Linking external Web Links

Ok, let's add one more thing to this file before we build it. It'd be nice to have a topic that links directly to the Web Monitor Web site. Sure I've shown you already how to create a link inside of a page, but for a Web site link you really want to send people there directly. Typical things you might use this for is:

• Company Web Site
• Support Information
• License
• Terms of Service
• Your Web store

Fortunately it's really easy to create a new topic in this fashion.

Create an external Link Topic

Start by adding a new topic as usual. In the New Topic Wizard select the WEBLINK topic type. It really doesn't matter which type you use, but WEBLINK happens to display a different icon (a document over a globe) to differentiate it from an internal link.

To make the link go out and access a Web Site you need to do the following in the Topic Editor:

• Check the External Link checkbox
• Type the URL into the main editor

Here's what this should look like now:

Notice that the icon for the West Wind Web Monitor Web site looks different identifying it as a Web link.

Links to externally edited HTML files

Note that you can also use this feature to access HTML pages you store and edit on disk and still include into your help file. This is handy if you have a few pages that need heavy graphics design or special layout that doesn't fit your topic templates easily (although you can always create a custom topic type).

When you do, make sure the pages are self-contained HTML pages that contain everything they need to render.