Add Body Links
This tutorial discusses placing and editing links in the body of your Web page. Links in the Breadcrumbs and Left Navigation areas are discussed later.
Step 1: "Browse to Web Page"
- In Contribute, View and Edit any page; If you are training in the MedWebTraining practice site, browse to the New Page created in the previous exercise, if not already viewing it
- Place your cursor where you want the new link to go in your text. OR select a piece of text or image to link from. Click the Insert Link button
- Select "Browse to Web Page" to access the Link Properties dialog box
- Type in your link text; if you selected something before inserting, this area is disabled
- Click on the "Browse" button
Contribute provides a small browser window, usually pre-populated with your site's Home page or most recently worked page. This is a true Web browser, and you can type in any address on the Web, view and select a page or site to link to. -
Find your home page (click on the home page link if you're not sure), then click "OK."
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When you return to the Insert Link panel, you have a small preview of your selected page
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Click on the "Advanced options" arrow to reveal more link options:
- "HREF" shows the actual link URL that will be used within the page's code.
- "Section anchor" allows you to select an anchor link from within the body of the target page, to take the user directly to a particular page section. If any anchors are detected on the page, a list is provided in the pull-down.
- "Target frame" allows you to direct the browser to create a New Window for your linked page. You can usually leave this as Default.
- When you are satisfied with your link settings, click OK. Your linked text has been inserted into the flow of your text
- In order to validate your new link, you will need to Publish the page, then view it in your regular Web browser
- Move your cursor in the text, or select another bit of text or image to attach a link to; repeat 1 - 8, but this time click the "Choose" button in item 3 instead of "Browse," and set the link to one of the stationery files
- Validate your work in a browser by viewing the page and clicking the links
Step 2: Edit an existing link
Occasionally you will need to revise a link. You can edit the link text by selecting it or placing your cursor within the linked area and typing. To change the link URL:
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Place your cursor anywhere within the linked text
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Use the Format menu to select the "Link Properties..." command
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In the Insert Link panel that results, you can edit the URL of the link, browse to a new page, and/or manage the advanced options for the link. Click OK when you are done.
- Click the Publish button
- Validate your work in a browser by viewing the page and clicking the links
Link methods not to use
There are two link methods we don't recommend: New Page and Email Address.
Say NO to blank New Page
The Insert Link method "Create New Page" is intended to allow you to create a blank new page within your site. With very few exceptions, there is no use for a blank, unformatted page in your site. Every new page in your site should be created from an existing functional page in the Stanford Medicine format, such as a stationery file, or any working page. Please see Create a New Page for more details.
Mailto = Spamto
Mailto email links, where the URL follows the form "mailto:myaddress@stanford.edu," usually result in spam for the owner of the address, as mailto links are easily harvested.
In the past, IRT used page-level JavaScript encryption code which can not be edited or deleted with Contribute. If you encounter objects of this kind, you can request removal or update via Web Help.
For new email addresses, use the following technique.
Step 3: Add Spam-proof Email Links
Through a combination of text, link and CSS style, you can provide functional mailto links without risking spam.
To create a spam-proof email link to “youralias@stanford.edu”:
- Type in the text you want to link as a mailto, followed by the beginning of the email address, in brackets. Example: “Center Info [youralias]”
- Select all of this text, including the linking text and bracket text
- Set a link to ANY web page using the Insert Link > Browse to Web Page command sequence; the link will be replaced, so it doesn’t matter what page
- Click to the center of the link, to ensure the style you will apply is applied to the link tag and not some other element
- Select “link_SUmail” from the Styles menu
- Finished example: Center Info [youralias]
When published, the browser will rebuild the link so that “Center Info” links to “mailto:youralias@stanford.edu" without exposing the address to Spam.
Variations
- Use the “link_SHCmail” style for “@stanfordmed.org” addresses
- Finished example: Center Info [youralias]
- If linking to an individual's email contact, and you want to include the address itself in a human-readable form, replace the at and dot characters with words, to keep the address from being harvested for spam
- Finished example: youralias at stanford dot edu [youralias]
- For any other email domain, use either style, but add a space and the email domain within the brakets, i.e. “Center Info [youralias gmail.com]” to create the mailto “youralias@gmail.com”
- Finished example: Center Info [youralias gmail.com]
Optional: Link to a Downloadable File
If desired, you can jump ahead to the exercise to Add Downloadable Documents, including a body link to the downloadable file.
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