# "Blue" links in posts...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [May 27, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327 "2004-05-27T13:21:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/1 "2004-05-27T13:21:49Z")
Could someone please explain to me how to post a link in a thread. (I usually just copy and paste an “http://” address from one window on my computer into my post in another window where I’m reading the SD. And the way I’m doing it is not the way everyone else does it - - and I don’t know how to do it the “blue link” way!!
When posting…I see the little “click on” options for “insert hyperlink”, “wrap code tags” and “wrap PHP tags” but I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THOSE THINGS ARE. 🙂 So please, if you could walk me through it slowly and explain how in the simplest terms, I’d really appreciate it.
I want to learn how to post a link to an existing thread and, if I want to, rename the “blue link” to whatever. For example, I’ve seen posts that say:
“You can see so-and-so’s discuss this in this threadorthis.”
(But those are not links, I just used the “color” option.) I want to know how they do that!!! 🙂
Thanks for your time and help!
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/2 "2004-05-27T13:51:01Z")
> [@OneYogini](#):
>
> When posting…I see the little “click on” options for “insert hyperlink”, “wrap code tags” and “wrap PHP tags” but I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THOSE THINGS ARE. 🙂 So please, if you could walk me through it slowly and explain how in the simplest terms, I’d really appreciate it.
Click on the first one, “Insert Hyperlink.” You’re then prompted to enter the text you want to appear as the link. Click OK, and you can enter the link itself.This… is CNN
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/3 "2004-05-27T13:56:54Z")
Here’s how you would do it “by hand” (remove spaces around brackets):
[url=“[http://www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com)” ] The Straight Dope [/url]
becomes
[The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com)
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### Author:  [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/4 "2004-05-27T14:00:29Z")
Personally, I dislike it when people just post, “go here for so-and-so,” with absolutely no explanation of what the link is. There was a Pit thread about it somewhere. Remember that when choosing text for the link.
Also,
```auto
This is an example of the "code" tags.
```
```php
This is an example of the "PHP" tags.
```
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### Author:  [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/5 "2004-05-27T16:44:22Z")
Okay so…I’ll give this a try…
[[http://www.cnn.com](http://www.cnn.com)](CNN site)
[[http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.1/ceiling/top.right.corner.gif](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.1/ceiling/top.right.corner.gif)](CNN site too)
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### Author:  [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/6 "2004-05-27T16:49:49Z")
Dammit. That didn’t work. Okay, here’s what I did…I opened up a window on my computer and went to the CNN site. Then I came back to my window with the “post” page open…and copied what was in the window at the top of the CNN site ([http://www.cnn.com](http://www.cnn.com)) and then clicked the first button…hit okay and then typed “CNN site” and okay again. And got the post above.
???
So, first try, I’m not getting it. Please try again!!
I’m not sure I get the “codes” info, but I’m going to try and do the by hand thing now in this post for CNN again…okay…
[CNN site again](http://www.cnn.com)
…fingers are crossed…hitting submit reply…
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/7 "2004-05-27T16:52:07Z")
You’ve got it now. You had it backwards the first time. When you click the button, the first thing you input is the text you want displayed (e.g., CNN); the second thing is the URL itself (e.g., [www.cnn.com](http://www.cnn.com)).
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### Author:  [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/8 "2004-05-27T16:52:44Z")
Okay, so I see I got the “naming” of the link (your choice) right the second time (did it backward the first time) but now the second time it’s not blue? I “did it by hand” though - - and didn’t “click the first button”.
I’m not hopeless - trust me - if you were here in person I’d get it a lot quicker!!! I’ll get it…I just need a little more help!
THANK YOU ALL (3!)!!
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/9 "2004-05-27T16:56:22Z")
Once you’ve visited a link, it’s no longer blue. So when you put in [www.cnn.com](http://www.cnn.com) (cutting and pasting from that page), it shows up as gray because you already visited it.
Incidentally, you can change the color of unvisited and visited links. In Internet Explorer, click Tools, then Internet Options. At the bottom is a Colors button; click it.
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### Author:  [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/10 "2004-05-27T17:04:09Z")
Wow **dan** , it would seem you really ARE **the man**!! 😃 Thanks!!
Okay - - one last thing…how about putting a link to different thread in a post? How do you do THAT?
😃 Yogini
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/11 "2004-05-27T17:09:46Z")
The same way you do any link, really. Open the thread. Copy the url from the address bar. Go to the thread to which you want to post the link, click reply to topic, and either just paste the url or click the link button to hyperlink your text.
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### Author:  [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/12 "2004-05-27T17:24:17Z")
Ahhh… :smack: …makes sense! You’ve been a BIG help!!
Thanks again!!! 😃
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/13 "2004-05-27T17:30:01Z")
My pleasure. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/14 "2004-05-27T17:32:54Z")
> [@OneYogini](#):
>
> how about putting a link to different thread in a post? How do you do THAT?
In addition to what **dantheman** has said (Thanks too!) you might want to place a link in a post to bring up a thread at a particular post in that thread (e.g. place a link to bring up post #123). This helps posters by pointing them _directly_ to the post to which you are referring.
[ol][li]Bring up the SDMB thread and navigate to a particular post.[_]Right click on the number in the upper right corner of the post and choose “Copy shortcut”.[_]Then…[/ol][list=A][_]To bring up a window with only that one post, place that URL in your post as **dantheman** indicated.[_]To bring up a window with the new thread and _start_ at the indicated post, place the URL in your post but edit the word “showpost” to say “showthread”.[/list][/li]
NB: The OP {“Blue” links in posts…} sounded like you wanted to know how to put links to pornography into your posts (You know, “blue movies”, “blue links”) 😃
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### Author:  [@violacrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violacrane)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/15 "2004-05-27T17:39:05Z")
[Driver fined for eating ice cream](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/3753401.stm)
Hi, I saw this thread and thought I should take the opportunity to learn how to do links too.
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### Author:  [@violacrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violacrane)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/16 "2004-05-27T17:41:41Z")
Yay me 🙂 Thanks OneYogini for the inspiration and to dantheman for the instruction 🙂
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### Author:  [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/17 "2004-05-27T17:52:21Z")
[Viola’s BBC link again](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/3753401.stm)
Heh. It worked. (Even though it’s not “blue” - - in color - - I now at least understand why!) I previewed.
Yay Viola!
And thanks CornerCase for that info…though just learning to post a thread link in another thread is a big step for today! lol! I appreciate your input…maybe I’ll need to use that “specific post” sometime too!
((((((((ALL))))))))))
😃
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### Author:  [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-links-in-posts/247327/18 "2004-05-27T17:54:27Z")
But on preview, I apparently forgot that I wanted to LOL @ CornerCase for mentioning the “blue” connotation. Heh. :o 😃