Links and How to Use Them

Making links and using effective link text is an essential part of editing web pages for your department.

The process is extremely similar to hyperlinking items, like we do every day in documents and in emails.

Using good link text not only makes your page more accessible to all users, but also tells a user exactly where they will land if they choose to click.

Which Link to Choose

Links can go to external pages (not augusta.edu), internal pages (augusta.edu), and documents (PDFs stored in the documents folder or in your area's designated Box folder for the website). They can also generate an email to a specific email address of your choice (mailto).

External

Choose an external link to any site other than the one you're currently editing in Modern Campus CMS. (e.g. Box links)External

Internal

Choose an internal link for linking to a page on the current site you're editing. (e.g. Admissions, Student Life, Human Resources)Internal

Mailto

Choose a Mailto link if you want a user to contact your department via emailMailto

Document

Save all website documents as an accessible PDF. If you are not using Box to store them, upload to your documents folder, then link to it from there. Storing them in your site's designated Box folder owned by Web Services is preferable; email webcontent@augusta.edu if you need help finding it.Document

Menu

Links on the navigation file (nav.inc) are easily moved around and updated. Add a # into the URL field to convert a primary menu link into a drop-down.Menu

Anchor Links

Anchors links take a user to a pre-designated spot (anchor) on a page.Anchor Links

Links: Step by Step

The majority of the time you can initiate the linking process by highlighting your text and clicking the chain icon link icon in the toolbar.

Note: When you navigate to a specific internal page or document and select it, instead of a URL you will see a unique identifier for the link in the URL field. This is known as a dependency tag. Dependency tags make it possible for pages, links, and/or directories maintained within Modern Campus CMS to be updated automatically when that page or directory is moved or renamed, thus preventing broken links.

External

  1. Highlight your link text.
  2. Click the chain icon.
  3. Ensure the external page is functioning by navigating to it.
  4. Copy the URL.
  5. Paste the URL into the URL field.
  6. Click Save.

Internal

 
  1. Highlight your link text.
  2. Click the chain icon.
  3. Click the button to the right of the URL field.
  4. Find and select the file to which you are linking.
  5. Click Insert.
  6. Click Save.

Mailto Links

 
  1. Highlight your link text.
  2. Click the envelope icon.
  3. Type in email address. (e.g. webcontent@augusta.edu)
  4. Fill out subject if desired. (e.g. Web Training Questions)
  5. Click OK.

 

Documents

 
  1. Highlight your link text.
  2. Click the chain icon.
  3. Click the button to the right of the URL field.
  4. Click the documents folder.
  5. Find and select the document file to which you are linking. If the file isn't there, upload it to the documents folder.
  6. Click Insert.
  7. Click Save.

A Note on Box Links

If you are linking to a document via your site's designated Box folder, follow the External link steps.

Using Box files makes updating document versions easy, conserves server space, and allows for various sharing settings.

Menu Links

 

Links that are in the navigation menu are edited using the _nav.inc file.

  1. Check out the _nav.inc file. Typically, this file controls the menu on every page in the current directory.
  2. Only add bullet points with linked text: Parent points are either linked with internal/external/PDF links or the # to create subpoints.
  3. Use enter and tab to create new bullet points. Highlight your link text and follow steps for linking text.
  4. Click Insert.
  5. Click Save.
  6. Publish the _nav.inc file to make the changes live.

Anchors

 

Anchor links allow you to control where a user lands on a page after they click. For example, we have used page anchors to allow you to jump from each snippet tile link to its tutorial.

Create an Anchor

  1. To create an anchor, put the cursor in front of the area you want to link to, and click the anchor shaped icon in the top toolbar.
  2. In the pop-up box, type a name for the anchor. This should ideally be one word, and follow standard naming conventions. Anchor names should not be duplicated - each anchor should have a different name.
  3. Once the anchor is named, click "OK". A small anchor symbol will appear in edit mode. This symbol will disappear once the page is saved and published.

Link to an Anchor

  1. To link to an anchor, highlight the text you want the user to click on to jump to your anchor point.
  2. Then, type a number sign (#) and the anchor name in the URL bar (if on the same page) or after the URL (if on a different page).
  3. Click Save. Then, Save and Publish the page.

Need to Upload a New Image or Document file?

 

How to Upload