Hyperlinking

Discussion in 'Help Requests' started by Ken Anderson, Aug 20, 2015.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    From time to time, most of us will want to leave a link to some outside site. It is perfectly okay to refer to things that people have said elsewhere but, for legal reasons, please don't copy and paste entire articles.

    That's not what I wanted to talk about here, though. When you are leaving a link, I prefer that you hyperlink from a selected piece of text rather than posting the actual URL. This looks neater, and people are more inclined to click on it.

    For example, if I were going to link to our Facebook page, I could simply copy and paste the URL, as such:

    https://www.facebook.com/seniorsonlyclub

    Or I could hyperlink it from a selected piece of text, such as:

    The SENIORSonly Club is an online forum for people fifty years old or older. They also have a Facebook page.

    Or I could say that our Facebook page is here.

    In many cases, I might want to refer to it by the site's name, as in...

    SENIORSonly Club Facebook Page

    However you might want to identify it, it looks neater when you connect the link to a piece of text rather than simply posting the URL. This is even more true when the URL is long.

    You do that by copying the URL into memory, then highlighting the text that you want to use as a link, then clicking the little icon that looks like a chain link. That will open up a box, where you will paste the URL.
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I thought I'd bump this thread, since I'm seeing some very long URLs posted in threads from time to time, and they would look so much better if text were used as a hyperlink instead. If you can't figure out how to do that or if it is overly difficult to do so, because perhaps you are using a tablet, a smart phone, or something other than a real computer, you may continue posting straight URLs, but they do look a whole lot better when text is used as a hyperlink.
     
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  3. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I'm still unable to use this function here. It simply doesn't work as intended with my system. It works on some other sites, but not this one for some reason.
     
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  4. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    It has worked for me.
     
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  5. Jenn Windey

    Jenn Windey Supreme Member
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    @Diane Lane Hyperlinking a piece of text is very easy. Copy the URL you want people to visit, then highlight the text you want to link it to. On your menu there is an icon that looks like a chain (sort of) click that and put the URL in the box , select insert and there you have a neat link you can add to any post. Perhaps you have not highlighted the text?

    There was a time when this was a regular practice in forums, I have also noticed not as many people do it anymore. I think that Facebook might be part of the reason since so much is automated people may not realize it can be done. Not only does it look better but it is sure handy if you want to see exactly what someone was talking about.
     
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Thank you. Yes, it looks much better, it's not hard to do, and it's more intuitive for those who are reading the posts as, rather than breaking up a sentence, it can be made part of the sentence.
     
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  7. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Thanks, Jenn, for some reason the way you worded it made more sense to me. And, I haven't had coffee in about 5 days, so that's really something. That doesn't change the hyperlinks being whited out the other day, but it definitely fixes the main issue!
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I'm sorry, English is not my first language, and I can barely manage to string a sentence together. My parents came here from Sweden, and I don't know how to say anything that doesn't involve meatballs.
     
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    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 5, 2015
  9. Krissttina Isobe

    Krissttina Isobe Veteran Member
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    :oops:I learned something here. Thank you. It's like this:
    I'm Krissttina Isobe. This is my web site.
     
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  10. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Haha, it's not that, as you know, @Ken Anderson. I think she may have put it in more layman's (or female) terms. Or, perhaps my fibro fog abated for a few minutes. Regardless, now I get it. I haven't figured out the signature thing yet still, but I haven't had time to delve into that.
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I thought I'd bump this up again because I'm still seeing a lot of long URLs posted to the forum. It's not a huge deal, and I'm not posting this for the purpose of reprimanding anyone, but just to remind you that there is a much prettier and more effective way to post a link.
     
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  12. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    Thank you all because hyperlinking is new to me and I have always wondered how it is done. I have deleted URLs that I thought were way too long and thought there has got to be a easier even shorter way to do this.
     
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  13. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    Okay...I think I got the hang of this now! :) It doesn't seem to work always though, so maybe I am not doing something right...or it just doesn't always work. ;)
     
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    Last edited: Apr 23, 2016
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  14. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Although this is pinned to the top of the category, I'm still seeing a lot of long URLs being posted and, since it looks much neater and legible when text is used as a hyperlink, I thought I'd bump this up again. Please read the preceding posts.
     
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  15. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I was doing the shorter hyperlinking with the wording instead of the link showing, but it seemed that some people didn't understand, and thought there was no link posted. That's why I switched back to the older way of doing it, with the link showing. I'll go back to the neater way of doing it, and hopefully people will understand that the link is contained within the particular phrase. I usually try to color the clickable phrase and also bold it, to make it more obvious.
     
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