diff --git a/ElectronClient/app/gui/NoteText.jsx b/ElectronClient/app/gui/NoteText.jsx
index 63177b259..28efa7890 100644
--- a/ElectronClient/app/gui/NoteText.jsx
+++ b/ElectronClient/app/gui/NoteText.jsx
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ const Search = require('lib/models/Search.js');
 const { time } = require('lib/time-utils.js');
 const Setting = require('lib/models/Setting.js');
 const { IconButton } = require('./IconButton.min.js');
+const { urlDecode } = require('lib/string-utils');
 const Toolbar = require('./Toolbar.min.js');
 const { connect } = require('react-redux');
 const { _ } = require('lib/locale.js');
@@ -569,7 +570,12 @@ class NoteTextComponent extends React.Component {
 				throw new Error('Unsupported item type: ' + item.type_);
 			}
 		} else if (urlUtils.urlProtocol(msg)) {
-			require('electron').shell.openExternal(msg);
+			if (msg.indexOf('file://') === 0) {
+				// When using the file:// protocol, openExternal doesn't work (does nothing) with URL-encoded paths
+				require('electron').shell.openExternal(urlDecode(msg));
+			} else {
+				require('electron').shell.openExternal(msg);
+			}
 		} else {
 			bridge().showErrorMessageBox(_('Unsupported link or message: %s', msg));
 		}
diff --git a/ElectronClient/app/gui/note-viewer/index.html b/ElectronClient/app/gui/note-viewer/index.html
index 342df9221..3b66f3136 100644
--- a/ElectronClient/app/gui/note-viewer/index.html
+++ b/ElectronClient/app/gui/note-viewer/index.html
@@ -276,6 +276,15 @@
 		}
 	});
 
+	// Prevent URLs added via <a> tags from being opened within the application itself
+	document.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
+		const t = event.target;
+		if (t && t.nodeName === 'A' && !t.hasAttribute('data-from-md')) {
+			event.preventDefault();
+			ipcProxySendToHost(t.getAttribute('href'));
+		}
+	});
+
 	// Disable drag and drop otherwise it's possible to drop a URL
 	// on it and it will open in the view as a website.
 	document.addEventListener('drop', function(e) {
diff --git a/ReactNativeClient/lib/MdToHtml.js b/ReactNativeClient/lib/MdToHtml.js
index d7c0f8fb0..15ea78b89 100644
--- a/ReactNativeClient/lib/MdToHtml.js
+++ b/ReactNativeClient/lib/MdToHtml.js
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ class MdToHtml {
 		const href = this.getAttr_(attrs, 'src');
 
 		if (!Resource.isResourceUrl(href)) {
-			return '<img title="' + htmlentities(title) + '" src="' + href + '"/>';
+			return '<img data-from-md title="' + htmlentities(title) + '" src="' + href + '"/>';
 		}
 
 		const resourceId = Resource.urlToId(href);
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ class MdToHtml {
 		if (Resource.isSupportedImageMimeType(mime)) {
 			let src = './' + Resource.filename(resource);
 			if (this.resourceBaseUrl_ !== null) src = this.resourceBaseUrl_ + src;
-			let output = '<img data-resource-id="' + resource.id + '" title="' + htmlentities(title) + '" src="' + src + '"/>';
+			let output = '<img data-from-md data-resource-id="' + resource.id + '" title="' + htmlentities(title) + '" src="' + src + '"/>';
 			return output;
 		}
 		
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ class MdToHtml {
 		}
 
 		const js = options.postMessageSyntax + "(" + JSON.stringify(href) + "); return false;";
-		let output = "<a " + resourceIdAttr + " title='" + htmlentities(title) + "' href='" + hrefAttr + "' onclick='" + js + "'>" + icon;
+		let output = "<a data-from-md " + resourceIdAttr + " title='" + htmlentities(title) + "' href='" + hrefAttr + "' onclick='" + js + "'>" + icon;
 		return output;
 	}
 
@@ -487,7 +487,7 @@ class MdToHtml {
 			while (renderedBody.indexOf('mJOPm') >= 0) {
 				renderedBody = renderedBody.replace(/mJOPmCHECKBOXm([A-Z]+)m(\d+)m/, function(v, type, index) {
 					const js = options.postMessageSyntax + "('checkboxclick:" + type + ':' + index + "'); this.classList.contains('tick') ? this.classList.remove('tick') : this.classList.add('tick'); return false;";
-					return '<a href="#" onclick="' + js + '" class="checkbox ' + (type == 'NOTICK' ? '' : 'tick') + '"><span>' + '' + '</span></a>';
+					return '<a data-from-md href="#" onclick="' + js + '" class="checkbox ' + (type == 'NOTICK' ? '' : 'tick') + '"><span>' + '' + '</span></a>';
 				});
 				if (loopCount++ >= 9999) break;
 			}
diff --git a/ReactNativeClient/lib/string-utils.js b/ReactNativeClient/lib/string-utils.js
index 13256d901..780ac000c 100644
--- a/ReactNativeClient/lib/string-utils.js
+++ b/ReactNativeClient/lib/string-utils.js
@@ -206,4 +206,8 @@ function toTitleCase(string) {
 	return string.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + string.slice(1);
 }
 
+function urlDecode(string) {
+	return decodeURIComponent((string+'').replace(/\+/g, '%20'));
+}
+
 module.exports = { removeDiacritics, escapeFilename, wrap, splitCommandString, padLeft, toTitleCase };
\ No newline at end of file