Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Learn how to link in your posts...
One of the best attributes of a good blog post is its links to background information or supporting documents. It is one thing to state fact or opinion on a subject, and another alltogether to provide some means for your reader to explore the subject on their own and come to their own conclusions. This is one of the key differences between "blog" reporting and mainstream media reporting. Most bloggers love to reveal their sources...
So how do you make a link in your post to another location? All you need to know is the most basic of html tags and the destination URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the page you wish to link to.
Lets say I wanted to create a link to Paschal Baute's home page. I know the URL is http://www.paschalbaute.com, and I include the http:// too. That is the part that takes it from just being a description of the address to being an actual, well formed web address.
Most blog interfaces contain a toolbar button for links. To use that button, simply highlight the term in your post you wish the reader to click on, and then click the toolbar button. A small dialog will pop-up will appear and will contain the text that you highlighted, and a blank space for the URL. Copy and paste the URL into the space provided and hit the ok or save button. Depending on the view of your work that you currently have, HTML or WYSIWYG, you will see the link applied to the text.
Doing so manually, is just as easy. Before the text you want to be the link, add this html tag to your post.
<a href="http://www.paschalbaute.com"> but replace my URL with the page you want the vistor to go to.
At the end of the text, close the html tag like this: </a>
So the end result looks like this:
<a href="http://www.paschalbaute.com">Paschal's Home Page</a>
When you post, the html will be rendered as part of the web page and all you and your vistors will see is this.
Paschal's Home Page
So how do you make a link in your post to another location? All you need to know is the most basic of html tags and the destination URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the page you wish to link to.
Lets say I wanted to create a link to Paschal Baute's home page. I know the URL is http://www.paschalbaute.com, and I include the http:// too. That is the part that takes it from just being a description of the address to being an actual, well formed web address.
Most blog interfaces contain a toolbar button for links. To use that button, simply highlight the term in your post you wish the reader to click on, and then click the toolbar button. A small dialog will pop-up will appear and will contain the text that you highlighted, and a blank space for the URL. Copy and paste the URL into the space provided and hit the ok or save button. Depending on the view of your work that you currently have, HTML or WYSIWYG, you will see the link applied to the text.
Doing so manually, is just as easy. Before the text you want to be the link, add this html tag to your post.
<a href="http://www.paschalbaute.com"> but replace my URL with the page you want the vistor to go to.
At the end of the text, close the html tag like this: </a>
So the end result looks like this:
<a href="http://www.paschalbaute.com">Paschal's Home Page</a>
When you post, the html will be rendered as part of the web page and all you and your vistors will see is this.
Paschal's Home Page
