SANParks.org Forums

How to link?

Updated july 2008, it's all a lot easier now, but leaving the older text so you can see the basics. So if you want to, skip the type in black, and read the bits written in darkblue only.

As seen on the forum almost all links are just clickable words, and not long html-code. Looks nice, but how to do that?
Not too difficult, just some getting used to. Let's take an example: http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/webcams/
That is the adress to the webcam(s), which I just take as the page you want to link to.
Copy that from the adress bar of your browser, and go to the post you are currently writing.
Paste the adress into the post, select it again, and hit the button marked URL in the righthand top corner above the area you are typing in. It should look like this now:

Well, part one is done, but it looks the same in preview? Correct. Now comes the "tricky bit". Replace the end bracket (]) of [url]with an equalsign (=), and place that same bracket (]) before the[/url] code. It should read like this now:

Now we have to give a description of the link, in this case Webcam will do. Type that between the two ][ brackets so that you end up with this:

Done! The link looks like this:
Blah blah blah Webcam blah blah. Just make sure the text is somewhat more interesting...

That was the "old way", nowadays we have a much, much easier option. So (almost) forget about the above way.
If you are still writing your post / tripreport / whatever there is a new option now.
Copy the place you want to link to as above, so either by copying it from the addressbar, or a rightclick on a link and choosing "Copy Shortcut".
Now go to your post and hit the URL button located at the top right above the text area. A little scriptwindow will pop up. Paste the link, and hit enter. The window will refresh, asking you for a descriptive text. Enter the text you want, and Hey Presto!
There is only one little thing about this way, the code is always put at the bottom of your post, so if you are editing a post you will have to dive to the bottom of it, cut it, and paste it in the place you need. So it's more usefull if you are still writing your post.



How to jump to a specific post

Updated as well.
If you look at the lefthand topcorner of the post, just before it says Posted you'll see a little icon:
Rightclick that, choose Copy shortcut and proceed as above (the new way). Done!

Jumping to a specific post can be done in two ways, I call it the hard one and the lazy one. Lets do the hard one first:

All messages have a number, and you can jump to them if you know that number. Now how to aquire that number? Well, that is a hard one. If it is the last post in a topic the number will be in the adress bar, like this:

You can use that in the way described above. But if it is not the last post you will have to fiddle around. Copy the code from the last post into your post, and then move your mouse over the Quote button of the post you want to link to.
In the bottomleft corner of your browser you will see this code:

(If you click you will see it in the adressbar.) That is the number of the post you need. Now edit the code which you had pasted to read as follows:

(You have to edit the number twice!) and make a link of it. Done the hard way.


The lazy way

This is the one I use when I want to link to a specific post. If an adress like the one above is showing I simply scroll up the page and click on the title of the topic. (Above the newtopic and postreply buttons.) The adressbar gives an adress denoting topicnumber and startnumber:

Just ignore and delete the rest of the code (&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=), you don't need that.
The important bit is the start= code. Just enter the number of the post in there, and you will get the page starting with that numbers post as the first one. So if you are on page 2 of a topic, and the post you want to refer to is the fifth, your start= should read start=19. (There are 15 posts to a page, and numbering starts at 0.)
Your code should read like this then:

It is easily checked if it works by pasting it in the adressbar and hitting enter.
And now just make a link of it as described above...

Somehow I think I need to rewrite the above..... However in the update I wrote this:
That was the "old way", nowadays we have a much, much easier option. So (almost) forget about the above way.

That option went AWOL when we went to the new forum software.

But! Our intrepid Admin Themba has programmed a new version, and it's actually better than the old one!
What's described above is correct, just hit the URL button, paste address, click OK, add description, OK and done. But! This version inserts the link at the place where your cursor is, not at the bottom of your post anymore!

Works!

It adds an extra http// that you have to cut out...otherwise ..works great!!!

It copies the link to description, something to be polished, but otherwise...

I would not have made this one: Try this?

Neat site!!!