How to link in between text document of personal notes with tags (to jump between lines across files in a text editor like Kate)?

Question

I'd like to have keywords in textfiles opened with the text-editor Kate that when clicked jump to a specific line marked with a keyword of another textfile, usually open in another tab in Kate.

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Here is how I would imagine it to work: for example writing #co1 should become a clickable link (a colored tag-link) in Kate that when clicked opens a specified text file for that keyword - for example "~/Cooking.txt" - at a specific line.

It would be best if one could specify the line it should link to like bookmarks...if the #tag is not in the list of tags one is prompted to specify the location and one can also set tags for lines in documents by pressing e.g. Ctrl+L and entering tag/s for the line.

That other document may or may not be open in another tab of the current Kate session before clicking the link. There could also be features to show all lines or paragraphs with specified tags.

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If that's not possible with Kate, I'm also interested in similar modern text-editors (that should work well under Debian10/KDE) if they have this feature. If it's possible to implement this with Kate but currently not implemented I'm interested in any further guidance on how to implement it. I was looking at the manual about writing syntax highlighting configs for Kate.

Answer 1

Kate is not exactly a rich text editor, it's more of a code editor. The features you're describing (hyperlinking, tagging) are a better fit for a rich text editor or a wiki / knowledge base software.

This is not the Software Recommendations SE which would be better suited for this, but nonetheless, here are a few options, each for a different use case:

• Dokuwiki is what I use as my personal KB software, it's easy to understand (all data is stored as plain text files on disk), extendable and fast. From your requirements, it supports linking to a headline in the middle of a document via anchors and tagging pages/files via a plugin. It's web based, so any OS with a browser will be able to access and edit it.
• Zim is a desktop wiki software - also supports tagging via a plugin. Easier to get it up and running compared to e.g. dokuwiki, since it's a desktop app.
• Joplin is a personal note taking app using Markdown - better compared to something like Evernote than a wiki. I haven't used it much, but it's getting a lot of traction recently and might fit your needs.
• RedNotebook is a desktop personal journal - also supports tagging.

Hope you find something that fits your needs here!

PS If you're really determined to stick with Kate, you can always write HTML in Kate and then use a web browser to navigate it. ;-)