This is the full content of LesterMark for Mac’s own Help window (⌘? or LesterMark → Help), reproduced here so you can browse it without opening the app.
Welcome
LesterMark — The Ultimate Bookmarking and Linking Application
Your stuff lives everywhere — a photo in Photos, a highlight in a book, a video on YouTube, a file in Finder, an email in Mail. LesterMark gives every one of these a single, permanent link, so you can find it again, refer to it from your notes, and open it instantly — no matter where it lives or what app it’s in.
One link. Any app. Forever.
Quick Start
- Open whatever you want to save — a file, an email, a webpage, a photo, anything.
- Press ⌃⌘C (Capture). LesterMark saves it and gives it a permanent link.
- Open your Bookmarks (⌃⌘B) to see everything you’ve captured, searchable and organized.
- Click any bookmark to open it — right back in the app it came from.
That’s it. Try it now: capture something you have open right this moment.
Core Concepts
Capture (⌃⌘C) — Grabs whatever you’re looking at right now, as a whole. A file, an email, a photo, a webpage, a video.
Capture Deep Link (Page) (⌃⌘P) — Grabs your current reading position — directly, no popup. A specific page in a book or PDF. Works in Readest and Preview.
Capture Deep Link (Highlight) (⌃⌘H) — Opens a picker to choose a highlight from the current page or the whole book. Works in Readest.
Capture and Save (⌃⌘S) — For a file in Finder, or a document open in Word, PowerPoint, or Excel: captures it like ⌃⌘C, and also copies the file itself into iCloud so the same bookmark opens from your iPhone too — not just a reference back to this Mac. Plain Capture never copies the file; use this when you specifically want it reachable from iPhone.
Actions Menu (⌃⌘A) — A quick floating menu for whatever you’re currently looking at — Open, plus whatever secondary actions apply (like Locate in Finder). Works without opening the Bookmarks window or the status-bar menu at all; identifies the current object first if it isn’t a bookmark yet.
Bookmarks — Your library of everything you’ve ever captured. One searchable list, no matter which app each thing came from.
Notes — A short note you can attach to anything you capture, right when you capture it or later. Your own context, in your own words.
Tags — Your own labels, assigned to any bookmark from the Bookmarks window (Edit Tags…) — create as many as you like, filter the list down to just one or several at once, and rename, recolor, or delete them anytime from Manage Tags.
Relations — LesterMark can remember which of your notes link to which bookmarks, and check that those links still work.
Lenses — A named, saved combination of Search, Type Filter, Tags Filter, Sort, and View — save one from the View menu, then re-apply it anytime from the Lenses dropdown in the Bookmarks toolbar. Manage Lenses lets you rename or delete them; Reset Filter clears whatever filter is currently applied back to “show everything” without needing a saved Lens.
Readest: Book, Page & Highlight
Readest is the one app with all three capture levels — a link to the whole book, to your exact page, or to a specific highlight:
- Book: with the book open in Readest, press ⌃⌘C. Captures a link to the book as a whole.
- Page: turn to the page you want, then press ⌃⌘P. Captures a link straight to that page — no popup, nothing else to do.
- Highlight: press ⌃⌘H. Opens a picker listing highlights from the current page or the whole book — choose one to capture a link to that exact highlight.
Most of the actions above also live in a plain menu bar (Bookmark, File, Edit, View) whenever the Bookmarks window is the active window — use whichever feels more natural: keyboard shortcut, right-click, or the menu bar.
Browser Extensions (Safari & Chrome)
A toolbar button as an alternative to ⌃⌘C for browser pages: click the LesterMark icon to capture the current page, with a Title and Note you can edit right there before saving. If the page is already captured, the icon shows a red checkmark badge and the button switches to “Open in LesterMark” instead of creating a duplicate.
- Safari: ships inside LesterMark already — open Safari → Settings → Extensions, and turn on LesterMark.
- Chrome: install from the Chrome Web Store (or, for the very latest build, load unpacked via Developer Mode).
What Can I Capture?
