How to Create a Hyperlink Within Your Article

I know some of you may be saying, "come on Monica, who doesn't know how to do that?"  Well, as a manager of multiple groups who has been asked this A LOT, I can say there are A LOT of people that don't.  So, for you savy people that already know this, pat yourself on the back and move on, or leave a comment offering your assistance to the less savy bunch. 

Now, I am not saying I am in the savy bunch, just saying I have been here awhile, played around, and learned from the school of hard knocks what works and what does not work.  Often it is just by playing around and learning the hard way that I figure a lot of things out! 

I hope my lesson in this area will help you to create hyperlinks in your articles.  They really can add a lot to your posts here at Gather!  If you need help, just let me know.

How to Create a Hyperlink Within Your Article

To practice this, please go open another window and follow these steps as we go (in most browsers holding the control key and n will bring up a new window, but leave the old window open too).  Title your article Hyperlinking Practice. 

1.      First step is to get ready to publish an article – in the green bar on the top of all Gather pages, go to Publish, then Article.  A window will appear that has a place for your title and a separate box for the body of your article.  This is alternately called the Gather Editor or the Gather Publishing Tool – depending on whom you talk to. 

2.      For the purposes of this practice only, title the article Hyperlinking Practice, then move your cursor down to the body of the article.  Copy/paste* or type the text you would like to be hyper-linked into the body section of the Gather Editor.  I'm going to link to a picture of my husband, Jeff.  I want the words "Monica's Hubby" to be the hyper-link.  You can do the same, or create your own.  I will provide all the info needed to link to his picture.  You will need to look up info to link to other things – but that is good practice!  (hint – if hyperlinking to Monica's hubby – you can copy/paste from here and not have to type)

3.      On a separate window (in most browsers holding the control key and n will bring up a new window, but leave the old window open too), go to the page you want to be linked.  In the white URL line, highlight the complete address (including the http://), then right click and select copy.  (sample: /viewPhoto.jsp?memberId=15696&start=4)

4.      Now, come back to the window that has the Gather Editor.  Highlight the words you want to be hyperlinked (in my case – Monica's Hubby).  Now, above the article body, and below the title bar there is a selection of tool icons to use.  Click on the third icon from the right - the one that looks like a chain. 

5.      A pop-up window will appear.  If it does not, you probably have a pop-up blocker on.  If this happens, you have two options – you can either turn the blocker off temporarily, or tell it to allow Gather – which means any pop-ups from the Gather site will not be blocked.  Blockers vary so I cannot give details on how to do this, but these are standard features.

6.      Now that you have the pop up window, you will see a box that says Enter URL/E_Mail ID, paste the address there -/viewPhoto.jsp?memberId=15696&start=4 (control  and v at the same time or right click then paste).  Click in the box that says "Open in New Window."  Click okay.  There is your link!  Yay!  You did it!  WOO HOO!  Now – you can also enter an e-mail address there too – same concept.  You could have the words e-mail me be the hyper-link, then just follow the same steps, but put your e-mail address instead. 

You have now completed the link, so to show off your new abilities, go ahead and add hyperlink practice as your tag, then click on next, then publish!  Congratulations!  Let me know if anything is not clear or you need additional help.

Seriously, I hope this helps everyone!  Using links in your articles can be very beneficial. You can link to prior segments, other interesting articles, things that are amusing, or to a picture of your hubby.  That really is a link to mine!  Happy linking everyone!  If you need help, just let me know!

*Copy/paste can be done by first highlighting, then either right click and choosing copy, then right click where you want to paste and choosing paste, or holding the control key and c at the same time to copy, and then place the cursor where you want to paste and hold the control key and v at the same time.)