[Gail White]

I see people indicating links to other sites by simply putting here. How do you do that?

[Maryann Corbett]

This would be a lot easier to explain if I were sitting beside you, Gail, but let me try. (I may fail, and Bill may arrive and do better, but what the heck.)

First, get the window open that lets you make a post, either to start a thread or to reply in one.

Now look at the lines of symbols at the top of that box. Find the smiley face.

RIGHT BELOW THAT, there's a symbol that looks like a little globe with a pair of glasses. That's the symbol you'll need to click on in order to insert a link.

But hold that thought for a moment, because before you can insert the link, you'll have to find and copy the link you want to insert.

Let's say you've been reading around on the web and you've found something you want to link to. For example, let's say you want to send people Cally's new poem in Kin. You are at that page, which is

http://wearekin.org/author/ccdavies/i_sink_to_sing

The first step in creating the link is to move your cursor into that page's URL field (the line up at the top where you see that http stuff), click once so that the line is highlighted, then either select "copy" in a dropdown menu or right-click and select copy in the box that appears where you clicked.

Now, back at the Sphere, with a window open and at the spot in a sentence where you want the link to be, click on the globe-with-glasses. A dialog box will open, and it will say "Please enter the URL of your link." Put your cursor in that box, right-click, select "Paste" and click "OK"

What happens next is that some lines of code will appear in your post.

They will be inside square brackets. First, they'll say "URL=" and the URL you copied. They may say "http://" TWICE. If they do, take out one of those "http://"s.

After the FIRST closing bracket, delete everything up to "[/url]" Type the words that you want to BE the link, which might be "here" or the title of the poem or whatever.

When you preview your post, your link should show up as a link, and you'll be able to test it. If it doesn't work, you may have forgotten to correct the "double http://" problem. (Can you tell I have this problem a lot?)

When it works, then you can hit "submit."

It's actually not complicated; it only seems long because I'm trying to be precise and I can't just point.

[Roger Slater]

Let me try to put it more concisely, at the risk of not spelling things out quite enough. But it's really quite easy.

In the box where you compose your message, highlight the word or words that you want to be the link. For example, if you want the word "here" to be the link, highlight that word.

Then click on the little symbol at the top of the box that looks like a planet with a small chain link on it.

That should bring up a little box asking you to insert the URL (or web address) of the page you want to link to. Either type it in or cut and paste it.

Then you're done.

It's that simple. Let me just add that if you are cutting and pasting, note that the "http://" is already there, so be careful not to do it twice. And also be careful that you don't accidentally cut and paste more than the web address. Sometimes dead links are created because there's an extra period at the end of the web address.

[Gail White]

PRACTICE

King's College Choie sings "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
here:[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3DX4tu7DkE"]

Well at least there's the link! Otherwise I blew it.

[Maryann Corbett]

It didn't actually link. But you're close, though. This part, enclosed in brackets

url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3DX4tu7DkE"

has to come first. Then it should be FOLLOWED by the words you want to act as the link, such as--

here

--which should then be followed by /URL, in brackets

Let's do that and see if it works....

here

[W.F. Lantry]

Originally Posted by Maryann Corbett

(I may fail, and Bill may arrive and do better, but what the heck.)

Thanks for the honor implied, but I don't think I could do any better!

Pictures are always fun, though! Let's try some pictures!

Here we are!

Here's how it works:



Then this:



Annnd... Bob's your uncle...

Thanks,

Bill

(editing in to say: Darn it all! My print screen button doesn't include an image of my mouse pointer! I was all set to click the OK button. Durned technology! )

[Gail White]

PRACTICE #2

Okay, my first effort was done following Roger's simplified directions.
This one is done following Maryann's more lengthy directions. (Note:
for a real technodolt like me, numbered steps may help):

[To read Light on-line, click HERE: [/url]

Well sh*t that didn't seem to work either.

[Woody Long]

I'm joining the class.

Inishbofin Island is here.

--Woody

[later] It worked IMO! I followed Roger's instructions. The first time I have inserted a link in a post this way.

[Maryann Corbett]

Woody, I'm so glad somebody's been able to make it work!

I'm going to try a different teaching method, with numbered steps as Gail recommends. This method will bypass the link icon and tell you what code to type.

1. Go to the site you want to link to. Write down its URL. For LIGHT, for example, the URL of the home page is lightpoetrymagazine.com/revamp/

2. Back on the Sphere, get into a post that starts or replies to a thread.

3. Type an opening square bracket and an equal sign.

4. Type an opening quotation mark.

5. Type the URL you wrote down.

6. Type a closing quotation mark.

7. Type a closing square bracket.

8. Type the word or phrase that you want to act as the link, the one that will show up as blue and underlined, such as LIGHT. You don't have to underline them. The program will do that.

9. Type an opening square bracket, a slash, the letters URL, and a closing square bracket.

I'm going to follow my own directions now.

LIGHT



Now I'm going to try Roger's directions, just because I've never done it that way.

The words that will be the link.

Son of a gun. That IS easier.

[S. A. Wyatt]

If you would like to watch short video to see how it's done, you can click this link here:

http://www.screenr.com/IxOH

I found a new (free) toy and wanted to play around with it. Sorry there is no audio, but I don't have my microphone with me. Hope it helps.

Cheers

Sean