Elements & Tools
Links & rich previews
Links on the canvas beat links in a bookmarks menu: visible, arrangeable, annotatable. And for known platforms, visualOS turns them into proper preview cards.
More in Elements & Tools
Adding links
The fastest way: copy a URL and paste it onto the canvas (Cmd/Ctrl+V). Or press L, click the canvas, and enter URL plus an optional display text. Double-clicking a link opens it in a new tab.
Rich preview cards
Links to YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Dailymotion, Spotify, SoundCloud, X/Twitter and Twitch automatically become preview cards: thumbnail, title, author and the platform’s logo — with a play badge for videos. Two details worth knowing:
- Previews are stored locally — the thumbnail is downloaded once and kept with your data, so cards don’t break or change when you’re offline.
- Refresh on demand: right-click → “Refresh preview” fetches the latest title/thumbnail.
Prefer it compact? The floating bar toggles any link between preview card and plain link (a slim card with a colored accent stripe — recolorable, of course).
Editing links
Select a link → pencil icon (or right-click → “Edit link…”) to change URL or display text.
Links inside text
URLs typed into notes, text elements or documents are detected automatically and shown underlined in red. A single click opens them; double-click edits the surrounding text instead. And a direct link to an image file pasted on the canvas becomes an image, not a link card.
A folder per topic, preview cards for every source, a note next to each with your take — a literature review you can actually see. Search finds link titles and URLs, too.