customizing links

can anyone tell me how to put your own text in the links you post, rather than it just appearing as the URL? For some reason, it seems a lot of people do this in color.

My apologies if this is a repeated request. I saw the answer somewhere a while back but I did not take heed.

Thanks.

Ah yes! It's using the URL button above the posting box.

Highlight the text you want to turn into a link. Then click it. It puts BBcode tags around your text.

To start, I wrote:Here's a music link in my sentence.

changes to-

Here's a [url]music link[/url] in my sentence.

Then add in an = and the link you want to use. INSIDE the first tag like this-

Here's a [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIEqdXpG5Pg]music link[/url] in my sentence.

Use the Preview button to make sure it looks right. And you're all set! Here's a music link in my sentence.

If you want to make it change colour, you can use the Font colour button. Once you have the URL tag in and working. Select JUST the text you want to be the link again. [Mine is just "music link" of course.] Pressing the font colour button pops up a colour picker. Please stick to colours that are easily readable! You'll end up with something like-

Here's a [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIEqdXpG5Pg][color=#4000FF]music link[/color][/url] in my sentence.

Here's a music link in my sentence.

Thanks Ada! Such detail! How did you know I'm OCD and have trouble with simple directions? Nice song, too.

I wrote the kind of directions I needed the first time I did it.

Terrible for people with concentration issues. But I'm glad it works for you! Looking forward to seeing your links around the place.


Edited to add- Congratulations on the post count and username match!

well it only took me a week but I finally got it! Thanks again!

One more question: I had thought the links appeared in color because the poster was changing the font color so people would know there was a link. Apparently this happens automatically, no?
Is there a way to have the link appear as regular black text without an underline? Probably not, but I figured I'd ask. I was thinking it would be cool to hide links in some posts.

Ada wrote: Congratulations on the post count and username match!

Thanks! Now I might want to add another five to my username and work toward a new goal.

Marcus555 wrote:
Thanks! Now I might want to add another five to my username and work toward a new goal.

A classic!

Hiding links would be against forum rules. Since it would be very close to what spammers try sometimes. We ask that all links are clearly visible. And, on a tangent, that people don't use URL shorteners. To disguise the end point.

I misunderstood the colour question, then. Yes, the system automatically handles URLs. It's only if you want to get decorative that the colour matters. You could change the colour to black. But if there happens to be a way of hiding the underline, that would be a no no as above.


[Let me or Otter know about the name change. Maybe in 4000 posts if you're comfortable named as you are. ]

I was kidding about the name change, I think.

Marcus555 wrote:can anyone tell me how to put your own text in the links you post, rather than it just appearing as the URL? For some reason, it seems a lot of people do this in color.

You can also quote any post just to see (in the editor) the "bbcode" which was used.