I appreciate your ongoing development efforts. I would like to suggest a feature improvement: currently, when editing a link within an annotation, the only editable aspect is the URL/address. It would be highly beneficial if users could also customize the display text of the link directly within the annotation, similar to how hyperlinks are handled in HTML or Markdown.
This would enhance the flexibility and clarity of annotations, especially when referencing multiple sources or creating more readable notes.
OK. I’ve attached a screenshot which shows my resource (a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada) and my Annotation of the item. I want to augment my annotation with links to particular pages or selections of text in the court’s decision. Since I cannot edit the default text of the item link, the same url/link appears identically in every instance. What would be more helpful is the ability to edit the text which constitutes the link - like I can do in other instances (like via insertion of an item link in an excel sheet … where I can edit both the link’s url reference and/or its text. As currently offered, the links all appear the same and I’d like to be able to edit their form into more relevant and helpful links via text revision.
Have i explained myself or simply confused you more?
Hi Jim - just a little more context. The small numbers in [square brackets] that you see are my attempt to try to differentiate each of the item links to parts of the court decision. But it would be much more convenient and useful to be able to differentiate the various links to the decision by providing a unique textual reference. An example might be my editing the links’ to show “Footnote 1”, “Footnote 2”, or “Reference to Housen”, or “Matters for Correctness Test”. You get the idea. If I can edit the text of a link in other settings, could DT allow for editing text of a link in this Annotation setting? It might not be possible because of tech issues I know nothing about - but I thought I would ask. Thanks.
Thank you. You have understood my question perfectly.
Yes, your suggestion works - albeit a bit clunky. DT’s steps to create links in other contexts is much more intuitive - where one is provided with a window allowing for the insertion of the link’s url (if that’s what it is called) AND the insertion of a textual placeholder for the link. If it’s possible to have a consistent approach to the naming of links in Annotations that would be a nice feature to see. If it’s not possible, then your suggestion does work and I will use it. Either way, Mkcmobile, I appreciate your help - thank you.
The easiest way to rename links in rich text (and Markdown WYSIWYG) documents is IMHO to place the text cursor inside the link (via the keyboard or by Command-Option-clicking) and then to insert, delete & replace characters as needed.
In other contexts, the “Edit Link” option shows two possible inputs - the "Link: " AND the link’s name. That is the distinction in link naming that I’m inquiring about - and asking that you consider making consistent. Thanks again for all your suggestions.
Good question. I’m thinking first of the “Hyperlink” option in Excel - which provides an opportunity to insert both the link’s address and the text a user would like to represent the link (see “Text to Display”):
But Christian you’re right to ask me about my reference to DT’s other contexts and I realize that I may have confused a Microsoft example with a DT example. I thought that there were other situations where DT provided this type of flexibility but your question has me thinking that I may have mis-stated my query. Sorry. That said, it’s something to think about for your DT interface - as it seems to me to be an elegant way to provide users with some additional convenient flexibility. As for now I’ll use the techniques discussed above and leave my suggestion with you guys to noodle. Best, Mark.
How about this:
Open the context menu via Control-click or two-finger click on the link, then click away from the menu once. This leaves the text selected. Now just start typing and edit the link text…
@cgrunenberg:
When editing the link text in this fashion:
It appears to only support ~10 characters in a word.
Backspacing and editing at the end of the link discontinues it. However, this is also the behavior in TextEdit.
Here’s another vote for the Edit Link dialog to show (and allow editing of) the text being displayed, as well as the URL.
I have another couple suggestion for the Edit Link Dialog:
it would be very handy if the URL field was taller to allow for more than one line to be visible (some of these links get long, especially when using suffixes like “?reveal=1”)
add options in the dialog to add common link parameters, like: reveal, search, line
