In previous entries I've written about my love of Papers and how I use it for all my grants and scholarly writing.One of the features I use constantly is called Papers Links. This is a brief code (looks like a URL) that links back to a particular manuscript in your personal library. Here is an example:papers3://publication/doi/10.1097/AIA.0b013e3181eace73Papers Links are available in Papers by highlighting the manuscript, then using "Copy As" under the Edit Menu, right clicking on the paper of interest, or using the keys: Shift- Command-L.
Combining Papers Links with Launchbar is nothing short of awesome. I annotate everything I extract from a manuscript with a Papers Link and a Papers Citation. When writing, I can highlight any Papers Link, hit my Shift Key twice to invoke Launchbar Actions (as I discussed in this entry). The double shift copies the highlighted text to Launchbar--the orange tab shows that Launchbar is awaiting an Action Command.I hit Tab Key to bring up the context sensitive menu.I select Papers and hit return. Papers launches directly to the paper of interest.I use Paper Links in all my extracted annotations—it makes it lightning-fast to use a reference when writing, and to be able to dig deeper into the original reference as needed.I also use Papers Links when I copy figures or tables from a manuscript using Skitch / Evernote. The Papers Link allows me to quickly find the manuscript with the embedded media element when writing or preparing presentations.I use Papers Links constantly when writing. I hope you find them helpful too.