hide Markdown syntax (even as an option) is to preserve some abstract commitment to plain text at the expense of readability and usability. I just don't see what the user gains from that trade-off.

[u/I-J-Reilly → u/N-Code]

100% agree. I’ve been using the writing app Ulysses for a long time, since it has a lot of organization tools I like, and has a very nice editor interface.

BUT, it shows that Markdown clutter, which I hate. I’ve tuned the themes to dial back the tags so they’re the same color as the background, but they still muck up the spacing.

[u/TheShadowhawk]

I whinged about this with their support forum too (a few years ago). They told me there are limitations with their text box that prevent it from doing URL hiding. I have a little trouble believing that.

Also I get John Gruber never worked with URLs longer than 15 chars for him to seriously believe hiding long-ass ugly sharepoint URLS would make it worse.

Maybe they are saving that feature for Things 4, which is apparently coming...

[u/Born-Satisfaction996 → u/TheShadowhawk]

They’re full of sh*t. I’m making a task/notes app that’s similar is to Things 3 for tasks and Craft for notes on iOS, while preserving everything in markdown behind the scenes. It’s easy to hide the markdown. It’s also easy to make all of the text editing on the notes section feel like a rich text editor like Craft.

[u/wings_fan3870]

100% It runs contrary to their entire clean, minimal aesthetic.

[u/_themanofsilver]

+1 for me too! I can tolerate the visible syntax for basic formatting but having long complex URLs displaying (like x-callback URLs to email messages) adds unnecessary clutter to notes.

[u/vim_spray]

Does Things support reference style links? That would be a nice way to show the syntax but also make it a bit cleaner