I'm pretty much making notes all day - have been using Ecco for a long time. I sure wish it had a wiki-like feature where I could just type in a short abbreviation, and then that abbreviation would be recognized and a link would be created to a definition or expansion of that abbreviation elsewhere in the database. Better yet, it would be nice just to be able to hover over an abbreviation like that and have a tooltip pop up showing the expanded text for that abbreviation.

As it is I use PhraseExpress or Robotype to expand typed abbreviations - but it would be better if I could just retain the abbreviation in the text, with a link to the expanded form, as indicated above.

Anybody know of outliners / notetakers / PIMs that do this?

Hello, Jim,
Not sure if this will be helpful, but PhraseExpress can replace type text with links, either URL or command link syntax. I don't know Ecco, but if it can produce a command-line link to a database item, you can have PhraseExpress replace your typing with such a link. UltraRecall supports such links, in the format "ur://D:/Inspiron.NO-SYNC/My%20Dropbox/URD/00-DATA.urd?item=14444". "ur:" tells windows to open database file "D:/{path}" to item 14444. Of course, you have to set this up for every single text string; it's not automatically generated as in a wiki. I'm not sure how graceful this would be in practice, but theoretically it should work....
Cheers,
David

Microsoft's OneNote lets you type double brackets around a word or phrase to create a Wiki-like link. It will either automatically link to a new, blank page with that word/phrase as the title or, if a page with that title already exists, link you to it.

Not exactly as you ask:

1)
Brainstorm does this in a fashion via namesakes. If a line is exactly the same as in another branch a link will be made.

2) EMACS via Org mode
a link can be made via or [[_]] that will jump to the target be it a branch, external file or weblink.

Use both daily for logging notes for work (EMACS) or home (Brainstorm). EccoPro is my PIM of choice, does need a few features, but way ahead of its time.

ConnectedText might meet your needs to some degree. It's the most powerful personal wiki software I've come across. You can type the opening syntax characters for creating a link, and then as soon as you begin typing the link name, an auto-complete list is dynamically generated based on already existing pages. Through some combination of typing the beginning of the link name and/or scrolling through the auto-complete list, you can get the link you want rapidly. It's efficient software.

jimspoon wrote:

a wiki-like feature where I could just type in a short abbreviation, and then that
abbreviation would be recognized and a link would be created to a definition or
expansion of that abbreviation elsewhere in the database.

Zulupad can do this; when you have set up a word or phrase as a wiki link, it will be automatically recognised and linked whenever you type it.

The linked content will not appear as a tooltip however.

In MyInfo 6.x, typing [[ in a note calls up an alphabetical list of other notes, one of which can then be hyperlinked.

Bill

thanks all for the tips!