Posting Long Hyperlinks

[Dan Clark]

Many times we want to post a link to a web page.   In some cases those links are very long.   There is a way of shortening the text in the link.  It is covered in the help file, but is not very clear.  Here's a bit better description...

For example, I want to post a link to a square drive bit at Lowes.  Here's what the "raw" link looks like:http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=177822-353-SQ3102&lpage=none

And here's what the link looks like with a very short description:  #3 Square Drive Bit

Better? I think so. 

To show a short description, just use this format for typing in a link:

[url=http://somesite/] Description [/url]

For the "#3 Square Drive Bit" link shown above, the code would be:

[url=http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=177822-353-SQ3102&lpage=none] #3 Square Drive Bit [/url]

Here's the details...  A "descriptive" link is composed of three sections:

- The URL portion (in red)
- The Description portion (in green)
- The Close URL portion (in blue)

[ URL ] Description  [ close URL ]

So the URL portion is an open left square bracket plus "url=" plus the target link plus a close right square bracket.  E.g., the link to Festool USA would be: [url=http://www.festoolusa.com].  The Description portion is simply descriptive text like Festool USA.   The Close URL portion simply closes the address.  It's format is: [/url].

Combined it would look like: [url=http://www.festoolusa.com] Festool USA [/url].

I hacked the text above to demonstrate what the code would look like.  Typed in just like it's shown will translate to this descriptive link: Festool USA.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Dan.

 

[mysterium]

Thanks Dan,

I've wondered how that was done.

jim

 

[Dan Lyke]

Thanks from me too. I've tried everything I could think of to do that, missed that the equals sign was the proper separator.

 

[Lou Miller]

Cool, thanks Dan. I had a long hyperlink in my signature. Now I'm able to shorten it. Looks much better.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Dan,
Thanks for investigating this and describing it for everyone!  Definitely, that will come in handy.
Stay in touch,
Matthew Schenker

 

[Christian A.]

Hello,

Thanks for the how-to, Dan.
Personally, I’m familiar with this code and it works fine for me.
However, some users might appreciate a function such as “Enter the url of the link” and “Enter the text to be displayed”.
Please don’t get me wrong, I know that Matt already invests lots of time in order to run this forum. As a consequence I don’t want to appear demanding but I do think that the function I described might be nice.

Regards,

Christian

 

[Michael Kellough]

Hello,

Thanks for the how-to, Dan.
Personally, I’m familiar with this code and it works fine for me.
However, some users might appreciate a function such as “Enter the url of the link” and “Enter the text to be displayed”.
Please don’t get me wrong, I know that Matt already invests lots of time in order to run this forum. As a consequence I don’t want to appear demanding but I do think that the function I described might be nice.

Regards,

Christian

Like me. I had to read Dan's post three times to get it.

 

[Dan Clark]

and let me know what you think.  Is this more readable?  Better description?

Dan.

 

[Michael Kellough]

and let me know what you think.  Is this more readable?  Better description?

Dan.

The colored text helps a lot I think, but then I pretty much already got it. However, the use of the + signs is a little confusing. Are the + signs to prevent your examples from becoming hyperlinks?

 

[Dan Clark]

Yes, that's the problem.  If you can think of a way of getting rid of the them, I'll change it for others.

Thanks,

Dan.

 

[Dan Clark]

I thought of a way.  Take a look again.  Is that better?

Dan.

 

[Michael Kellough]

I thought of a way.  Take a look again.  Is that better?

Dan.

That's pretty clear even to me. Nice job Dan.

 

[Dan Clark]

Thanks.  The first time I read the help file, I said, "Huh?!?" 

Dan.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
Just a technical note: We no longer have to worry about how to convert hyperlinks into clear text.

The "Insert Hyperlink" button  [attachimg=1]  now prompts you automatically for the URL and the descriptive text.

Dan wrote a great tutorial on this feature, which is located here --> URL Popups

Matthew

 

[Eli]

Thanks Matt and Dan.