Help:Create an Internal Link

Quick Reference:


 * The blue globe/earth icon [[Image:Globe (internal linking).jpg|30x23px]] with the two chain links looped together on the toolbar is used for internal linking.

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

Does the text on the page have to match the article title being linked to?
No. For example, on the Kentucky portal page, I want to 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 using the toolbar

 * 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]]
 * 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]]
 * 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
(see Advanced Linking)

Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) Links

 * Instructions for using the FHL template for creating links to the Family History Library Catalog.

Record Search Links

 * Instructions for using the RecordSearch template for creating links to [ Record Search].

WorldCat/OCLC Links

 * Instructions for using the WorldCat template for creating links to the English-language WorldCat/OCLC catalog.

Wikipedia Links

 * Instructions for using the Wikipedia template for creating interwiki links to articles in the English-language Wikipedia.