Over the last few weeks I have been discussing many of the new features that will be available in Version 2. Probably one of the most useful will be the ability to manage links within a text Object. As most of you probably know, IMS Web Engine, Web Spinner and Web Dwarf allow you to assign a HTML link to any Object by using the Object Editor Link Dialog. This is simple and convenient. When you create a multi-page project the Editors ability to keep track of internal links even after you change a page name is especially useful.
Sometimes however, you will want to create a list of multiple links. Creating a separate Object for each links can be tedious to set up and maintain. The more convenient method is to enter a link inside a Text, HTML or Rich Text Object. Although this will be a lot easier to do in V2, we still receive a lot question asking how to do it in the current IMS software. With a little knowledge of HTML this can be easily accomplished.
A HTML link is created with the Anchor Tag. The tag itself specifies the URL to be linked to and surrounds a text or picture that the user can click on. The format is: click here. The Tag starts with (Greater Than) bracket and the anchor terminating tag .
To create a list of links within a Text or HTML Object, you would simply combine multiple anchors. I have posted an example at: is3fig2.htm. For your information, I used Special Characters as discussed in topic 1 to display the code needed to produce the link lists. When entering text into a HTML Object, you can use the tag to start a new line.
As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I do not normally recommend that you mix Rich Text and HTML tags. The reason is that IMS converts the Rich Text format to HTML when you Export or Publish your project. If you change a Rich Text format such as the Font Size or Color within a HTML tag, the conversion will mix the two tags producing incorrect code. If you are careful not to change any format within a HTML tag, it is possible however to mix the two formats successfully. If you do decide to add HTML code when editing Rich Text and end up with an error, you can often correct the problem by changing the Object to HTML format, exiting the editor, re-entering the Editor and then changing the format back to Rich Text again.
If you like the contents of this newsletter, please recommend it to a friend. Not only will you help us to continue to provide you with useful and informative articles, you could also win $10,000. Click here for details.