Hyperlink With the Best of Them

So, if you blog, have your own web page, or even write e-mails then you're probably going to have to create a hyperlink at some point. You've probably noticed that if you paste a web address into an e-mail the link will turn blue and be underlined to indicate that it's a hyperlink. Since most people know how to create a hyperlink in this manner, I won't spent much time on it. However, one of my fellow bloggers asked me how you create a hyperlink without showing the actual web address.

Often times, a web page will have a link like this that doesn't say the url that it will take you to, but is still a hyperlink. This is kind of a neat trick, and it turns out that this is a fairly simple thing to accomplish once you've done it once or twice. Let's talk about how to do this in your blog.

1) Highlight the word(s) that you want to make into a hyperlink and click on the hyperlink button - in the shot below, I've outlined it in blue. It looks like a world with a chain link superimposed over it.


2) A box should pop up and ask you to enter the web address that you want to link to


Note: If you forgot to highlight the word that you want to be a hyperlink, in step 1, then you'll get this message instead.



3) Enter the web address (you can copy and paste) into the box and hit enter. The word(s) that you highlighted should now be blue (or purple if you've visited the site on the computer that you're currently using).


One more interesing point, you can make a picture the hyperlink. This way, I can click on the picture and it will take me to whatever site you want it to. To accomplish this, simply click on a picture in step 1 instead of highlighting a word or words. Just in case any of you are interested in html, I'll quickly outline how this can be changed on any web page that you may be authoring. I have underlined the html for a hyperlink like the one that we have just created in this screenshot:

"

Note: I had to remove all of the <> around the html tags so that they would show up on the page, so don't be confused by that.

a href="http://www.google.com/" this /a" is the html code that tells the web page that this is a link. The first part "a href="http://www.google.com/" tells the webpage that this is a hyperlink and specifies the web address that the browser should go to. The "/a" tells the web page that this is the end of the hyperlink, but the important part is what is between the opening and closing of the tag. ">this<" tells the web page what to show as the object of the hyperlink. So, if I changed the tag to "a href="http://www.google.com/" stupid link /a," then instead of showing "this" in blue on the web page, the words "stupid link" would show in blue as the hyperlink. This same trick can be used to make pictures into hyperlinks, if you know the tag to use to insert a picture, but that's beyond the scope of this post.

Open Source

Most people have heard of open source software, but I don't think that they really know what it means. Sometimes, I hear people associate open source with freeware or shareware. However, open source software is different from freeware. Freeware is a program that someone offers to others for free use. Open source software is usually free as well, but the source code that was used to create the program is made available to anyone who wants it. what this means is that people can take a program that is open source and modify or customize it to fit their needs.

Since most of us don't know how to program, this may not seem like a big deal, but there are some excellent advantages to open source programs. A program that I use all of the time is Mozilla Firefox, which is an open source web browser (i.e. you use it to view the internet - just like Internet Explorer). What makes Firefox great is that, because it's open source, many people have created additional functions that can be installed into the program. For instance, Laura has add-ons in Firefox that show the weather, make her tabs different colors, and one that rates the security of any site that you visit. There's a huge list of add-ons at:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Also, Firefox is generally considered more secure and faster than Internet Explorer. If you haven't figured it out by now, I recommend that you dump Internet Explorer and use Firefox for your web browsing.

There are some sites that won't work well with Firefox. Usually these are corporate or other work related site. For instance, the multiple listing service (for realtors) doesn't work well with Firefox. However, you will find that 99% of sites work just fine with Firefox.

There are a lot of add-ons to choose from, but you might give some of the ones on this list a try.

http://technotes.blogsailor.com/2007/10/25/16-must-have-firefox-add-ons/

Here's a screen shot of the add-ons that I have in Mozilla Thunderbird (an e-mail client - like Outlook).




Each add-on provides some new function that is not available in the program without the add-on. Anyhow, I'm sure that I have gone into more detail than I should have. I have spent a lot of time tinkering around with linux (an type of operating systems - like Windows) and have really come to appreciate the pros and cons of open source software. Give Firefox a try, and see if you like it.

Questions

I am excited that several people mentioned in their comments that they are looking forward to my posts. I was a bit nervous that everyone would find my fascination with tech a bit boring. Hopefully I don't disappoint.

Also, several individuals mentioned that they have a question or anticipate that they will have a question that they would like for me to address. I have added an e-mail link in the right hand column of my blog for people to e-mail me questions. If you use an e-mail client, such as Outlook, then clicking on the "Submit a question" button will open up a new e-mail with my address already entered in the "to" field. However, if you access your e-mail online (i.e. in internet explorer or firefox), then you will probably have to copy the e-mail address and insert it into a new e-mail in your web browser.

Screen Shots

Alright, this is a pretty simple one, but people often ask me how to take a picture of their computer screen. There are software packages that you can purchase that will give you all kinds of nifty functions and options to play with, but if you just want a picture of what's on your screen you don't have to spend any money. Just press print screen. Then all you have to do is go and hit paste (ctrl + v) in whatever document you want to insert it into



On my computer, print screen is located on the top right corner of the keyboard, and I have to push fn + prt. sc. It may be slightly different for your keyboard but it will probably be somewhere on the upper left. This little trick is useful in a lot of different ways. I use it sometimes when I'm e-mailing someone instructions about how to do something on the computer. It's probably one of those things that doesn't seem useful, but one of these days you're going to want a picture of something that's on your screen. You'll thank me. I know it.

Why Blog?

I have come to consider myself a bit of a unofficial technology buff. I like to play around with computers, and technology gadgets in general, and I've learned quite a bit just by getting my hands dirty. Pretty much everyday, I visit various tech websites and read the latest news about things that are going on in the tech world. I'm often amazed by how little people know about what their technology can do. I don't mean to give the impression that I think I know everything, far from it. However, I am constantly learning interesting little things that I think are useful.

Consequently, I've become the family computer guy. This is due mainly to the fact that my wife and my mother seem to think that I know much more than I really do. I do enjoy sharing the things that I have learned, as well as being the go to guy.

I've often toyed with the idea of starting a blog, but I've always thought that I wouldn't have anything to say. A lot of people write about their kids, and I don't have any of those...yet. Today, the idea came to me that I ought to write a blog about all of the computer stuff that I learn. Whenever I learn something new, I'm always so excited to share it with everybody. Anyhow, I thought that this might be a cool way to share what I learn with family and friends, kind of like a tip of the day. Some of the things that I'm going to write about may seem pretty everyday or obvious to some, but hopefully we will all learn something new.