Amtrak Watcher, Fireman Steve, and anyone else who might be interested:
While it is by no means required, our board provides a nice easy way to add links to other pages. If you take advantage of this feature, which I will describe below, it helps to make your paragraphs easier to read. Plus sometimes it can be hard to tell just what the address links to.
When you are at the box where you would type your reply, if you look just above the box you will see a bunch of buttons. The group starts with “B” for bold. In the second row you will see a button that says "http://", this is the button that you click on to make a link. Now what I would typically do is, I will open a second internet window using either Internet Explorer or Netscape. In the first window I have the Amtrak Unlimited typing box, in the second window I’ll bring up the page I want to link to.
Now I start typing my paragraph and when I reach the place where I want to place the link, I click on the “http” button. That in turn opens a small long box near the top of my screen that says, “Enter the complete URL for the hyperlink”. You could just type the address into this box if you like, however what I prefer to do is to copy it. So I go back to my second window, I highlight the address at the top of that page, and then I hold down the “Ctrl” key and press the letter “C” for copy. Now I go back to the Amtrak Unlimited page and click once on the small long box and then again I hold down the “Ctrl” key and hit the letter “V” for paste. This should copy the address into the box.
Next I press enter once or click the "Ok" button and another long box will appear saying, “Enter the title of the webpage”. In this box you can type anything that you deem appropriate. Sometimes I’ll say, “click here”, sometime I’ll place the name of the website. It’s really up to you to decide what to place there. Then I finish typing my paragraph.
One quick note, you must use this button as you are typing the paragraph. If you wait until you are done typing everything, before you click the “http” button, then it will place the link at the end of your paragraph or post.
Now as an example, I’ll tell you that the
Hotel Pennsylvania is the closest hotel to Penn Station New York. Mind you though this hotel is not all that cheap and rooms tend to be small. Also check out Viewliner's post above for more examples.
I’m pointing out this feature for anyone who was not aware of its availability. You also don’t need to understand computer programming to use the feature. Should anyone have any other questions about how to use this please let me know, you can even send me a private message and I’ll be happy to help.
Again it is by no means required that you post links in this manner, but it does make it easier for others to read and use the links.