Adding Links to Anchors
Anchors
Anchors are markers within a document, usually used to denote topic headers. Links can point to anchors within the same document or in another document, and when a link to an anchor is clicked, the document will be displayed at the position of the anchor.
The six bulleted headings at the top of this page all link to anchors placed at the beginning of the appropriate sections. If you hover your cursor over each one you will see something like http://......?id=587#indoc appearing in the bar at the bottom of the browser window. This signifies that the link points to an anchor called "indoc" to be found on page 587. The hash (#) symbol indicates that the URL points to an anchor.
Anchors are useful if you are working on a long page and you decide that it is preferable to insert a short index of contents at its head, each content item being hyperlinked to the start of the relevant section. This process involves the use of anchors. They are also useful for cross-referencing an item on one page with a related item on a different page.
Inserting anchors
- Open the component containing the text or graphic where you wish to insert the link in the Edit window
- Locate the point in your page where you would like to place an anchor and click there
- Click on the Insert anchor button
- [There may be a security alert in some browsers at this point, e.g. IE7 displays that shown below
If so, click where indicated and click the Insert anchor button again] - Enter a name in the window that appears and click OK (the name should be an appropriate descriptive title for that point in the document; e.g. if the topic title is "Introduction", you might choose the word "intro" as a short version, see below)
Linking to anchors within a page
- Make sure you are in edit mode
- Select the text to be linked from and click on the Insert link button
- Select Link to: -> anchor in this page
- Select an anchor in the document from the Anchor: drop-down menu (see below).
- Press OK.
Linking to an anchor in a different page
This is probably most easily achieved by navigating to the page where the passage to be linked to is found and noting down the anchor name.
e.g. it is wished to link a text item on one page to an anchor alongside a passage called "Basic formatting" on page 723, called "The Editor". One way to discover the anchor title is to find the anchor icon in the edit window for the relevant component on page 723, then right click on it and select Rename Anchor to discover the anchor name.
OR
If there is a link elsewhere on the same page (often at the top) which points to the anchored passage, an easier way is to mouse over the link (see screenshot left) and then note the URL of the link which is displayed at the bottom of the browser. The example which follows confirms the page number to be 723 and gives the link name as "format".
Then:
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Select the text on the current page from which the link is to be made, e.g. it might be the word "formatting" in the example given here
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Click the Insert link button
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Select Link to: -> Firefly page from the Link to: options.
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Click Browse... to open the Page Selector dialog box and navigate to the required parent page title.
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OR - enter the page ID in the Page: box (you can copy and paste) instead.
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Enter the anchor name in the Anchor: box
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Press the OK button.
