Links to previous posts

[Julie1]

Just a quick question...

How do you include a link to a previous post when you are posting about something that you (or someone else) has previously written on?

Thanks,
Julie

[Guest]

Including a link to a post

Hi Julie,

There's a few different ways to link to a previous post:
a) Show an entire thread
b) Show only an individual post
c) Show an entire thread, and jump to a particular post in that thread

You'd probably want to use b) if you really only wanted to show a single post, and you'd want to use c) if context was important.

To include any of these kinds of links, you first need to identify the proper address for that link. Here's how:

a) For the address of a thread, click on a thread in a forum, then look up in the address bar of your browser. You should see an address that ends with "showthread.php?t=158" (where t=thread number). Select that entire address, then Copy it (press Ctrl-C or select Copy from the Edit menu), and skip down to "Making a link" below.

b) For the address of an individual post, click on a thread in a forum, then scroll down to the post you want to link to. In the light-blue bar above that post, on the far right, you'll see a number, like "#5". If you click on that number, a new window will open, showing only that post. Now look up in the address bar of your browser. You should see an address that ends in something like "p=15011&postcount=5" (numbers vary, of course). Select that entire address, then Copy it (press Ctrl-C or select Copy from the Edit menu), and skip down to "Making a link" below.

c) For the address of an individual post shown in context, first you need to find the post number, by going through the steps in b) above. The post number will look something like "p=603". Once you have the post number, plug it into the following address, replacing XXX in both places:
http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?p=XXX#postXXX

So you'll end up with an address that looks something like this:
http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?p=15087#post15087

Once that address is all together, Copy it (press Ctrl-C or select Copy from the Edit menu).

Putting the link in your post:
Now that you've got an address to link to, here's how to make the link in your post:
1) While composing your post, click the little world-plus-chainlink icon that's just above the area you're typing in. You'll now see a little window that asks you to "Enter the text to be displayed for the link (optional)". If you want the link to read "Click here" or something like that, enter that text now and then click "Okay". Otherwise, click "Cancel".
2) Now you'll see a little window that asks you to "Please enter the URL of your link." Assuming you've already Copied the address in step A, B or C, Paste it now (Ctrl-V or select "Paste" from the Edit menu). Then click "Okay."

Not terribly easy, but that's how you do it.

[Julie1]

Thanks for your help!
I'll have to try it, but my thoughts right now are that it might be easier just to retype my original comments when responding to someone's post.

Thanks again!

Julie

[Rebecca Petris]

Here's a shorter version