How to add hyperlinks to email and blog comments

Posted on January 28, 2008
Filed Under Internet |

I am sorry for not posting any nerdjack tips last Thursday or Friday. Work has picked up a lot and time I would normally use for posting is no longer available. Today I am going to be talking about something that I know some people have had questions about and it really is very simple. How to add a link in your email or on a blog comment.

Email is pretty easy to add a link to. Most internet email providers offer plain text email and most email providers and most email software will turn a url in a plain text email into a link for you (mail providers such as Google’s gmail and Apple’s Mail - two of my favorites). So if you wanted to send one of your friends to this blog you would just copy the url from the address bar (http://www.nerdjack.com) or just type in the address, the http is not usually needed (www.nerdjack.com). With very long web addresses this doesn’t always work. Some mail programs will break the address in two so it will fit to the screen. When this happens the link doesn’t always work. I might in the future write an article on how to use a service like tinyurl.com to turn a long web address into a short one.

Some email gives you the option of sending your email in html form instead of plain text. If that is the case or you wish to post links into web log comments then you need a little html. The html is based around tags that tell the program how to format the information for a web page or an html email. There are two types of tags, the first are self contained tags that give the program instructions to add something to a webpage. The second type of tag, the one we will be using for adding link, has two parts. There is the open tag that tells the program where to begin adding the formating and the end tag that tells it where to stop the formating.

The open tag for a web link looks like this:

<a href=”www.webaddresshere.com”>.

This tag is telling the browser a several things. First these symbols < and > tell the browser that this is a formating tag and not text to display on the webpage. The a in <a href=… tells the program that this is an anchor tag. The href tells the program that it is an anchor tag that is going to be pointing at a webpage. In between the quotation marks is the address of the webpage that you wish your link to point to. The next part of the link will follow the tag listed above and this is the text that you wish your hyperlink to display. So if you wanted to leave a link to this blog it might look like this:

<a href=”www.nerdjack.com”>You need to read this blog</a>.

That code will display a link that looks like this: You need to read this blog. The last tag above </a> tells it to stop the link. The slash says stop and the “a” tells the program what it is stopping.

So to add a link to a blog comment or a webpage copy this code

<a href=”webaddresshere”>link text here</a>

and you can fill in the missing bits.


Comments

2 Responses to “How to add hyperlinks to email and blog comments”

  1. Strumpet on January 28th, 2008 8:32 pm

    Aren’t you just the sweetest thang?

    You know how much you rock, Sir It.

    I know you know.

    Between you and Tree on my blog, I am sure that I have this down.

    Well, actually, I’m not really sure.

    I’m kind of scared to try it.

    It seems so complicated.

    I use hotmail.

    Well, you know that.

    It seems to me that this is sort of like when you put a link into your template on your blog.

    It seems like the same sort of thing.

    But, I only know how to do that, because, of course-someone TOLD me-, and since then I just go there and follow along with the line above it only changing the web address and what I want it to say.

    So, until my gayass remembers what I’m supposed to type each time, I will probably use my blog template as a reference for how to do this.

    But, how do you change the html into the link that you want?

    How do you see it in the form you want it?

    Do you have to save it as a draft and then open it back up before you send it?

    I am kind of confused.

    I am always confused.

    Oh, woe is me and my computer troubles.

    Why can’t I just hit a button?

    It seems as though there is a button on my e-mail to do this, but I can never get it to work.

    It’s all crap, I tell you.

    I envy your mind.

    Really, I’m not stupid.

    I just….ugh…I dunno…It.

    This stuff eludes me.

    And you have the biggest heart ever for trying to help me.

    You are too awesome to me.

    And you rock and I luv you.

    xoxo

  2. jaredrbyer on January 28th, 2008 9:41 pm

    Yes, the links in comments are exactly like the links in your template. If you can do that you can do blog comment links.

    As for the email, just type the address into the email and the person receiving it will probably see it as a link. Your last email to me, when I opened it in gmail I saw them as links.

    I think you almost have it. Just try it and you will get it.

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