Help:Tutorial/Wiki links
| Introduction | Registration | Editing | Formatting | Wiki links | Media | Citing sources | Keep in mind | Wrap-up |
Linking TMS Wiki articles together is very important. These easily created links allow users to jump to information related to the article they are reading, greatly adding to TMS Wiki's usefulness.
How to link
To make a link to another TMS Wiki page (called a wiki link), put it in double square brackets, like this:
- [[Sandbox]]
which the reader will see, after you save your edit, as this: Sandbox
If you want to link to an article, but display some other text for the link, you can do so by adding the pipe "|" divider (SHIFT + BACKSLASH on English-layout and other keyboards) followed by the alternative name. For example:
- [[Page name|display text]]
will display as this: display text
You can make a link to a specific section of a page like so:
- [[Page name#Section name|display text]]
which will display as this: display text
If you want the display text of the link to appear in italics or bold, nest the double square brackets for the link within the multiple apostrophes that delimit the italicized or bold text, like this:
- ''[[Healing Back Pain]]''
which will display as this: Healing Back Pain
Broken links
When you type a page name incorrectly, or link to a page that no longer exists, the text will be red, like so:
- Healing Back Painn (typed as [[Healing Back Painn]])
Links that have been typed in correctly will appear as blue text (or, if you have clicked on the link recently, purple text):
- Healing Back Pain (typed as [[Healing Back Pain]])
Because wiki page titles are case-sensitive, it can be easy to type them in incorrectly. Make sure you utilize the Preview button to make sure the link will work on the live page.
When to link
Adding links to an article makes it more useful, but too many links can be distracting. (Lead sections often have more links than other sections of articles.) To avoid excessive links, you should normally create a link in an article only where the first occurrence of a word or phrase occurs. You can look at other TMS Wiki articles to learn when to add links.
External links
You may want to add a link to a wiki page that is outside the TMS Wiki, such as practitioner's website, or a thread on our forum. To link to an external website, just type the full URL in, like so:
- http://www.tmswiki.org/forum
The reader will see this after your edit as http://www.tmswiki.org/forum. Note the small image next to the URL; this indicates it is an external link.
If you want to link to an external webpage but use other text to display for the link, you can do so by adding a space after the URL, followed by the alternative name, and then adding single (not double) brackets around both the URL and your display text. For example:
- [http://www.tmswiki.org/forum TMS discussion forum]
will display as this: TMS discussion forum
Note that if external links are typed in incorrectly, or if the website you are linking to no longer exists, the link will still appear on the wiki page as if it works; that is, it will not change colors as a broken link to a wiki page would.
