Confusing "Link To" Command

[silver1337]

At the upper right corner of editor, there is an action called “link to”:

Which means “Append a link at some other page, and point it to current page”, so this is actually a action on another page, and can be expand like “Make Y have a block linking to X”. However, all other actions are targeted at current page, for example, “Lock page X”.

Also, in the Café discussion, Shampra mentioned that in the “flow” there is another “link to”

Which means “Objects having links pointed at current page”.

This makes me confused since the exact same word are used for completely reversed directions. I’m still not sure if the direction issue is some kind of culture difference. But it still makes me feel weird when you can edit some else page at current page. Any idea?

Previous discussion in the café: Message #7981 by silver1337 – #Anytype Café

[Shampra]

Discussed here too :

Objects added to collection from the "Link to" option in the top right menu is not added in collection, only in graph

Yes, you’re right but from what I understood, that’s not the behavior op expected, what they want it’s to be able to add “item a” and “item b” to “collection c” so the collection contains both. What happens is that if you try to link from the collection to an item, this item contains the collection instead of the collection containing the item. Basically: item a → link to → collection c = collection c(parent) and item a(child) Collection c → link to → item a = collection c(child) and item a(…

[ccrawford]

I agree that this is confusing.

I think the linking needs an overhaul (at least the user-facing side of it). It’s not intuitive and needs to be easier to see what objects are linked to each other.

[C.c]

This small feature request might help you.

Minor edit in UI to avoid confusion

WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND Change the ‘Link to…’ in item context menu from the 3-dot button in left panel or top right corner to ‘Add to…’ or ‘Add as link in…’ REAL WORLD USE CASES This is to avoid the confusion of the word ‘Link to…’ means the note itself is on the left of the link but it is actually on the right side of the link when the action is done. For example, add Bar to Foo means making an edge Foo --> Bar.

[darshak26]

We definitely need an overhaul of links and relations. Separate word ‘relations’ for specified links is confusing as a new user. Anytype creates a link block every time we link an object. Why create link blocks in an object if we have a special links panel besides the meatball menu? We need an option to hide link blocks in the link panel. Separate sections named backlinks and outgoing links would be nice too.