Tech Alive Support

Creating a Module - General: Links

Text Links | Image Links | Local Links | External Links | Section Anchors | More Info

Text Links

To hyperlink a page, document, or image to a section of text, select the exact text string for linking. It should appear highlighted. Choose the Link menu and select an option. The highlighted text will become an underlined link. Make sure the linked text is a meaningful indication of the subject of the linked material. To link a menu entry, select the entire menu item for linking.

Image Links

You can link an image to another page, document, or image. Just select the image and choose an option from the Link menu.

You can have a small image, or thumbnail, link to a larger image. Create both versions of the image in a photo editor and give them different names. Embed the small image in the web page. Select the small image and do Link > File on My Computer... and browse to the larger version of the image. When the visitor clicks on the thumbnail, the large image will load by itself in the browser (click to enlarge).

Local Links

A local, or relative, link goes to a web page or document within your module folder. Examples of local links are:

• research.htm
• documents/floorplan.pdf
• index.htm
• images/lake.jpg

When the visitor clicks on the local links, the full URL (web location) resolves to:

• http://techalive.mtu.edu/seriesfolder/module/research.htm
• http://techalive.mtu.edu/seriesfolder/module/documents/floorplan.pdf
• http://techalive.mtu.edu/seriesfolder/module/index.htm
• http://techalive.mtu.edu/seriesfolder/module/images/lake.jpg

External Links

An external, or absolute, link goes to a website outside of the module folder. Examples:

• http://techalive.mtu.edu/
• http://www.mtu.edu/
• http://www.amazon.com/

Section Anchors

A link can go to another page, to a particular location on another page, or to a particular location on the same page. (See the menu example at the top of this page.) The location is marked with a section anchor.

To link to a page location, first create the section anchor at that location:

1. Insert the cursor at the beginning of the location.
2. Insert > Section Anchor... and type in a short name which is unique for that page.
3. An anchor icon is placed at that location in edit mode. The anchor is invisible in browser mode.

Create the link to that location:

1. Select the text or image that will link to that location.
2. Link > Drafts and Recent Pages...
3. Select the page that the anchor is on. It can be the current page, if you want to have a menu item that jumps to a different location on the page.
4. Click Advanced if it isn't already open.
5. Select the correct anchor name from the drop-down menu.
6. The link will appear with a pound symbol in front of the anchor name.

Examples of section anchors:

• #a-g
• #h-p
• #q-z
• research.htm#early
• research.htm#current

More Information

Troublshooting Links

Always check your links as your visitors would. Preview (F12) and click on each link, and return to the page with the browser Back button.

When creating external links, first go to that page with your browser. Copy and paste the URL from the Address location. Avoid re-typing URLS, as this leads to errors.

If you click on a link and the page is not found, check to see what the Address is displaying. The link may have to be re-done. In Edit mode, right-click on the link and do Link Properties... to view the path and filename of the linked document. In Browser mode, go into Choose to see if the page exists and is spelled the same. If it is an external link, try browsing for it again. If it is an older link, it may not exist on the web anymore.

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