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How to embed a link 
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Post How to embed a link
I use embedded links all the time, and it's easy, practical, and clean. But, until you are used to doing it, it can seem like a great mystery. So I'm going to try again to demystify it for all forum posters.

I've summarized the process here. Note that the word "here" in the preceding sentence is an embedded link, which means if you click on it using your mouse or touchpad, it will open up another window in your browser and display the webpage (or, in this case, forum post) that I am referencing.

So, here are the steps to turn any text into a link:

  • First, get the web address (also called a URL, or Uniform Resource Locator) you want to link to.

    Typically, I have the webpage I wish to link to open in another browser tab or window. I pop over to that window, highlight the entire web address in the address bar, and store a copy of it. On a Windows PC, you can easily highlight the web address by clicking your mouse in the address bar. Usually this will automatically "select" the entire address (it turns blue). If it doesn't, press Ctrl-A (or choose "Edit" and then "Select All" from the menu bar at the top of your browser) and it will select it (it turns blue). To store a copy of the web address in memory, press Ctrl-C (or choose "Edit" and then "Copy" from the menu bar at the top of your browser).

    Let's assume for this example that the URL you want to link to is: http://www.mysite.com

  • Next, in your forum post, highlight the words you want to use as the clickable link ("here" in the previous example) by "selecting" it with the mouse or keyboard (it turns blue when selected).

    If you use the mouse, click just before the first letter of the beginning word and, while holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse cursor to the end of the last word, then release the mouse button. If you use the keyboard, put the text cursor just before the first letter of the beginning word and, while holding down the "shift" key, use the right arrow key to advance the text cursor to the end of the last word, then release the "shift" key.

  • Then click the underline button ("u") at the top of the forum editor, then immediately click the URL button ("URL"), then place your text cursor right after the "url" in the first set of brackets that was inserted in front of your linkable text, then type "=", then paste (Ctrl-V or "Edit" "Paste" from the browser menu) in the actual URL code you copied to memory. You should see something like this in your forum editor, only with square brackets instead of the curly brackets that I've used in this example: {u}{url=http://www.mysite.com}here{/url}{/u}

"Et voila, you have created a clean, clickable link in your post." Unless I have failed to clearly explain it again... :face:

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Tue May 07, 2013 6:16 pm
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Post Re: How to embed a link
The current version of the phpBB3 forum software automatically underlines links created with the "URL" tag, so you no longer need to use the "u" tag to have the link underlined.

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Mon Aug 08, 2016 5:53 pm
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Joined: Sun May 22, 2016 10:26 am
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Post Re: How to embed a link
Been wondering about this knowing I will need to eventually use it, but haven't got around to searching for instructions - so good to know! Thanks . . . and now I can find it easily by searching my own posts :thumbup: Is this a fairly standard procedure on other forums?


Tue Aug 09, 2016 3:37 am
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Post Re: How to embed a link
Gemma wrote:
Is this a fairly standard procedure on other forums?

I can't really say how much help is available on other forums. I cut my forum teeth on Avalon in early 2011, and I pretty much figured out how to do everything on my own there. I had been a computer programmer and developer for over thirty years, so it was relatively easy for me, but I noticed that most Avalon posters didn't have a clue about even the simplest things, like just quoting a portion of a post. So when I created this forum (also by myself, and it was all new to me), I made an effort to explain to others how to do the things that I was doing regularly. Surprisingly, most people didn't care to learn. Even the mighty Uncle Zook, guru extraordinaire (as he would like everyone to believe), who had even been a moderator at several forums, never did learn how to correctly embed a link here, even though the instructions were posted!

So if you have any questions about anything, just ask. If I suspect others will have the same question, I will usually post the answer so others can benefit from it too. That's the difference between a non-sociopath and a sociopath -- sociopaths really don't want anyone to benefit other than themselves, whereas non-sociopaths want to share the benefits with everyone!

How I hate that cursed sociopath mentality. It's killing us.

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Tue Aug 09, 2016 4:42 am
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