Every source LesterMark can capture from, what Capture (⌃⌘C) gives you, whether a Deep Link (⌃⌘P / ⌃⌘H) is available, and whether Capture and Save (⌃⌘S) also copies the file for iPhone.
| Source | Capture (⌃⌘C) | Deep Link (⌃⌘P / ⌃⌘H) | Capture and Save (⌃⌘S) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finder | Link to the file | — | Also copies the file, so it opens on iPhone too |
| Visual Studio Code | Link to the active file | — | — |
| Obsidian | Link to the note | — | — |
| Apple Notes | Link to the note | — | — |
| Bear | Link to the note | — | — |
| Google Keep | Link to the note | — | — |
| Mail (Apple Mail, Outlook, Outlook Web) | Link to the email | — | — |
| Photos | Link to the photo or video | — | — |
| Web (Safari/Chrome/Arc) | Link to the page | — | — |
| Google Docs / Sheets / Slides | Link to the document | — | — |
| Microsoft OneNote | Link to the page | — | — |
| Readwise Reader | Link to the article or document | — | — |
| Preview | Link to the PDF or image | Link to a specific page (⌃⌘P) | — |
| Adobe Acrobat | Link to the PDF | Link to a specific page (⌃⌘P) | — |
| Bible apps (Logos) | Link to the Bible verse | — | — |
| Word / PowerPoint / Excel | Link to the document | — | Also copies the file, so it opens on iPhone too |
| Readest | Link to the book | Page (⌃⌘P) or Highlight (⌃⌘H) | — |
| YouTube | Link to the video | Link to a specific moment | — |
| IMDb (Safari/Chrome/Arc) | Link to the movie or TV show, with poster | — | — |
iPhone Capture
Direct — one share, done
These just work from the Share Sheet: Photos (bookmarks the real photo, not a copy), Safari or any browser (the page), Files (the file), Obsidian (via its own bridge plugin), and IMDb — sharing a title from Safari or straight from the IMDb app both work, since either way it’s the same imdb.com link underneath.
YouTube
Sharing a video from the YouTube app or Safari gives a proper Video bookmark — real title and channel name, not just the raw link. To capture a specific moment instead of the whole video:
- Play the video to the moment you want, then pause.
- Tap the Share icon under the video.
- In YouTube’s own share panel, make sure “Start at [time]” is checked — it’s on by default, using whatever moment the video was at when you tapped Share.
- Tap LesterMark in the row of apps (or “More” if it’s not shown yet, then turn it on there).
The bookmark is saved as a Moment, with the timestamp right in the title — like “Title (1:33)” — and opens the video starting exactly there. Sharing without that checkbox checked just captures the video as a whole instead, same as sharing from the video’s main page.
Google Docs, Sheets & Slides
Sharing a link from the Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides app (or from one open in Safari) is recognized automatically — the bookmark gets the real document type (Doc, Sheet, or Slide) and its actual title, not just a generic web link. An uploaded Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file opened through Google’s apps is recognized the same way, and correctly labeled Word/Excel/PowerPoint instead.
Apple Mail
Mail doesn’t offer LesterMark a direct share option, so this takes one extra step:
- Open the email in Mail.
- Tap the Share icon, then Print.
- On the print preview screen, tap the Share icon again and choose LesterMark.
- LesterMark saves it as a plain file bookmark for now. The next time your Mac (with LesterMark running) is reachable, it automatically finds the matching email and upgrades the bookmark to a real, live Mail link — no action needed on your end.
Apple Notes
Same idea, same steps, for a note in Apple Notes:
- Open the note in Notes.
- Tap the Share icon, then Print.
- On the print preview screen, tap the Share icon again and choose LesterMark.
- Same automatic upgrade happens on your Mac — into a real, live Apple Notes link, matched by the note’s title and content.
Bear
Same idea, same steps, for a note in Bear:
- Open the note in Bear.
- Tap the Share icon, then Print.
- On the print preview screen, tap the Share icon again and choose LesterMark.
- Same automatic upgrade happens on your Mac — into a real, live Bear link, matched by the note’s title and content.
Why the extra step for Mail, Notes, and Bear? None of these apps give any iPhone extension a direct way to grab a live reference — Print > Share is the one path all three allow. Your Mac does the matching work in the background using the printed page’s own title (or Subject), so it can take a little while if your Mac isn’t open right away. If a match can’t be found confidently, the bookmark just stays as a plain file — still fully usable, just not a live link back into Mail, Notes, or Bear.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Capture
| Capture | ⌃⌘C |
| Deep Link (Page) | ⌃⌘P |
| Deep Link (Highlight) | ⌃⌘H |
| Capture and Save | ⌃⌘S |
Link
| Paste Link (to current) | ⌃⌘V |
| Paste Link (selection) | ⌃⌘K |
For Active App
| Show in LesterMark | ⌃⌘G |
| Locate in Finder | ⌃⌘L |
For Active App — keyboard only (no menu item)
| Show In-links | ⌃⌘I |
| Show Out-links | ⌃⌘O |
| Edit Title & Note… | ⌃⌘E |
Other
| Actions Menu | ⌃⌘A |
| Bookmark Browser | ⌃⌘B |
| LesterMark menu | ⌃⌘M |
| Settings | ⌘, |
| Quit LesterMark | ⌘Q |
Bookmark Browser menu (only while the Bookmarks window is active)
| Open | ⌘O |
| Copy Bookmark (Markdown) | ⇧⌘C |
| Copy Bookmark (Link) | ⇧⌘U |
| Paste Link (from Bookmark) | ⇧⌘V |
| Show Relations | ⌘R |
| Verify | ⇧⌘F |
| Add to Favorites | ⌘D |
| Edit Tags… | ⌘T |
| Edit Title & Note… | ⌘E |
| Locate in Finder | ⌘L |
| Move to Trash | ⌘⌫ |
| Manage Tags… | ⇧⌘T |
| LesterMark Help | ⇧⌘/ |
| View: List | ⌘1 |
| View: Cards | ⌘2 |
| View: Gallery | ⌘3 |
Every shortcut is remappable — Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts.
