A “named link” is a word, string of words, personal or other name, or anything else within text that can be clicked on to open a parallel tab showing the webpage, pdf, or etc that that portion of text represents. For example, these words link to a 2016 tutorial diary explaining how to format drafts with various features in them such as links, blockquotes, etc.
Review several DK diaries by well-known writers who put links in their text, to familiarize yourself with how they do it. Click on their links —they’ll be orange-ish if you haven’t clicked them before, or purplish-brownish if you did— to see what their sources are and how they used them as links. You’ll find, for example, that linking verifies that those authors know what they’re talking/writing about — that they’re referencing facts, not their own opinions or personal perceptions alone.
There are two methods to build links like those in your own draft (and correcting links requires those skills as well).
One way is to construct the link in the process of typing the diary’s text. The other way is to finish typing all the text and then go back to make a link out of a name, word or string or words, or other piece of text. For both methods, you need your source articles/webpages handy (usually in parallel browser tabs) from which you got information for your draft, or else you’ll need to be able to promptly find those sources again.
A: FIRST METHOD: Making links as you go along.
[A1.] Your cursor is positioned where you stopped typing in order to make the next several characters (i.e., a name, word, etc) be a link that will display as orange-colored characters within the text, clickable to open a fresh browser tab of the webpage or pdf or etc represented by those characters, that name, whatever.
[A2.] Move your cursor to the link button, fifth from left in the top row of diary formatting buttons (circled in red in the illustration at the top of this diary) and click on it. The below fill-in box will then appear, superimposed upon your already-typed text:
[A3.] Go to a separate browser tab, call up the webpage, pdf or etc that you want to link to, and copy its URL.
[A4.] Return to the browser tab your diary is in.
[A5.] Position your cursor in the fill-in form’s bar for the URL of the link you want to construct (that bar shows “https://” as a hint what kind of data goes there),
[A6.] Paste into that bar the URL you just copied,
[A7.] Position your cursor in the bar for DISPLAY TEXT where my illustration sez “Your text here” (The real thing doesn’t say that) and type the words you want being clickable as the link.
Common examples: “According to the New York Times” when you’re linking to a source article from there, makes for a good link as the opening phrase of a sentence reporting on what that article says.
The actual phrase that’s the title of that article, or a condensation of the title, might be equally good.
If the sentence you’re typing is talking about a person or situation that article reports on, that person’s name, or the usual phrase for the situation, could be a good “name” for that link.
[A8.] Click the red-orange bar that says “INSERT LINK”.
And there it’ll be in your text! Click SAVE DRAFT —in the big honking black&orange toolbox in the right side of your draft— every time you construct a link, just to be on the safe side about not losing your work.
When you’re writing about something for which you’ve read a number of source articles, it’s a good idea to link them all, using whatever words in your text best signal the specific fact[s] and concept[s] you got from each given article.
B: SECOND METHOD: Going back thru’ existing text to construct links using phrasing already there.
This is a method many diarists use when they’re editing a published diary, in order to add links they hadn’t put in originally. So, of course, you’ll need all your source materials handy in other tabs to do it this way:
[B1.] Highlight the words in your existing text that are to be the “name” for your first source. (Example: you might use a wikipedia biography page of a given individual who figures significantly in your diary but who is not a well-known figure everyone already knows about.)
[B2.] Once you’re highlight that word, phrase or person, move your cursor up to the format-buttons and click on the link button. The INSERT LINK fill-in box will appear, displaying those words in its lower bar.
[B3.] Go the tab holding your first source article, highlight and copy the URL there.
[B4.] Return to the tab with your draft in it, and paste the URL into the upper bar of the fill-in box.
[B5.] Click INSERT LINK.
There y’go! Click SAVE DRAFT.
C: How to correct links
Sometimes it turns out you mixed up your URLs for what source material supplied which information. Other times you’ve thought of a better phrase for the link that you first used.
Either way, you need to have the diary in draft mode, so if it’s been published, click on the Edit button, up in the top left margin of your published diary, to get back into draft mode.
[C1.] To change a URL:
[C1.a.] Highlight the entire link. Don’t include any spaces before the first character of the link or after the last one.
[C1.b.] Move your cursor up to the link button and click it, so the fill-in box appears.
[C1.c.] The existing URL will show highlighted in that bar of the box: hit backspace to remove it.
[C1.d.] Go highlight and copy the correct URL, and return to your draft to paste it in, and click INSERT LINK, then Click SAVE DRAFT
[C2.] To change the word[s] of the link:
[C2.a.] Position your cursor anywhere within the existing word[s] of the link.
[C2.b,] Type the word[s] you now prefer.
[C2.c.] Use delete or backspace to remove any extraneous characters left over from the original wording, so only the new preferred wording remains. Click SAVE DRAFT.
If you’ve just been correcting a diary that was published: ■ Click the orange-on-white PUBLISH CHANGES bar/button in the black&orange toolbox. ■ It will then “ask” you ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO PUBLISH THIS STORY NOW? ■ If you’re not sure, click CANCEL. But if your corrections are finished for now ——you can re-edit an infinite number of times—— click the white-on-orange PUBLISH CHANGES button, and it will!
If how-to confusion remains, kosmail to let me know, and I’ll see if I can help.
Note: this tutorial diary was written March 2023 inside the hollowed-out shell of a pre-existing one. The comments that may be attached refer to the original text, not to these instructions. And whatever date you’re reading it, I may or may not be onsite as often as I was back then. Real life determines that. For anyone needing more help, try the tutorial diary linked in the top paragraph, the instructional articles at the HelpDesk, and/or comment a respectful, appreciative request for information at diaries tagged OpenThread.