Help:Create an external link

Quick Reference: On the page where you want the link to appear, type: [visibletext] where "http://hyperlink" = the url of the website you want to link to (including http://), and "visibletext" = the text users see on the page and will click on to be directed to the other website or url.

What is an external link?
An external link is a link in FamilySearch Wiki article that sends users to another website outside of the FamilySearch Research Wiki. In other words, if users click on an external link, the link will send them to a different website, rather than to an article in the FamilySearch Research Wiki website. Links that send users to other articles in the FamilySearch Research Wiki website are known as internal links.

Does the text on the page have to match the website address or url?
No. Occasionally, it may be helpful to include entire urls on a wiki page, however, many website addresses, or "URL"s are long and not very easy to look at. For example, below is a link to the United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to order old military records: https://eservices.archives.gov/orderonline/start.swe?SWECmd=GotoView&SWEView=GPEA+Product+Detail+-+Features+View+FFO&SWEHo=eservices.archives.gov&SWETS=1199728061&SWEPostnApplet=GPEA+Product+Form+Applet+FFO&SWEPostnRowId=1-N9YP

Rather than include several of these on a page, it often makes an article more readable by "masking" the url. on the Kentucky portal page, I want include a list of topics related to that specific locality, such as "Tax Records," "Land Records," "Census Records," and "Vital Records." Obviously, the actual titles of the articles would need to include more than just "Land Records," because those words would apply to MANY different localities. The articles are titled, "Kentucky Tax Records," "Kentucky Land Records," "Kentucky Census Records," and "Kentucky Vital Records." Rather than have the word "Kentucky" appear over and over on the Kentucky portal page, I choose to only list the topics. The word "Kentucky" is not visible in front of each of the topics even though the article titles include this word.

How to create an internal link

 * 1) Log into the FamilySearch Research Wiki.
 * 2) Navigate to the page where you want to add the internal link. Click "Edit" in the navigation bar page options. This will open the editing window.
 * 3) In the editing window, type the text you want to create the link with. Remember, this does not need to be the same as the title of the article to which you are linking.
 * 4) Using your mouse, position your cursor in front of the text you just typed. While holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor across the text until it is highlighted. [[Image:HighlightTextEditor.png|border|center|350px]]
 * 5) On the editing toolbar, click the hyperlink icon. It looks like a tiny earth with two chain links in front of it.[[Image:HighlightTextEditorhyperlink.png|border|center|350px]]
 * 6) After clicking the hyperlink icon, the "Link" window will open.[[Image:LinkLinkWindow.png|border|center|300px]]
 * 7) At the top of the "Link" window, locate the "Link" box. Here you will type the name of the article you want to link to. Notice that after typing the first three letters of the article title, possible matches will appear in the "Automatic Search Results" box. [[Image:LinkAutoSearchexample.png|border|center|300px]]
 * 8) If the title of the article you want to link to appears in the "Automatic Search Results" box, left-click on the title of the article and the name of the article will appear in the "Link" box above. Once the correct article title appears in the "Link" box, click "OK" to save the link in the editing window. [[Image:LinkLinkOK.png|border|center|300px]]
 * 9) The text that you highlighted in step 4 will now appear blue in the editing window.[[Image:HighlightTextEditorhyperlinkexample.png|border|center|350px]]
 * 10) Save your changes by scrolling down using the outside scroll-bar until you locate the "Save page" button located below the editing window.
 * 11) After clicking "Save page," you will be able to click on the newly created link between two Wiki articles. NOTE: If the link appears red on the page, the title of the linked article was typed in incorrectly. Repeat the steps above, paying close attention to steps 6-7.

Other Helpful Hints:


 * To link to an article in this wiki, the link text must exactly match the article title (including spelling and punctuation). If there are any differences, the link will create a new blank article with the title you entered.
 * If the page exists, the link will be blue.
 * If the page has not yet been created, the link will be red.
 * Click on the red link to create the page and begin adding text.

To create an internal link using wikitext:

 * 1) Type double square brackets [[.
 * 2) Type the name of the article you want to link to immediately after the two square brackets, without leaving a space between the brackets. This is the actual article you will link to. If you want the text on the page to show the actual article title, skip to step 4. If you want the text on the page to read differently from the actual article title, continue with step 3.
 * 3) After typing the exact name of the article you are linking to, type the pipe symbol |, and then type the text that you want to appear as the link on the page.
 * 4) Next type double square brackets ]] without leaving a space between the bracket and the last letter of the title or text.

Tip: To enter the pipe symbol (|), press Shift + \ (the shift and the backslash keys) at the same time.

Example:


 * African American Research

The text above will appear as:African American Research even thought the actual title of the article is "African American Resources."

Steps to Create External Links
To create an external link in FamilySearch Wiki follow these steps:


 * 1) Find the article that needs the link to a Web site outside of FamilySearch Wiki. Click the Edit tab.
 * 2) Highlight the text in the article to be linked.
 * 3) In the toolbar at the top of the Edit page, click the Insert/Edit link icon (the globe with chain links).
 * 4) A pop-up window will appear. In the Link field, type or paste the Web site URL, including the http://
 * 5) Click the OK button.

Tips
In the URL, include the http:// or the link will not work.

To edit existing links to Web sites, follow the same steps above.