Help:Create an Internal Link


 * Watch a video demonstration of how to create links.

Types of links
A link is a hyperlink or method for navigating to another page in the wiki or on the internet. There are two kinds of links that you can use in the FamilySearch wiki:


 * 1) An internal link provides a link to other pages in the FamilySearch wiki only. This article discusses how to create these links.
 * 2) An external link provides a link to pages that are not part of the FamilySearch wiki. To create external links, including a list of templates to use for linking to pages on specific internet sites, see Create an external link.

Benefit of using internal links for pages withing the Wiki
"As long as the page exists, following an external link to a page within the wiki will not seem any different. However some pages will be listed as orphaned pages if all links to it are only coded as external. Another benefit of using internal links is that pages will be listed under the What links here menu item of the target page. If a page is being moved/deleted, then pages linking to it will be missed if they are linking via an external link."

How to create an internal link
To create internal links using the "Standard Editor", see How to create an internal link using Wikitext.

The wiki editor provides a set of tools for creating both internal and external links.


 * 1) Log in to the FamilySearch Research Wiki.
 * 2) Navigate to the page where you want to add the internal link. Click the Edit link 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 and then release the mouse button (the text should still be highlighted as shown in the image below).[[Image:HighlightTextEditor.png|border|center|350px|HighlightTextEditor.png]]
 * 5) On the editing toolbar, click the hyperlink icon. It looks like a tiny globe/earth with two chain links in front of it.[[Image:HighlightTextEditorhyperlink.png|border|center|350px|HighlightTextEditorhyperlink.png]]
 * 6) After clicking the hyperlink icon, the "Link" window will open.[[Image:LinkLinkWindow.png|border|center|300px|LinkLinkWindow.png]]
 * 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|LinkAutoSearchexample.png]]
 * 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|LinkLinkOK.png]]
 * 9) The text that you highlighted in step 4 will now appear blue in the editing window.[[Image:HighlightTextEditorhyperlinkexample.png|border|center|350px|HighlightTextEditorhyperlinkexample.png]]
 * 10) Scroll down using the outside scroll-bar until you locate the Summary  space located below the editing window. Enter a brief summary of the edit.
 * 11) To save this edit, click the Save page button.
 * 12) After clicking Save page, you will be able to click on the newly created link between two Wiki articles.

Does the text on the page need to match the title of the linked page?
It is not required, but the linking text should clearly convey the content of the linked page to the researcher and may 1) expand on the title of the linked page or 2) be more concise.

Example 1:

Page Title: Mennonites Linking Text: Researching Mennonite Records

Example 2:

Page Title: Create an External Link Linking Text: external links