Organizing Your Bookmarks
Your Bookmarks list can show or hide columns depending on what matters to you: a small preview image, extra details, the date you captured something, and any note you’ve added.
Next to each bookmark’s type, you’ll sometimes see where it lives — like “YouTube” or “Apple Photos.” That only shows up when it’s actually useful to know, like telling a YouTube video apart from a video in your Photos library.
You can filter your bookmarks by type, by where they live, by whether they have a note, or by when you captured them — so a big, growing library stays easy to search instead of turning into a wall of everything.
The Date filter narrows the list to a specific range — Today, This Week, This Month, or a Custom Range you pick yourself. Combine it with Type, Tags, and Search the same way you’d combine any of those with each other.
Tags are your own labels — assign one or more to any bookmark (Edit Tags…), then use the Tags filter to narrow the list to just what’s tagged that way. Manage Tags (in the app menu, or the Bookmarks window) lets you rename, recolor, merge, or delete tags anytime; every bookmark carrying that tag updates automatically.
Once you’ve got Search, Type, Tags, Date, Sort, and View set up exactly how you like, save the whole combination as a named Lens (View menu → Save Lens…) — the Lenses dropdown in the toolbar re-applies it in one click, anytime.
Notes & Titles
Right after you capture something, LesterMark can pop open a small popup with a Title field and a Note field, so you can double-check (or fix) the proposed name and jot down why you saved it — a reminder, a thought, a reason. Both are optional to change; press Enter to save, Escape to skip.
You can always come back and edit either one later — Edit Title & Note… (Bookmark menu, or right-click a bookmark) opens the exact same popup, pre-filled with what’s there now. Both the title and the note are searchable right alongside everything else in your Bookmarks.
Linking Notes
This is the main reason to capture something: getting a real, clickable link to it into whatever you’re writing — an Obsidian note, an Apple Note, a OneNote page, a Bear note, anywhere. Everything else (Relations, Verify) is LesterMark keeping track of links you’ve already pasted, in the background — pasting the link itself is the primary action.
Supported note apps: Obsidian, Apple Notes, Microsoft OneNote, and Bear. Paste Link works while any of these four is the active app; in any other app, LesterMark falls back to pasting the plain link text instead of a formatted link.
Paste Link (to current) — ⌃⌘V — Inserts a link to whatever’s selected in the Bookmarks window right at your cursor. Works while any app is frontmost — Obsidian, Apple Notes, OneNote, and Bear get a real, properly-formatted link; anywhere else, LesterMark pastes the plain link text instead.
Paste Link (selection) — ⌃⌘K — Opens a small search-as-you-type window so you can choose any bookmark to paste, not just the most recent one. Requires Obsidian, Apple Notes, OneNote, or Bear to be the active app.
Paste Link (from Bookmark) — Bookmarks window — Select a bookmark in your library, then use this from the Bookmark menu or right-click — pastes that specific bookmark’s link into whichever note app is frontmost. Same underlying paste as ⌃⌘V; the difference is only which bookmark it targets and how you reach it: ⌃⌘V works from anywhere, any time, using whatever is currently selected in the Bookmarks window (even if that window isn’t open); this one requires the Bookmarks window open so you can pick a specific bookmark to paste right now.
Copy Bookmark (Markdown) — Copies a bookmark’s link to your clipboard without switching apps or pasting automatically — for pasting by hand, whenever and wherever you like, including apps LesterMark can’t paste into directly.
Copy Bookmark (Link) — ⇧⌘U (Bookmark window) — Copies just the bare lestermark://open/… URL, no title or markdown brackets — for a browser’s address bar, Terminal’s “open” command, Automator, or a manual hyperlink dialog in an app that wants a plain URL rather than markdown.
