Tutorial (Links)
From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia
One of the most useful features of a wiki is the ability to link between articles and to outside sources. There are a couple different ways to do this; here are the basic basics.
Linking to Other Wiki Articles
Say you are typing along, and come across a word or phrase that you'd like to link to another article. For example:
"Sally Hemings, whose given name was probably Sarah, was the daughter of Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings and, allegedly, John Wayles, Thomas Jefferson's father-in-law."
You could link to the articles on Betty Hemings, John Wayles, and even TJ all in this one sentence. Just highlight the text of the word or phrase you'd like to link, and click the "Internal link" button above your editing box (it has a blue Ab on it). This will automatically insert double brackets around the word or phrase, which tells the wiki software to link to an article with that name. This works great with John Wayles, because there is in fact an article called "John Wayles." But the article on Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings is just called "Elizabeth Hemings." This will confuse the wiki software unless you tell it exactly what you want it to do!
If you want to link a word or phrase to an article whose name is different than the word or phrase, follow the steps outlined above. Then, find out the exact name of the page you want to link to and insert it inside the brackets, in front of the other text, and then insert a pipe (usually accomplished by Shift + \ ). For example: [[Elizabeth Hemings|Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings]]. It might seem a little complicated at first, but don't let it throw you.
Linking to Outside Websites
This is usually something you would do at the end of a wiki article, in Footnotes, or Further Sources. Here's how:
- Type the URL of the website you'd like to link to.
- Highlight the URL.
- Click the External link button above your editing box (it has a little globe on it). This will insert a single square bracket on either side of the URL.
You're done! But, as with internal links, if you want to make a link that will appear as a nice neat word or phrase on the actual wiki page, rather than a big ugly URL, there's an extra step or two. Follow the steps above, and then insert your cursor just after the URL but before the end bracket. Hit the space bar, then type the word or phrase you would like to appear as a link, like so:
[http://www.monticello.org Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.]
Try out what you've learned in the sandbox...
...then continue to Discussion Pages!
