# making a link

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-link/149802>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 20, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-link/149802 "2003-01-20T14:49:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![regnad\_kcin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@regnad\_kcin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/regnad_kcin)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-link/149802/1 "2003-01-20T14:49:54Z")

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How do you make a link so that the whole URL isnt written out, but merely a highlighted word behind which, apparently, the URL is hidden?

And how do you do the same thing when writing an email? Is it different with most web-based email providers, or does it work the same way?

Thanks in advance!!

RK

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**Author:** ![Tom\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tom\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_P)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-link/149802/2 "2003-01-20T15:05:01Z")

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Not sure what you’re asking for, whether you mean this message board or in html (web-pages), so I’ll answer both:  
For this message board you want:  
[[URL=www.somesite.com](http://URL=www.somesite.com)]Link text (without the space in front of the first URL)  
In html you want this code  
\<a href=“[http://www.somesite.com/](http://www.somesite.com/)”\>Link text\</a\>

The only way to get this when writing an e-mail is to use html, and since you really shouldn’t use html in email (it’s a text-only format), I recommend that you don’t. 😉

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**Author:** ![regnad\_kcin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@regnad\_kcin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/regnad_kcin)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-link/149802/3 "2003-01-20T15:22:45Z")

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Thanks! But…

I tried the HTML code on both hotmail and angelfire mail and it worked on neither.

Why do you recommend I not use it in an email, by the way?

RK

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**Author:** ![Tom\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tom\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_P)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-link/149802/4 "2003-01-20T15:37:09Z")

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E-mail, as a standard, is a plain-text medium, which means that there shouldn’t be any formatting of the text, hyperlinks included.

If you use html in a mail, your recipients may not be able to read it properly, their client shows the source of the html in the e-mail instead. (In a web browser, use “View Source” somewhere in the menus to view what the source of a webpage looks like.)

Since I don’t use Hotmail or Angelfire mail, I’m afraid I can’t help you there.