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Create and manage links

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Последнее обновление 7 нояб. 2023 г.

Learn the basics of linking in a project and develop navigation in a Help system.

Links facilitate quick navigation from one content element to another with a simple click. While authoring in RoboHelp, you can add links to text or images and direct them to a project file, a file on your computer, webpage, or an email.

Types of links

The following types of links are available in RoboHelp to help build navigation in your output:

Hypertext link Highlights the link in your text and opens the destination when you click it.
Image map links A link on the section of an image that leads you to the destination or opens a pop-up when you click the image.
Bookmarks A link that takes you to a specific location in a topic. For more information, see Create and Edit Bookmarks.
Browse sequence The series of topics viewed in your output. For more information, see Create and manage browse sequences.
Searches The topics that contain search keywords appear as links in the search results.

Insert a link

To insert a link, follow these steps:

Place the cursor at the appropriate location or select the required text.
In the standard toolbar, click the Insert Link icon or alternatively, press CTRL+K. The Link To dialog box opens.
If you select text while inserting a link, the Display Text field displays the selected text.

When you insert a link on an image or an image map, the Link To dialog box displays the Alternate Text field instead of the Display Text field. Alternate Text provides alternative information for an image if the image cannot be displayed, or the user, for some reason, cannot view it (because of an error in the SRC attribute).

You can select the type of link that you want to insert from the following options:
- Project Files (default selection) Links to a topic in the project. Use the Search field or browse through the Contents or the Recently Used drop-down section to select the topic of your choice. You can verify the topic selection through the preview pane. You can also search for bookmarks and quickly navigate to them easily.
- Local Files Select this option to link to a file on your computer. Click to browse and select any file from the local file system, and that file will be copied to a specific folder inside the project.
- Webpage Select this option to link to a webpage. In the Enter or paste URL field, specify the URL of the webpage that you want to link to.
- Email Select this option to link to an email that the user can send. You can specify the email address in “To” and “Cc” Address fields, indicating the intended recipients of the message. Optionally, you can enter the subject and body of the mail in Subject and Body, respectively. In the output, when a user clicks this link, the draft email opens in the default mail client. The user can further edit the mail before sending it.
Select appropriate options to display the link in the Display In section. For more information, see Display settings for links.
Click Link.

You can preview the inserted link when you click Preview in the standard toolbar.

Create a hyperlink with drag and drop

You can drag and drop a topic on an image or text to automatically create a link to it. To do so:

Select the image or text in an open topic to which you want to insert the link.
From the Contents panel of the authoring window, drag-and-drop a topic of your choice on the selected text.
The destination topic is then inserted as a link. You may view the link in the Preview mode or output.

Add Screen Tips

To add a Screen Tip, select the relevant text, and press CTRL+K. Alternatively, click on the "Link to" icon on top of the editor. In the dialog box that opens, enter the text in the "Screen Tip" edit box. Click Link.

When you hover your mouse over the link, the Screen Tip appears in the browsers as a small rectangular box that contains the text, however also known as Tooltips.

Примечание.

You can create Screen Tips only in hyperlinks.

Display settings for links

While selecting a project or a local file, use the Display In section to customize the display of the linked topic in a frame or a pop-up window and its dimensions. The section has the following options:

Frame (default): Displays the linked topic in a frame. Select the type of frame from the drop-down list below the Frame field:
- Page Default (none) (default) Opens the topic in the same frame as the Help file window.
- New Window Opens the topic in a new browser window.
- Same Frame Opens the topic in the same frame as the current topic.
- Parent Frame Opens the topic in the link parent frame and hides the current topic.
- Whole Page Opens the topic in the Help file window, replacing the original topic or frameset.
Auto-sized popup: Select this option to display the linked topic in a pop-up window instead of a viewer or a browser. The window size adjusts to the content. If you have a long topic, use a custom-sized pop-up.
Custom-sized popup: Select this option to display the linked topic in a pop-up window and specify the width and height of the window. The default width is 400 pixels (px) and height is 300 px. If the text goes beyond the pop-up's height or width, the pop-up window includes scroll bars. This option is available only for linking to topics.

Open, Edit and Remove hyperlinks

Once you have inserted a hyperlink, you can right-click the hyperlink to open, edit or remove it. You can also open a hyperlink by pressing the CTRL key and clicking the hyperlink.

Fix broken links

To fix a broken link, you can replace it, that is, point it to another file in the project. If the broken link points to a topic file, you can replace it or create a new topic. If you create a new topic, RoboHelp automatically points the broken link to the new topic. You can fix a broken link in two ways–through the Fix Broken Links dialog box or the Broken Links report.

To fix a broken link:

Do one of the following to launch the Fix Broken Links dialog box:
- Choose Edit > Fix Broken Links.
- Generate the Broken Links report. In the Broken Links report, click from the standard toolbar at the top.
The Fix Broken Links dialog box opens.
In the Broken Links section, click the broken link that you want to fix.

The Used In section displays the corresponding topic in which the broken link exists.

You can now do one of the following:
- Point the broken link to an existing file in the project (refer Step 3).
- For a broken link pointing to a topic, you can create a new topic and point the link to the new topic (refer Step 4).
To point the link to another file in the project:
1. Click Replace.
  
  Примечание.
  
  In the Broken Links report, you can directly replace a specific broken link through the Replace Link dialog box. To launch the dialog box:
  
  In the Filters panel > Order By section, select Broken Link. RoboHelp orders information in the report by broken links.
  
  In the Broken Link column, right-click a link and click Replace Link.
  
  The Replace Link dialog box opens.
  
  In the Replace Link dialog box, RoboHelp automatically opens appropriate folders depending on the type of referenced item to which the broken link points. For example, if a broken link points to an image, RoboHelp automatically opens the assets/images folder.
2. Locate an alternate topic/image to which you want to point the link. To do so, use the Search field or browse through the Contents or the Recently Used drop-down section.
3. Select the topic/image and click Link. RoboHelp fixes the broken link and removes it from the Fix Broken Links dialog box and the Broken Links report.
To fix a broken link that points to a topic by creating a new topic:
1. Click Create New.
  
  Примечание.
  
  The Create New button is enabled only for broken links pointing to topics.
  
  The New Topic dialog box opens.
2. In the New Topic dialog box, specify the properties for the topic in different sections as required.
  
  The New Topic dialog box has the same sections as the Topic Properties dialog box, except for the File Info section, which is specific to topic properties. For more information, see Topic properties.
3. Click Create.
  
  The topic is created inside the selected folder or a subfolder in the Contents panel. RoboHelp automatically points the broken link to the new topic.
Click to save the changes.