What actually lands on the page differs by app: Obsidian and Bear both get a genuine markdown link inserted at your cursor (Bear renders it as a real clickable link, same as Obsidian); Apple Notes and OneNote both get a clickable hyperlink with the title and link kept separate. You can customize what text appears inside a pasted link — its title, and optionally where it’s from, its tags, your note — under Settings → Link Text.
One difference: pasting into OneNote doesn’t get tracked as a Relation the way Obsidian, Apple Notes, and Bear do (see Relations, below) — you get the real clickable link, it just isn’t remembered as an in-link/out-link connection.
Relations
Every time you paste a link (see Linking Notes), LesterMark quietly remembers that connection in the background — which note links to which bookmark, and when. You don’t have to do anything for this to happen; it’s a byproduct of pasting, not a separate step.
Later, you can ask LesterMark to Show In-links (⌃⌘I) for whichever app is currently frontmost, or select a bookmark in the Bookmarks window and choose Show Relations (from the Bookmark menu, or right-click) to see both directions — everything linking to it, and everything it links to — at once.
LesterMark checks that a link is actually still there before showing it to you, so you’re never looking at a connection that’s gone stale. That check runs automatically whenever you open a relations view; to re-check on demand instead, use Verify (one bookmark’s own relations) or the Bookmarks window’s Refresh button — the link icon in the toolbar — for everything at once.
Tips & Tricks
- Capturing the same thing twice doesn’t create a duplicate — LesterMark just updates the one you already have.
- Moving or renaming a file doesn’t break its link — LesterMark finds it again automatically.
- A highlight or a moment has no text of its own — the note you add to it is often the whole reason it’s worth having. Don’t skip it.
- You can search across everything you’ve captured, no matter which app it came from.
- On iPhone, sharing a photo straight to LesterMark bookmarks the real photo in your library — not a copy — so it opens right back in Photos on this Mac. To bulk-add several older photos at once instead of one at a time, add them to a “LesterMark” Album in Photos and use Settings → Import from LesterMark Album.
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Why does LesterMark ask for Accessibility permission?
Some apps — like Mail or your web browser — can only be read and controlled through macOS’s built-in automation, which requires this permission.
Why does it ask for Photos access?
So it can create previews and find your photos and videos when you capture them.
Why don’t I see a preview image for some bookmarks?
Only some types — photos, videos, files — currently get automatic preview images. Others just show as text for now.
I captured a Bible passage, but LesterMark didn’t pick up the right verse.
This is a known limitation with the Logos Bible app right now — verse detection isn’t fully reliable yet. Double-check the passage after capturing.
I captured a PDF page in Acrobat, but the link opened at the wrong page.
Make sure Acrobat is fully open before using ⌃⌘P — the first time a PDF is opened cold, there’s a brief delay before page navigation kicks in. Use Preview if you need instant, reliable page-specific links.
Capture and Save (⌃⌘S) told me it couldn’t copy the file, or the copy never showed up on iPhone.
This happens for files living inside another app’s own private storage — most commonly a Word/Excel/PowerPoint attachment opened straight from Mail. LesterMark can still open a file like that on this Mac, but isn’t allowed to read its raw bytes to make a copy. Save or drag the file to the Finder first (your Desktop, Documents, wherever), then Capture and Save it from there.
Export & Backup
File > Export… opens a window with two distinct options, for two different purposes: a Full Backup for safekeeping, and Portable Export formats for using your Bookmarks somewhere else entirely.
Full Backup — A complete, lossless copy of everything — Bookmarks, previews, tags, relations, and captured file copies — as a single zip. For disaster recovery, or moving to a new Mac. Only re-importable into LesterMark itself; there’s no Import feature yet, so treat this as a safety net rather than something you’ll use day to day.
Portable Export — Plain formats for using your Bookmarks in other tools, with no LesterMark involved at all — the honest tradeoff is that these leave out anything that only makes sense inside LesterMark itself: the relations graph, saved Lenses, and preview thumbnails. Your tags and notes ARE included — there’s no tag hierarchy to lose in the first place.
Netscape Bookmark HTML — Web-type Bookmarks only. The standard format Safari, Chrome, and Firefox all use for bookmark import — imports directly, no conversion needed.
Markdown folder — Every Bookmark, one .md file each with YAML frontmatter (title, type, home, tags, captured date, and a reference — the real URL or file path) and your Note as the body. Drop the folder straight into an Obsidian vault, Bear, or any other markdown-based tool.
CSV — Every Bookmark as a flat spreadsheet — Title, Type, Home, Tags, Note, Captured, Reference.
JSON — The same flat fields as CSV, for scripts and other programmatic use.