Topics on This Page (click to read ahead)

• Linking to Pages on Your Website
• Linking to an External Page
• Linking to a Place Within a Page
• Creating a Link to an email Address
• Creating a Simpler Index (that the one on the left)

Text and images may be used as links to other pages on the Internet, to other pages on your website, and to places within the page being viewed. For example, the link above "click here to go to the index," is an internal link. That is, when you click it, your browser will go to the index at the bottom of this page. The links in the index to the left are all references to pages on this website.

Linking to Pages on Your Website

Composer makes linking pages on your website really easy. For example, I am going to link the following text to a test page so that you can see the process.

This is a test link to a test page!

First, highlight the text you want to make into a link (drag your mouse across the text or hold down the Shift Key and use your arrow keys) It should look like this:

Click the Link  icon to get this Link Properties window to pop up:

To link to a page on the Internet somewhere besides your site, you can type the address in the "Link to a page location or local file:" window. To link to a page on your own website, click Choose File... Notice that the text you highlighted is shown in the Link source box. When you click Choose File... you'll see this:

Click Open, then click OK. Your highlighted text will now be linked. You can test out the practice link I made below.

This is a test link to a test page!

You can do the same thing to an image. Just click on an image to highlight it, then click the Link  icon to get the Link Properties window to pop up. 

Linking to an External Page

Go through the same process as above to link to a page that is not on your site. For example, you might want to link to KORRnet's home page. Type the text or insert the image you want to make a link and highlight it. 

For example, I want to create a link, using an image, to a site where you can download a program that transfers files from one computer to another. First, I'll insert their logo to use as a link. 

Then, I highlight the image and . . . 

click the Link  icon to get the Link Properties window to pop up.

I typed in the web address to the company in the Link to window. Click OK, and your image will be linked to the company's address (I chose this address because I use the program that they offer free to transfer theses pages to the KORRnet computer . . . more about this later.). 

The linked image will not look any different while you are using Composer; however, you'll notice a tiny border around it when you view it in a browser, like this:

If you happen to like the border, great. If you want to modify it or get rid of it, right click on the image and select Image Properties. 

You can change the border in the Space around image window. The default value is set at two pixels. Set it to zero to remove the border.

Also, I usually type the link below wherever I am making a link so that it will print if a reader chooses to print out a page, like this:

http://www.ipswitch.com/

Linking to a Place Within a Page

Creating a link like the one at the top of this page that takes you to the index at the bottom of this page is a two step process. First you need to make a target for the link to point to. That is, the link must have a reference to some part of your page. In this example, I'm going to make a link and target to the top of this page. 

Position your cursor where you want the target to be, in this case at the top of the page. Click the Target  icon in the tool bar, and the Target Properties window will pop up.

You can give the target whatever name you like, although I usually choose names that make sense for what I am doing. Click OK, and a little target will appear. 

Now you are ready to make a link to the target. I want to make a link back to the top of the page using this text:

Back to the Top

I go through the same process I did to create the other links. I highlight the text and click the Link icon to get the Link Properties window to pop up. 

Notice that the target you created is listed in the bottom window. Click the target's name and click OK to set the link. 

Back to the Top

Save your page and your new link should work.

Just for your own information, "target" is a term used by Composer. The official name for a target is an "anchor."

Creating a Link to an email Address

Go through the same process you used to create a link for a page not on your website, only this time instead of typing in the address of a web page, type in:

mailto:

followed by the email address you want to use. 

For example, here is a how I link to my email address at KORRnet. 

First, type in the address, then highlight it.
Next, click the Link  icon. 
Type "mailto:ssharp@korrnet.org" in the Link to a page location or local file: window.
It should look like this:

The finished email link looks like this:

ssharp@korrnet.org

When you click the link, an email window should pop up for your visitors to use. Some people on the web won't have an email account. For them this method of contact will not work, which is why I put a comment form on this site. A comment form is a good way to get information from people without requiring that they have an email address. Click Contact on the index for this page to go to a comment form, or click this link: comment form.

One last feature you can add, particularly if you are asking for feedback via email, is a subject line prompt. That is, when a visitor to your page clicks the email link the subject line of the email will already be filled in with whatever subject you choose. This can help you later if you recieve a lot of email. You'll be able to sort your email by topic easily. To do this, add a question mark, an equal sign, and your subject after the email address in the link, like this:

mailto:ssharp@korrnet.org?subject=How Do I Create a Link?

The new link will look the same, but when the email window pops up it will contain "How Do I Create a Link?" in the subject line. Try it by clicking the link below:

ssharp@korrnet.org

Creating a Simpler Index

Now that you know how to create links, you can make an index that is much simpler than the one I showed you on the How to Make an Index Table page. All you need to do is make a list of the places on your website you want to create a link to. For example, the index on the left at the top of this page could be done like this:

Home
About
Projects
Calendar
Sponsors
Links
Site Index
Contact

The only thing special that I did is make the text bold and a little smaller. All these links work just as well as the fancy index above. Just type the text, highlight each line, and create a link using the Link  icon in the tool bar.

Please go on to the next topic  Sponsors