Help:Create an Internal Link

Quick Reference:


 * The blue globe/earth icon [[Image:Globe (internal linking).jpg|28x23px]] with the two chain links looped together on the toolbar is used for internal linking.

What is an internal link?
There are two kinds of links that can be included on a page in the Wiki:

1. Internal links which link to another FamilySearch Wiki page.

2. External links which link to a site outside of the FamilySearch Wiki.

Does the text on the page have to match linked page's title?
It is not required, but the linking text should cleary convey the content of the linked page to the researcher and may 1) expand on the title of the linked page or 2) be more concise.

Example 1:

Page Title: Mennonties

Linking Text: Researching Mennonite Records

Example 2:

Page Title: German Mennonite Immigration Through Russia

Linking Text: Mennonites From Russia

How to create an internal link using the toolbar

 * 1) Log in to the FamilySearch Research Wiki.
 * 2) Navigate to the page where you want to add the internal link. Click the Edit link in the navigation bar page options. This will open the editing window.
 * 3) In the editing window, type the text you want to create the link with. Remember, this does not need to be the same as the title of the article to which you are linking.
 * 4) Using your mouse, position your cursor in front of the text you just typed. While holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor across the text until it is highlighted and then release the mouse button (the text should still be highlighted as shown in the image below).[[Image:HighlightTextEditor.png|border|center|350px]]
 * 5) On the editing toolbar, click the hyperlink icon. It looks like a tiny globe/earth with two chain links in front of it.[[Image:HighlightTextEditorhyperlink.png|border|center|350px]]
 * 6) After clicking the hyperlink icon, the "Link" window will open.[[Image:LinkLinkWindow.png|border|center|300px]]
 * 7) At the top of the "Link" window, locate the "Link" box. Here you will type the name of the article you want to link to. Notice that after typing the first three letters of the article title, possible matches will appear in the "Automatic Search Results" box. [[Image:LinkAutoSearchexample.png|border|center|300px]]
 * 8) If the title of the article you want to link to appears in the "Automatic Search Results" box, left-click on the title of the article and the name of the article will appear in the "Link" box above. Once the correct article title appears in the "Link" box, click OK to save the link in the editing window. [[Image:LinkLinkOK.png|border|center|300px]]
 * 9) The text that you highlighted in step 4 will now appear blue in the editing window.[[Image:HighlightTextEditorhyperlinkexample.png|border|center|350px]]
 * 10) Save your changes by scrolling down using the outside scroll-bar until you locate the Save page button located below the editing window.
 * 11) After clicking Save page, you will be able to click on the newly created link between two Wiki articles. NOTE: If the link appears red on the page, the title of the linked article was typed in incorrectly. Repeat the steps above, paying close attention to steps 6-7.

Other Helpful Hints:


 * To link to an article in this wiki, the link text must exactly match the article title (including spelling and punctuation). If there are any differences, the link will create a new blank article with the title you entered.
 * If the page exists, the link will be blue.
 * If the page has not yet been created, the link will be red.
 * Click on the red link to create the page and begin adding text.

To create an internal link using wikitext
(see Advanced Linking)

Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) Links

 * Instructions for using the FHL template for creating links to the Family History Library Catalog.

Record Search Links

 * Instructions for using the RecordSearch template for creating links to [ Record Search].

WorldCat/OCLC Links

 * Instructions for using the WorldCat template for creating links to the English-language WorldCat/OCLC catalog.

Wikipedia Links

 * Instructions for using the Wikipedia template for creating interwiki links to articles in the English-language Wikipedia.