Help:External Linking

External links are when an article connects to a website which isn't part of the Lexicanum, such as Google or Myspace and Facebook.

Purpose

Sometimes there are internet resources which you feel would benefit the article. This is fine in itself and is encouraged, though the proliferation of false or misguided information is such that external linking can be damaging to the creditability of the article. It can also be dangerous if any form of data viruses or other malefic programming homes in on the link and finds it way back to the Lexicanum.

Method

In a similar way to Internal Linking, use square brackets, but just one pair this time, for example: [http://www.google.co.uk]. This will provide you with a link and a symbol to the right of the link which represents that it is an external link. The link will be shown as a number and the more external links you have in the article, the higher the number, for example: [1] [2].

Also, if you for some reason wish to show the website address, you can type it without the brackets and the software will automatically turn it into a weblink, for example: http://www.google.co.uk

Tips

You can give a link a name, and this will be displayed instead of the number. Write the link as usual but put a space and type the name you want after the web address but inside the closing square bracket, like this: [http://www.google.co.uk Google]. This will appear as Google.