Kenyon Home » CMS User Group Notes » Links in your Page's Navigation

Links in your Page's Navigation

(Bold links will take you to the glossary definition of a term.)

Note: This page is about links that live in your navigation areas. If you're looking for how to make a link in the Body Copy of your page, please visit Links in the Text of Your Page.

Hyperlinking Options for Navigation Columns in the in the CMS

There are multiple ways to create hyperlinks:

  1. External Links
  2. Internal Links
  3. Links in Link Set Entries

This page will help you decide which link is best for you and teach you how to create them.

External links

Use an external link if

  • The document or web site you wish to link to does NOT live in the CMS.

    This includes:

    • any site not containing "kenyon.edu" in the URL
    • any kenyon site URL that is not prefixed with "www."

    Examples:

    and

  • You want every word in the link name that you have chosen to be hyperlinked.

    Example:
    You want to link to the Kenyon Review using the link name "The Kenyon Review". Use an external link if you want the words "The", "Kenyon", and "Review" to all be links to http://www.kenyonreview.org/.

    and

  • You wisk for the link to show up either in a right-hand column (as a child of a LinkSetHeader) or as a link in your left-hand navigation.

Internal Links

Use an internal link if

  • The page you are linking to resides in the CMS

    Example:

    and

  • You want the header of the linked page to be the text of the link.

    The header of a site is the purple text displayed at the top of the content column, just below the breadcrumb navigation. This header is automatically displayed as the link text of an internal link. It is strongly recommended that you use Internal Links to link to pages in the CMS.

    and

  • You want the link to appear in the right hand column as the child of a LinkSetHeader or as a link in your left-hand navigation

Link Set Entries

Use a link set entry if you only want a few words from a longer message to be hyperlinked and for your link to apppear in the right-hand column as a child of a LinkSetHeader

Example: You only want the word "syllabus" hyperlinked in "Welcome back students Check out my syllabus"

LinksetEntries can also be used to put short text messages with no links in the right-hand column.

Links in the BodyCopy

All other links will be in the BodyCopy of your page.

Back to Top

What is a Link Set Header?

A Link Set Header is a "home" and a title for any link appearing in the right-hand column. You can't have links in the right-hand column of the page if you don't have a Link Set Header.

Creating a Link Set Header

  1. Click on the name of the file in which you wish to create a right-hand column.

  2. Click on New in the tool bar at the top of your screen.

  3. A dialog box will appear, containing three empty fields.

    • In the first field, name your new page. Do not use special characters in this box.

    • From Type, choose Link Set Header.

    • Make sure the Layout field shows global.xsl

  4. Click Create

  5. The new page will appear. It has only one text-box, labeled Enter link set header. Here you may type the header for the list of links in your right-hand column. It defaults to "Related Links", but can be changed.

  6. Save!

  7. Preview the parent page (Trying to preview the Link Set Header will result in an error!). The words you typed in the box should appear in black and underlined on the right-hand sidebar.

Back to Top

There are two steps that remain the same no matter if you are creating internal or external links or a link set entry that will appear in the right-hand column.

  1. Click on the name of the Link Set Header in which you wish to create a link.

  2. Click New in the toolbar.

Back to Top

  1. Do steps 1 and 2 under Steps Common to Creating All Link Types

    or

    If you want the ExternalLink to show up in your left-column navigation, click on your Content page in the tree, then click New in the toolbar.

  2. A dialog box will appear containing three empty fields.
    • In the first field, name your new page. Do not use special characters in this box.
    • Choose External Link from Type
    • Make sure that Layout is global.xsl

  3. Click Create.

  4. Your new page will appear. Under Header type the words you want to appear as the hyperlink.

  5. Under Enter Link type in the full URL (including the "http://") of the document you want to link to.

  6. DO NOT check the box to have the page open in a new window. This is impolite to your visitors, makes the browser's back-button stop working, and can result in a stack of new browser windows that the visitor did not want. This is true even if you are linking to a non-Kenyon page -- if they want to leave your site, let them; they will think better of you for it. Need more convicing? Read why opening links in a new window is unkind to visitors.

  7. Save your work and preview the parent page. The words you put in the header should appear in purple and the link should open the site you entered in the link field.

Back to Top

  1. Do steps 1 and 2 under Steps Common to Creating All Link Types (Internal Links may not be the child of a regular page--they can only appear under LinkSetHeaders)

  2. A dialog box will appear containing three empty fields.
    • In the first field, name your new page. Do not use special characters in this box.
    • Choose InternalLink from Type
    • Make sure that Layout is global.xsl

  3. Click Create.

  4. The resulting page has one field: Page.

  5. In the Site Tree, find the file you wish to link to and drag it into the field.

Internal Link Tricks

  1. When you preview the parent page it won't display the link! Because of this, always double-check to make sure that the x-number of the page you chose is the correct x-number.

  2. Note: Internal links now have a slightly unusual behavior. When you initially check out an Internal Link, it will show you the name of the page you drug into the box. To see the x-number, you must click the down-arrow to the right of the Page box. (See an example of it closed and expanded)

  3. DO NOT change the radio buttons that run just above the Page box. Your link WILL break.

Back to Top

Steps to creating a link set entry

  1. Do steps 1 and 2 under Steps Common to Creating All Link Types

  2. A dialog box will appear containing three empty fields.

    • In the first field, name your new page. Do not use special characters in this box.
    • Choose LinkSetEntry from Type
    • Make sure that Layout is global.xsl

  3. In the Link Set Entry box, type whatever text you want to appear.

  4. Follow the instuctions at Links in the text of your page to actually make your link.

  5. Preview the parent page. Your text should appear in the right-hand column with only the words you highlighted hyperlinked.

Back to Top

You may occasionally want to link to a non-HTML file, such as a PDF. Remember to use these files only when appropriate:

  • PDF:
    Good Use-- syllabi, forms, anything which is intended to be printed.
    Bad Use -- lists of professors names, policies, departmental introductions, etc.; these are all things that can exist in the CMS. Also, do not use the type of PDFs that are meant to be filled in and submitted on line -- most people cannot use these forms! Instead talk to mazurr@kenyon.edu about making a proper web form. PDFs are for printing only.
  • Word:
    There is really never a good time to link these files to a web page, but they can be used in place of PDFs -- and for the same reasons -- when you don't have the program necessary to create PDFs. If you would like to have a Word file converted to a PDF for placement on the web, please contact mazurr@kenyon.edu or burnsp@kenyon.edu.
  • WordPerfect
    DO NOT link to WordPerfect files on the web. Most people do not have the program needed to open these files.

Whether you link a PDF or Word file, remember to let visitors to your site know what they are getting! This can be done simply by placing (PDF) or (DOC) or by the link. People do like to be warned that they will be downloading a file rather than viewing a page.

Steps for Linking PDFs

Most of you have server space outside of the CMS for storing documents and faculty web pages, or have been set up with space on the documents server.

If you have a syllabus that is living outside the CMS, simply proceed with making a link in the body of your page.

PDFs and New Windows

Links to PDFs are one of the few special cases where you are allowed to check the box for "Open in a New Window". This is because visitors are actually more likely to click the "x" to close a PDF than they are to do the same with a regular webpage -- thus closing their browser altogether!

Back to Top