Creating Links in GT Editor (Linkit)

Category
Editors
Drupal Version
Drupal 7
Tags
GT Editor

If your Georgia Tech Drupal website has the GT Editor feature package installed, then it also has the Linkit module, which gives you an enhanced interface for creating links to local content.

Accessibility and Usability of Links

To comply with accessibility law, and good sense usability guidelines, always make the visible text of your link something that clearly indicates what the website visitor is going to be taken to when following that link.  Some examples of improper link text include:

  • Click Here
  • Here
  • Read More
  • More
  • Follow This Link

Wording like these give the user no indication of what you are linking them to, and this is really bad for users with vision disabilities who utilize screen readers.  As a matter of speed and efficiency, these users often have the list of links on a page read aloud without their supporting context.  Hearing "Click Here" ten times makes it impossible for these users to know which link is which, and thus they will be unable to navigate through the links on your page.

While you can make an image into a link, it is best to only make text into links, or to link both an image and an equivalent piece of text together as a link so that you always have some plain text describing the destination of your link.  If you really only want to make an image into a link, then you must set the Alternative Text field of the image to a description of where the link is going to take the user.

Creating Links to Pages Within Your Site

  1. Highlight the text that you want to turn into a link.
  2. Select the Link control button on the toolbar: Image removed.
  3. If your site has Linkit installed, then the pop-up panel should have two fields: Search for content and Link URL along with a Insert Link button.  If your pop-up panel doesn't have these fields and button, then you'll need to follow the instructions for Creating Links in CKEditor.
  4. In the Search for content field, begin typing any word(s) from the title of the page you would like to link to.  As you type, a drop-down box should open up and show you any pages whose titles have the word(s) you have entered.  Simply select the page you want from the list.
  5. As a confirmation, you should see a URL path appear in the Link URL field after you have selected a page.
  6. Select the Insert Link button to create your link.

Creating Links to Pages on Other Sites

  1. Highlight the text that you want to turn into a link.
  2. Select the Link control button on the toolbar: Image removed.
  3. If your site has Linkit installed, then the pop-up panel should have two fields: Search for content and Link URL along with a Insert Link button.  If your pop-up panel doesn't have these fields and button, then you'll need to follow the instructions for Creating Links in CKEditor.
  4. In the Link URL field, type in the fully qualified (starts with "http://" or "https://") URL for the page to which you want to link.
  5. Select the Insert Link button to create your link.

Creating Links to Uploaded Files

Note: A "file" can be anything that can be reasonably opened in a web browser or which your site users would want to download to their own computer: a Word Document, a PDF file, an image file, etc.  For the greatest level of usability, consider turning any kind of office related document into a PDF, as PDFs can be opened on virtually any computer or mobile device without needing any additional software.

Note: These instructions require that your site be running the GT Editor feature package or otherwise have both the Linkit and IMCE modules installed.

  1. Highlight the text that you want to turn into a link.
  2. Select the Link control button on the toolbar: Image removed.
  3. If your site has Linkit installed, then the pop-up panel should have two fields: Search for content and Link URL along with a Insert Link button.  If your pop-up panel doesn't have these fields and button, then you'll need to follow the instructions for Creating Links in CKEditor.
  4. Select the Open file browser button below the Search for content field.
    • If you do not have an Open file browser button, then your Drupal site does not have the IMCE module installed.  Stop and contact your site administrator or developer for further assistance.
  5. In the next pop-up control panel that appears, navigate to the folder where you want to save your uploaded file, or a folder that already contains a file that you wish to use for your link.  To upload a new file to your chosen folder:
    1. select the Upload toolbar button, and then use the resulting controls to find and select the correct file on your local computer.
    2. Once you have selected a file, select the Upload button that appears below the Create thumbnails option (not the Upload button above in the toolbar). 
    3. Your newly uploaded file should now appear in the folder.
  6. Select your chosen or uploaded file to highlight it, then select the Insert File button from the toolbar.
  7. You will now be returned to the first pop-up control panel, and you should see a filesystem path in the Link URL field.
  8. Select the Insert Link button to create your link.