Managing hyperlinks

In this article we will explain how to manage hyperlinks within Citizen Space, Dialogue and Simulator. Using hyperlinks is a good way to direct the respondent to relevant information and can help to keep your content concise and easy to digest. Hyperlinks are managed within text fields with the text editor bar and this is consistent through all Delib products.

Adding hyperlinks

To add a link, highlight the text you'd like to use and select the chain link icon.

This will open the Link window to the link info tab, where you can change a number of settings.

Link info tab

From this tab, you set or edit the display text, which are the words people are able to select to activate the link. If you edit the words, this will change the words you highlighted in your text field.

Next setting option is the link type, which has options for:

• URL, which is to link to a web page
• Link to anchor in the text, which we have a guide to on the knowledge base
• E-mail, which is useful for adding a contact link

If you choose URL as the link type you will then need to set the address for the web page you're linking. You can also change protocol but if in doubt leave this, as the default is usually correct (either http:// or https://).

Target

The second tab in the hyperlinking window allows you to control how you'd like the link to open.

This will give you several options but the basic choice is whether you'd like it to open in the same window or a new window. The default setting is <not set>, which will open the link in the same window.

Additional target options are:

• frame
• pop-up window
• new window
• topmost window
• same window
• parent window

Setting the link to open in a new window can be helpful as it will leave the current page open in the original window, lowering the chances of the respondent accidentally losing their progress. If you do set the link to open in a new window, make sure you include text to indicate this for accessibility reasons (something simple like 'this link opens in a new window').

Upload

The last tab allows you to upload a file which you can direct respondents to. This feature is only available within Citizen Space and can help you avoid embedding large files.

First, choose the file you'd like to upload, then hit the 'Send it to the Server' button to make it available for linking.

Once you've sent it to the server, return to the Link Info tab and hit the browse server button to review the files you've uploaded. Once you select the file you'd like, the link will then take respondents directly to it.

Removing hyperlinks

To remove a link, highlight the text for an active link and use the 'unlink' button (a chain link icon with an x on it). When you are highlighting text with an active link, this button will go from being greyed out to active, which allows you to remove the link.