Help:VisualEditor/User guide/Links
Link is one of the most basic elements used on wikis. It links text to another page, website or resource.
How to create a link is detailed on the visual editor main documentation. The following documentation details how to create all types of links.
Link types[edit]
There are few types of link available to use on MediaWiki.
Internal link[edit]
This hyperlink is the most basic type of link. It links to another page on the same wiki.
You can insert this link by :
- pasting page's name inside double square brackets in the editor:
[[MediaWiki]]. - typing two opening square brackets
- press "Link" option in the menu
- hit ctrl + K
For the last 3 cases, a small window will pop up in which you can search for the page you want to create a link to.
For advanced usage, read Help:Links.
External link[edit]
External links link to the outside of the wiki. To create this type of link, you have few options:
- In the Link popup open External link tab, then type the URL for the link. You can add a label for this link by clicking on that link again, clicking Edit, and Add label.
- Specify URL just inside the content of the page:
https://wikipedia.org. - For more options, see Help:Links
Interwiki link[edit]
Sometimes also called interproject link, it is similar to an internal link, but leads to another wiki, for example from MediaWiki to Meta Wikimedia.
To create such a link, insert syntax of the internal link in the Link popup, but prefixed with the interwiki: wikinews:Soyuz rocket launches GIOVE-B satellite.
List of interwiki prefixes can be found here.
Interlanguage link[edit]
This is a link that leads to a page in the current wiki (or to another wiki), but in a different language.
To create an interlanguage link from any project in a certain language to the same project in another language, type language code, followed by colon, followed by the pagename in Link popup: pl:Saturn.
Interlanguage and interwiki link combined[edit]
If you want to link to any interwiki page to another project in other language, type at the beginning of the link:
- the interwiki prefix followed by a colon
- the language prefix followed by a colon
- the page title
Example: wikipedia:pl:Saturn.
Resource link types[edit]
There are few types of links that lead to specific resources, not pages nor external entities.
Category link[edit]
To create a link to certain category, type the category name prefixed by Category keyword and colon in the Link popup: Category:Manual.
Wikitext users may notice that the colon required by wikitext is not required on the visual editor. The visual editor automatically adds the colon to the wikitext.
File link[edit]
To create a link to a certain file, type the full file name (including the File: prefix and the extension) as follows: File:Wiki.png.
Wikitext users may notice that the colon required by wikitext is not required on the visual editor. The visual editor automatically adds the colon to the wikitext.