How do I link to other contents or URLs?

You are here:

Home  Getting started  How do I link to other contents or URLs?

Diese Seite auf Deutsch

Internal Links

Internal links are links to other parts of this Wiki. These can be:

• Links to "normal" other articles and pages within the Wiki
• Links to sections/subsections in one's own article or own page
• Links to sections/subsections in other articles or pages
• Links to special pages and other pages from other namespaces
• Links to articles or pages not yet in existence

All internal links have one thing in common: they are always annotated in the form [[link content]]. In other words, two open square brackets, then the link content and finally two closing square brackets.

To generate such links, you can click the following symbol in the format bar above the edit field:

Simplest Scenario

The link content in its simplest form comprises the title of another page in the Wiki. For example you create the link Sandbox with [[Sandbox]]. Because there is a page with precisely this title within this Wiki, the link in the presentation view is colored blue and leads directly to the page with the corresponding title when clicked.

If such a linked page does not exist, the link will be colored red. For example, the link [[sandbox]] in the presentation view will therefore be displayed as sandbox (please do not create this page - thank you!). Because our Wiki is case sensitive, "Sandbox" is a different title to "sandbox".

Variant Link Text

It often happens that the title of a page that is being linked does not fit linguistically with the current running text. In such cases, you can specify a variant clickable link text. For example, you could create the link editing tests with [[Sandbox|editing tests]], which would lead however to the page with the title Sandbox.

To specify a variant link text, first add the complete title of the page being linked, followed by a vertical bar, followed by the desired link text.

To link an article whose title indicates it is German (see Notes on Article Titles), the 'de' identifier is not transferred to the visible link text if you insert [[SIP (de)|]] (title with vertical bar), example: SIP.

Links to Sections/Subsections

Each section introduced by a == heading such as == or a === heading such as === automatically becomes an anchor for links. This applies both for the current page and for all other pages in the Wiki. To create a link within a page (for example within one's own article) to another section or subsection, enter the notation [[#heading_of_section]]. Therefore, for example, a link on this page, which is entered in the form [[#External_links|external links]] will lead to the section external links further down the page. To create an appropriate link to a different page, first add the title of the page, then the hash sign and finally the anchor name. You could therefore, for example, create the following link with [[How do I format my contents?#Tables|How do I create tables?]]: How do I create tables?. This leads directly to the subsection on tables.

The problem with links to anchors is that they cannot annotate the normal heading of the section or subsection. While the anchor name is generated from the heading text, it may not for example contain any blanks. These are replaced by underscores (_). Special characters etc. are also replaced. If in doubt, open the HTML source text view in the presentation view of the page in your browser. Then search here for h2 and h3 headings. The respective anchors are defined before this.

The figure shows an excerpt from the HTML source text of this page here. The anchor names are those from the passages highlighted here in blue. Copy this content and paste it into your links to anchors.

Interwiki Links

Numerous Wikis use the same Wiki software as our Wiki: MediaWiki. First and foremost here of course is the famous example Wikipedia. Wikipedia is supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, which is also responsible for other Wikis, for example for Wiktionary (dictionary for vocabulary, word extractions, etc.), Wikinews (News) or Wikibooks (collection of specialized books and manuals in Wiki form). In addition, however, many independent providers also use the same software. An example is WikiIndex (a wiki about wikis).

In order not to have to annotate links to contents of other Wikis of this type in the form of long URL addresses, the MediaWiki software offers so-called Interwiki links. Such links are annotated like internal links but have a prefix. The prefix indicates which other Wiki project is to be addressed. Call up our Interwiki map to see which prefixes are currently recognized in this Wiki. If you would like to propose other Wiki projects that we can add to the list, then simply register the relevant projects on the Discussion page for the page "Interwiki map".

Assuming you would like to define an Interwiki link to the Wiki book XML: Managing Data Exchange (the link in question here is an external link, not an Interwiki link). You can enter the following notation in this case:

[[wikibooks:XML: Managing Data Exchange|XML: Managing Data Exchange]]. 

This produces the following link in the presentation view: XML: Managing Data Exchange. The link therefore appears without the typical symbol for external links. The wikibooks prefix used can be found in the Interwiki map. To suppress the prefix in the link text in the example above, we annotate the title of the Wiki book again without the prefix, separated by a vertical bar.

External Links

If you annotate a complete URL address in the text, which is recognized as such by the Wiki software, this will be converted automatically to an external link in the presentation view. For example, if you enter the notation:

 To find out what 'bibbern' means in English, refer to http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=de&query=bibbern&dlink=self

This looks as follows in the presentation view:

To find out what 'bibbern' means in English, refer to http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=de&query=bibbern&dlink=self

To suppress the automatic conversion, you have to place the relevant URL address in <nowiki>(URL address)</nowiki>. Example:

 The start page can be accessed under <nowiki>http://127.0.0.1:803/</nowiki>

This looks as follows in the presentation view:

The start page can be accessed under http://127.0.0.1:803/

You can of course also annotate your own link texts instead of the URL address for external links. To do this, place the URL in simple square brackets followed by the relevant link text, separated by blanks. Example:

 [http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=de&query=bibbern&dlink=self 'bibbern' in English]

This looks as follows in the presentation view: 'bibbern' in English

Additional Information

You will find further information in the official MediaWiki manual on the page Help:Link.