Technical Forum

It pains me to show my ignorance so publicly, but I can't figure out how to use the VTML to put links in the column I have written for VT. Anyone willing to teach an old dog a new trick?

The VTML system consists of symbols you have to type at the beginning and at the end of the text you want to 'transform'.
To create a hyperlink you need first of all to know the address of the web-page you want to link, then you type %L[ next to it the webpage address, then the symbol ] the word you want to use as a link and finally %L*

For example, if you want to put in your homepage a link to your Decatur page you must type the following:

%L[http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/71b86/bb4bb/]Decatur%L*

I hope it is clear.

I wish I could use color, so for this particular exercise I'll use caps.

To put a link on your page, you must type this:

%L[http://YOURURL]TEXT%L*

Where

YOURURL = represents the link you want people to visit, for ex. www.virtualtourist.com
TEXT = the text people will read.

So if I put this on a page:

%L[http://www.yahoo.com]Click here to go to Yahoo!%L*

They'll have a "Click here to go to Yahoo!" that's gonna be clickable.

Hope it helps.

Pitfalls (for I had to learn this too..we all did!):

1. Make sure you use capital L at both ends.

2. Make sure you use [ and not ( brackets.

3. Make sure you put the whole page link inside the brackets (copy & paste is better than trying to type it in).

4. Don't forget to put what the link is actually for between the final bracket and the second %

5. Don't forget the * at the very end!

%L[http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/73696/]my home page%L*

:-))

Thanks a lot. I may have it but will ask you to check if this is right: I want to link to http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/33723f/ so I would type in %L[http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/33723f/]Carol's silly granparent friends%L*

Does this look right?

Yes...just make sure that there are no spaces at all in %L[.......] You can put a space between ] and the text if you like, and between the text and %L*

Thanks again to all of you for your help. I knew I would find great assistance here and no one even laughed at my ignorance (at least not audibly). I have finished the column and e-mailed it to Stephanie and I am sure she will let me know if I didn't follow your advice correctly.

It must be the time of year.

If you go down a couple of entries, you'll find ranger49 with the same "Hyperlinks" trouble.

See:

http://forum.virtualtourist.com/discussion-479050-1-1-Technical-0-0-World-discussion.html




PJ

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