How to Direct Links Straight to a Particular POST.

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Niloc
Niloc Member Posts: 30
edited June 2014 in Comments, Suggestions, Feature Requests

It is great to find a Post that is so relevant to another friend or acquaintance but how to link direct to that post in another post or email is a problem.  There are no post sequential numbers to reference but there is a way. In order to assist my wife with links, I investigated options and found the following.

BACKGROUND When you use the "My Favorite Topics" you are taken direct to a link that opens at a post. That link ends in [forum number]?page=[No]#idx_[No] but if you try and copy the browser link, not just the top of the page where you'll be taken - that link ending in just the Forum Number and page [forum number]?page=[No]. The extra bit on the end #idx_[No] where [No] is the post number on that page is normally missing - darn!

SOLUTION Here is a trick in SEARCH that gives page and post number URL (link direct to post).

First select a full
line length of words from the post, COPY, then go to SEARCH and PASTE that string of
text but in "Inverted comas" - this makes a search look at the group
of words as ONE word and finds that one post. Click SEARCH to find post again, with full link details This should work on all posts in
BCO but for some strange reason it does not always work - better than nothing though. BCOs search engine does not accept what are called Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR, or +, or -) whereas Google does.

 Note: may return 0 results first search, don't worry, just click SEARCH again and the post should be there.

Another option is to use Google Search (suggested by Moderators) in the same way, however, this will not function on new posts as Google has to have visited BCO and read/indexed the posts to know its text. I don't know how often that happens, but there must be a limit to these visits.

Good luck and easier linking.

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Comments

  • Niloc
    Niloc Member Posts: 30
    edited June 2014

    To use Boolean searches you combine words as you would write an arithmetic calculation.

    So to search Google or other search engines for web texts containing, as an example, all of these words - (DCIS, treatment, sentinel lymph node biopsy), you would type the following:- 

    dcis + treatment + "sentinel lymph node biopsy"

    This treats "sentinel lymph node biopsy" as one word because it is contained in inverted comas, or quotes, and won't find sources with these words used only separately throughout the text. This, and other methods, are how you can greatly refine your searching.

    You can even specify the website you want to search. This is explained well in this Moderators' Post.

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  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited June 2014

    For the life of me I can't figure out how to make a link live. I recently switched from Yahoo to Google. For example I wanted to copy and paste the address for a book from amazon.com but the link isn't live. Thanks for any help you can provide!

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  • Niloc
    Niloc Member Posts: 30
    edited June 2014

    Depending upon your brand of browser (I tend to use Chrome most of the time) which is a personal choice, the address of a webpage, called its URL (don't worry what that stands for) and is in a box across the top or top left of the screen. It will usually be https://name of website, etc, and can be quite long. This page's link is https://community.breastcancer.org/posts/edit/4053853?from_p=1 and to make it live on here you need to COPY the top address (right click, Copy), then highlight a piece of text like I have here HIGHLIGHT THIS TEXT then click the icon above this box you are typing in that looks like C-O or three links of chain, it is between rectangle icon with mountains (to insert pictures) and left justified text button, is forth from the right end. Then click "Insert Link" and PASTE address into box. Click box Open Link in New Tab, if you want and click Finish and text should be blue and underlined.

    Simplified, COPY Link you want to send, select piece of text, click LINK symbol, PASTE link into box, click FINISH - should show blue live linked text done. Then keep typing message.

    This technique is how you will find practically all links are created on forums - look for the LINK chain shaped icon and play with it. Some have more or less features that you can use or ignore, but try it. Best of luck and I hope this is understandable.

    Cheers and happy posting.

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  • Niloc
    Niloc Member Posts: 30
    edited June 2014

    A simpler way on this forum is to COPY link from website, PASTE into forum reply text box, then click PREVIEW button below. This seems to make link 'live' somehow https://community.breastcancer.org/posts/edit/4053853?from_p=1

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  • Niloc
    Niloc Member Posts: 30
    edited June 2014

    Trying a simpler method.

    COPY link, PASTE whole link into typing box, click SUBMIT and it won't have worked, but don't despair. 

    HOWEVER, if you then Click EDIT below post, Click on end of link and SAVE, then it should be live and look like this https://community.breastcancer.org/posts/edit/4053..

    It worked for me, but be sure to click on link's end, don't type anything more just hit Enter and link will (depending on link length) even be shortened automatically. Try that and see if it works. Let me know if it does but don't ask me why - this forum is different to other forums in how this happens.

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  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited June 2014

    Vierd! That DID work! Thanks so much!

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  • Niloc
    Niloc Member Posts: 30
    edited June 2014

    Thanks for the feedback farmerlucy, glad it worked as it can be quite confusing. I'm an old IT guy and I have to help wife on tech aspects of her postings sometimes, like inserting photos. Sorry if instructions long and convoluted, but there is no easy way to step through processes. Once you've done it a couple of times, it will be easier (not necessarily easy).

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