TECH: Setting up a blue link

Subject: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 08:09 AM

Hello, could someone very kindly tell me how this is done when one posts a message. I have read the directions but it has'nt worked out for me, I am donig something wrong.

Please make it FOOL PROOF as I have very limited knowledge of technical stuff regarding computers.

Many Thanks.

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 08:51 AM

Did you try the "Make a link ("blue clicky")" thingie which is beside the "Submit Message" button? You need to include the "http://" part when you use that. You click "Create Link" and then copy the result into your message.

I can give detailed instructions on how to make links from scratch, but I think it would be more confusing than using the "Make a link" thing. If I could see what you've tried before, I'd be able to tell what went wrong. It might just have been a simple typo such as leaving out (or adding) a space.

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Jeanie
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 10:31 AM

Where I was going wrong with this until recently was that I was forgetting to leave a space between the <a and the href= . That is the only place where you do have to put a space, the rest is continuous typing.
As Jeri says, it may be something as simple as that. It's worth persevering, because once you've got it, you'll be blue clickying all over the place.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Jeanie
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 10:34 AM

Ooh dear - It blue clickyed on me where I didn't want to then !!!
It was the magic words
Let's see if it clickies me again ...

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Jeanie
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 10:37 AM

It doesn't want to print the magic words that have to have a space between them, obviously. They are the left-facing v-shape and the small letter a, then a space and then the letters HREF but in lower case. Let's see if it lets me print out those. If not, sorry, the machine has won !

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Nemesis
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 11:29 AM

I'm having problems with this too .. I click on the clicky make a clicky and get a dialogue box like this .. and I type in what I think I ought to be typing

Link URL: http://www.richard-durrant.com
Link text (optional*): Richard Durrant

then it comes up with:

1) Cut and paste this into your post:

Richard Durrant

2) test this link: Richard Durrant (which is blue) and doesn't work when I click on it/

3) Make another link

Is it just my aged machine (or my aged Luddite mind?) Okay, don't answer THAT one :)

Hille

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 11:58 AM

Here's my standard example, which I think is pretty good. I don't use the link-maker because it's much more efficient to do it myself.

• Note that all HTML tags are enclosed in <angle brackets> - to end a command, you repeat it with a slash in front of it, again in </angle brackets>
• The tag for fonts is <font> followed by a modifier that equals the type of modification
  <font color="red"> and ended by a cancel tag: </font>
• The tag for links is <a> followed by a modifier that equals the type of modification
  <a href="http://www.mudcat.org"> and ended by a cancel tag: </a>

---

<a href="http://www.mudcat.org">Click here</a>

<a href="mailto:[e-mail]">Click to e-mail</a>

If you're posting links at Mudcat, the quotation marks are optional. I prefer not to use them, because they complicate the task of making links. Simple is better, I think. Fewer misteaks.

I find it's best to open a new browser window [CTRL-N] and navigate your way to the site you want to link to. Highlight and copy [CTRL-C] the URL (address) of the site, and then go back to your Mudcat message and paste [CTRL-V] the URL into your link. Be sure to include the http:// in that URL. The quotation marks are standard procedure, but most links work just fine without quotation marks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Nemesis
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 12:27 PM

Hmmm .. well, there;s only one way to find out if it works ... fingers crossed .. hitting the submit button

clickhere

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 12:30 PM

Nicely done, Hille!
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Nemesis
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 12:31 PM

Hey! Woweee!   I did it! Zippedy doo dah ...
now I have to write that down so I don't loose how to do it

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 12:49 PM

Write it down, or click on the Add to Tracer link here or just below the last message in this thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 01:03 PM

Joe,

This is a personal bugbear, so please excuse me. PLEASE don't use email links in the way Joe suggests. It is more than useless for anyone who uses a web based email service or Web TV etc.

If you have to use a mailto link, please ensure that the 'blue' text is your email address, rather than 'click here to mail me' That way, everyone will know your address and will actually be able to contact you.

Thanks

Ed

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 01:34 PM

Many thanks to you all for your help, I hope I get sorted next time.

Keep well.

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 05:08 PM

Hi Joe,

I have followed exactly what you said to do, but I still get the URL in ordinary black writing in my message and no blue link. Can't understand it.

Thanks for the help.

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Noreen
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 06:55 PM

Try it and post it here- as Jeri suggests above, if we can see what you're doing, a diagnosis and remedy can be suggested :0)

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 10:07 PM

Well, Ed, I recently switched to Web-based e-mail (and I'm not sure I'm satisfied). You're right, it doesn't trigger a new e-mail message on Web-based e-mail - but the link at least doesn't make my e-mail address quite so obvious. I don't know if it helps me avoid the engines that harvest e-mail addresses, but maybe it helps.
If I did want my e-mail to be completely unhidden, maybe this would be the best way:

<a href="mailto:[e-mail]">[e-mail] - Click to e-mail</a>

But I can't get my e-mail at that address right now.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Setting up a blue link
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 10:31 PM

One possibility: GUEST is pasting the link she gets into the message box, previewing it. In preview, s/he's seeing the same stuff s/he wrote in the message box. The first time I used it, that's what happened to me.

