Directly below the text stands which other notes link to the current one — as a box beside the one holding the recently changed pages.
Out of the box
A list of titles. The empty state reads “No backlinks found”.
In this template
- The entries are separated by hairlines rather than by space — in a narrow column that saves room and reads more calmly.
- A long title is truncated after two lines. A list full of three-line titles is a wall.
- The empty state is set in italics and muted: it should look like an answer, not like an error.
Where it stands
Until 2026-09-10 this box stood in the right column, below the table of contents. It now stands below the text, because that is where it belongs: what points at a page is a question you ask after reading, not beside it — and in the right column it shared the space with an outline that is needed while reading.
It shares its row with the box “Recently changed” and is the right-hand one of the two. Above smartphone width the two always stand side by side, even when one of them stays empty — the other then takes the full width.
On the wording
The template renames the component in its language file — “Links here” instead of “Backlinks”. That is a word from the tool, not from the language.
This renaming has no effect
Measured: every visible heading on a Quartz 5 page comes from a component plugin, and each of those npm packages brings its own compiled translations with it. The project’s language file does not reach them. The entry is in the template all the same — the mechanism is right, only its reach is small today.
Backlinks do not cross the language boundary
A German page links to German pages, an English one to English pages, so the two backlink lists stay separate. That is not something the plugin does — it follows from the fact that every page only links within its own tree.
Which variables apply here
These 11 variables are read by the section aside-backlinks in components-note.scss. They can be changed in QuartzControl under Styles → Variables — without a line of CSS.
| Variable | Value | also applies to |
|---|---|---|
--darkgray | #333333 · dark #DDDDDD | 18 other components |
--gray | #5F5F5F · dark #A1A1A1 | 22 other components |
--headerFont | "Noto Sans", system-ui, "Segoe UI", Robot… | 15 other components |
--icon-arrow-up-right | set in the stylesheet (foundation.scss) | only here |
--secondary | #1463A3 · dark #699DC3 | 19 other components |
--tpl-rule | var(--lightgray) = #DDDDDD | 19 other components |
--tpl-rule-width | 1px | 25 other components |
--tpl-space-2xs | 0.25rem | 16 other components |
--tpl-space-xs | 0.5rem | 20 other components |
--tpl-text-sm | 0.875rem | 20 other components |
--tpl-tracking-label | 0.08em | 9 other components |
This table is generated: it is read out of the stylesheets rather than kept by hand.