Inserting Internet links

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Inserting Internet links

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This function inserts Internet URLs and email links in your help. Internet links are supported in all published help formats. The easiest way to create an Internet link is to type the URL in the editor – Help & Manual will automatically recognize the URL and turn it into an active hyperlink.

 

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When inserting web links always include the http:// protocol prefix. Web links without this prefix will almost always not work.
Click to expand/collapseCreating Internet links automatically

•Type a web URL or an email address in your text. Help & Manual will automatically recognize the URL and turn it into an active link. (This function can be deactivated. See Program Options - Editor for details.)

•Double-click on the link to edit it.

•If you edit the link caption you must replace the <%LINK_CAPTION%> variable with the URL that you want to link to, otherwise the link will point to the text you enter in the caption field, which will not work.

If you don't want the address to be a link just right-click on the link and select Convert to plain text in the context menu.

You can turn automatic URL recognition off in View > Program Options > Editor.
Click to expand/collapseHow to insert an Internet link manually

1.Select text in your document if you want to use it as the link. You can also skip this step and enter the caption in the hyperlink dialog.

2.Open the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. There are two ways to do this:

•Press Ctrl+L

•Select the Link tool in Write > Insert

3.Select the Internet Link tab:

DLG_Hyperlink_Internet

4.Select the Email or Internet address option and enter the web page URL or the email address. You must include the http:// prefix for URLs, otherwise they won't work.

See The Insert Hyperlink dialog for full details on the settings in the dialog.
Click to expand/collapseHTML links to specific pages and named destinations in a PDF

Support and restrictions of HTML links to PDF:

You can link to specific pages and named destinations in PDFs generated by Help & Manual from both H&M WebHelp help documents and other HTML pages. However, links to page numbers and named destinations in PDFs do not work in CHM (HTML Help) files. This appears to be a restriction of the Microsoft CHM viewer.

You can create Internet links to PDF files that target a specific page in the PDF. This will work with PDFs created with Help & Manual and with most other PDFs, although you should always test it first because it does not work universally.

1.If the PDF you are linking to is created with Help & Manual it must be generated using the "interactive PDF" option in your PDF settings.

2.Create an Internet link to the PDF file you want to open, using the normal URL syntax for Internet links.

3.Add #page=x directly after the PDF filename, where "x" is the page number you want to jump to.

Important note:
When referenced from HTML links, PDF files are numbered consecutively, starting with 1 on the first page, even if this is the cover page.

Examples:

http://www.ec-software.com/PDF/myfile.pdf#page=264 (absolute link to a PDF)

myfile.pdf#page=264 (relative link to a PDF in the current folder)

../myfile.pdf#page=264 (relative link to a PDF in the folder above the current folder)

Help & Manual automatically generates a number of named destinations in your PDF files,which can be used as link targets in the same way as anchors. You don't need to use named destinations for normal topic links topics inside a project, those work in PDFs without any action on your part. However, named destinations are useful if you want to link to a specific location in a PDF from a HTML page, another PDF file or an application.

See Named destinations in PDF for full details on the available named destinations you can use.

1.If the PDF you are linking to is created with Help & Manual it must be generated using the "interactive PDF" option in your PDF settings.

2.Create an Internet link to the PDF file you want to open, using the normal URL syntax for Internet links.

3.Add #nameddest=destination directly after the PDF filename, where "destination" is the the named destination you want to jump to. This is case-sensitive, upper and lower case must match the actual destination exactly.

Note:
You can also use the abbreviated syntax #destination, which is supported by all current versions of Adobe Reader.

Examples:

http://www.ec-software.com/PDF/myfile.pdf#nameddest=TOC (links to the TOC section in an H&M PDF)

myfile.pdf#nameddest=TOPICS (links to the beginning of the topics section)

../myfile.pdf#Intro_Topic (links to the topic with the ID Intro_Topic, short syntax version)
Click to expand/collapseInternet link compatibility in output formats

HTML Help:

Fully functional

Visual Studio Help:

Fully functional

WebHelp:

Fully functional

Adobe PDF:

Outgoing Internet links functional if activated in Configuration > Publishing Options > Adobe PDF > PDF Layout.

Windows Exe eBooks:

Fully functional

ePub eBooks:

Supported in the format but remember that hardware readers may not have Internet access

MS Word RTF:

Fully functional