Look above the boxes and see if the link isn't near the top of the page.

I'm just guessing. If that isn't it, please post the link in here and we'll figure out what's wrong.

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 02:22 PM

Hi,

When I try to set up a website link, I click on Make a link("blue clicky").

Then I type in the web address in the URL box. Then the following appears -

Cut and paste this into your post:

http://imro.ie


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Test this link: http://imro.ie

Now, no matter which of the above I cut and paste or copy into my message, the website never comes up blue.

Sorry I did not get back till now and thank you to all for the offer of help.

Siobhan

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 02:24 PM

Sorry, I made a mistake on my previous posting. I always type in the full address eg. http://www.imro.ie I did not do this in my last example, however it never works out.

Siobhan

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: Jeri
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 03:10 PM

Siobhan, the first one works fine except for the missing WWW. You have to click on "submit" - either to preview it or post it to Mudcat. It won't ever come up blue and clickable (as it would in e-mail) until you submit it.

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 05:46 PM

http://www.imro.ie

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 05:48 PM

http://www.imro.ie


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Test this link: http://www.imro.ie

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 05:54 PM

By Jove, I think you've got it! Congratulations, O Nameless One!
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST,Siobhan
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 05:55 PM

Thanks a million Jeri. I always thought it was not working for me because it never came up blue. I did not realise that it would in fact work only when I had submitted it. At last, sorted.

Take care to all,

Siobhan

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 06:17 PM

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 10:04 PM

Looking at:
From: Hille - PM
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 11:29 AM

Perhaps this will be helpful. In Internet explorer, if you "hover" your cursor over a link, the URL magically appears at the bottom of the screen (in the IE toolbar).

It took a moment, but the "defect" in Hille's "blue clicky" was the htttp part (3 "t"s instead of 2). It would probably have been okay without the extra "t".

Actually, the "quick read" on a link is pretty generally useful. I've tried to form the habit of looking to see where a link is going to take me before I click it - and have made my determination about whether to go or stay based on experience - there are some fairly popular and useful places that I know just have too much "trash" to bother with - except under dire necessity.

John

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: nutty
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 12:55 PM

If it is of any interest I never use the " signs after the href= when writing a link. It makes it much easier to remember the sequence and it works just as well.

Subject: Quotes in HTML tags
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 01:08 PM

Yeah, I don't like the quote (") signs, either. If you leave off one set of quotes, it locks the page for Netscape users. I understand that HTML standards require quotes in most tags, but things usually work just find without them. It's not just links that are supposed to have quotes. Here's another:

<font color="red">

It works just fine without the quotes.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 01:12 PM

Nutty and Joe,

Yes it works fine in your browser. As Joe comments, it's not html standard, and may not work in old browsers, text readers for the blind etc.

Sure, these are a very small minority, but if you think you can make links without messing up the quotes it's still a good idea to include them.

If you're likely to mess up, use Joe's approach.

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: MudGuard
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 05:10 PM

If you are likely to mess up, use the Make a link ("blue clicky")
feature located below the text input field...
And/or the Preview checkbox...

MudGuard

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 05:21 PM

Very smug, MudGuard, but equally unlikeable.

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 05:22 PM

and it doesn't tell anyone anything...

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 05:24 PM

apart from how 'good' you think you are

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: Noreen
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 06:01 PM

Sounded fine to me, rude GUEST. Now would you like to explain it politely in German, please?

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 06:17 PM

Versuch, raffiniert, zu sein, ohne zu erklären, was Sie machen, ist ein schlechtes Ding

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: Noreen
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 06:32 PM

!

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 06:37 PM

Attempt, refined, to be, is without explaining, what you make a bad thing

In other words: Mudguard was showing off. It didn't help anyone. Stop defending him (he can look after himself) and try to chill out a bit...

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: Noreen
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 06:51 PM

As soon as you do :0)

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: alison
Date: 06 Dec 02 - 12:58 AM

just testingto see if this works

and to see if the yellow worked using "colour" spelling

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: alison
Date: 06 Dec 02 - 12:59 AM

and it doesn't ...... you have to use the US spelling humph!!

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: TECH: Setting up a blue link
From: alison
Date: 06 Dec 02 - 01:00 AM

woohoo....... I can do colours!!!!

I still prefer to do blue clickies the old fashioned way....

slainte

alison