# How do I change the name of an Internet Link?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [March 13, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090 "2004-03-13T17:23:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lennon\_Lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Lennon\_Lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lennon_Lives)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/1 "2004-03-13T17:23:04Z")

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I have always wondered how people on the SDMB change the name of an Internet link from the full address to a short descriptive word. For example, if I to link the reader to an Internet site, I would copy and paste the link in my message and it would look something like this: [http://www.nolinkplace.com](http://www.nolinkplace.com). But experienced Dopes change the name to CITE. This also applies to email links I received from time to time.

How do I go about changing the name of a link?

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**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/2 "2004-03-13T17:31:40Z")

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Like this:

[url=http://www.straightdope.com] The Straight Dope [/url]

(Close up spaces around the brackets when doing it for real)

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**Author:** ![Lennon\_Lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Lennon\_Lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lennon_Lives)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/3 "2004-03-13T18:10:06Z")

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> [@Scarlett67](#):
>
> Like this:
> 
> [url=http://www.straightdope.com] The Straight Dope [/url]
> 
> (Close up spaces around the brackets when doing it for real)

Scarlett, thanks. Will this work if I want to do the same thing in an email?

LL

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**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/4 "2004-03-13T19:12:59Z")

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I don’t know – I only use plaintext for e-mail. I do know that in HTML you would use \< and \> in place of [and]. The square brackets are for vBulletin code, such as here at the SDMB.

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**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/5 "2004-03-13T20:01:13Z")

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Moved to ATMB.

- **xash**  
General Questions Moderator

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/6 "2004-03-13T20:03:06Z")

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If you are writing an HTML email, you’d write something like:

Go and visit \<a href="[http://www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com)\>The Straight Dope\</a\>, and get yourself educated.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/7 "2004-03-13T20:56:09Z")

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R\_K’s absolutely right about the HTML yuo need to make happen. But depending on which email program you’re using, you may not be able to directly produce HTML code even though the mail is getting coded that way internally.

For example, under MS outlook / outlook express, if you typed \<a href="… as suggested above, the recipient would see just what you typed: “\<a href=”…", rather than a link.

In those MS products, after you type a URL it’ll automatically turn into a link. To change the displayed name to something other than the URL, right-click the link and choose Hyperlink \> Edit Hyperlink …

You’ll see a a dialog box with text entries for the text to display and for the URL, or “web page name” as they call it. Change as required and click OK.

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**Author:** ![leafrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@leafrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leafrog)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/8 "2004-03-14T03:08:57Z")

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Just testing it out.

[What would we do without it?](http://www.straightdope.com)

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**Author:** ![leafrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@leafrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leafrog)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/9 "2004-03-14T03:10:50Z")

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damn html vs. vB messups.

[One more time](http://www.straightdope.com)

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-name-of-an-internet-link/234090/10 "2004-03-14T03:11:45Z")

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> [@r\_k](#):
>
> \<a href="[http://www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com)\>The Straight Dope\</a\>, and get yourself educated.

SYNTAX ERROR: Expected closing " missing. 😉