Creating Links

Links are pointers to other documents, views, or Lotus Notes databases. If you want to send a mail message and refer to a page in the Help database, you can create a document link in your mail message. When the recipient receives your mail, he can click the Document Link icon and see the page to which you are referring.

There are four types of Lotus Notes links that you can create and include in your mail messages or Lotus Notes documents (see Table 14.1).

Table 14.1. Types of Links

This Icon	Named	Does This
	Document Link	Connects to another Lotus Notes document. It can be a document in the same database or within an entirely different database. Double-clicking a document link results in the linked document appearing on the screen.
	Anchor Link	Connects to a specific location in the same document, or in a different document.
	Database Link	Connects to another database opened at its default view.
	View Link	Connects to a specific view in the current or different database.

It's important to understand that links only work when they are linked to documents, views, and databases to which others have access. If you link to a document that has been deleted or to a database not available to or accessible by the person to whom you are sending the link (such as your Mail database), it simply won't work.

Document Links

The examples in this chapter create links from a Mail Memo to a document located in the Help database. We use the example of the help database because we can't be certain of other databases your company has made available to you. If you create a link to your local copy of the Help database, the link won't work so if you're following our example, be certain to create a link to the server copy of the Help database. If you have access to discussion databases or other types of Lotus Notes databases, try these exercises using those databases instead of the Help and mail databases.

To create a document link, follow these steps:

1.	Begin a mail message by filling in the header (address, subject line, and so on) information.
2.	In the body field of your message, type a sentence telling the recipient what information is in the document that's linked to your Mail Memo (this is a courtesy, not a requirement). You might type something such as I'm learning how to create a document link. If you want to learn too, click here.
3.	Press the Spacebar (or to create an arrow --> press spacebar, dash, dash, greater than sign) at the end of your sentence.
4.	Choose Help, Help Topics from the menu to open the Help database. Click on the Working with Documents twistie to expand the topic, and then expand Linking to other data. Click the Creating Links to Documents, Views, Folders or Databases topic to open it.
5.	With the Help document open, choose Edit, Copy as Link, Document Link from the menu.
6.	You created your document link. The next step is to paste it into your mail message. Return to your Inbox and click on the New Memo task button.
7.	Place your cursor at the end of your sentence, remembering to leave the blank space. Choose Edit, Paste to insert the Document Link icon into your mail message (see Figure 14.5).
8.	Send your mail message. Press Esc to close the Help database if you haven't already.

Figure 14.5. A document link is inserted at the position of your cursor when you create the link.

You can see the results of your document link by looking at the copy of the mail message you just sent. Open the Sent view of your mailbox and double-click the copy of the mail message you just created. If you want to display the name of the linked document, point at the document link icon and hold your mouse pointer there without clicking. A small hand appears, pointing at the link icon.

If you want to see the linked document, click the Document Link icon.

Lotus Notes automatically creates document links when you use the reply option of Mail. Look in your Inbox and locate a mail message you've received as a reply. It's easy to identify replies when you use the Discussion Thread view because the replies are indented. You can generally find them in your Inbox, too, because the subject line usually starts with Re:. Double-click to open a reply. You see a document link located at the end of the subject line. Lotus Notes automatically placed that document link; it points to the message to which this message is replying. Click the document link, and you can see the original message. This is an extremely helpful Mail tool, enabling you to easily work your way back through the path of mail messages.

Remember, the success of links depends on the proper rights, or access to a document or database. Be careful not to link to documents or databases that are not accessible by the person to whom you are sending the link.

One quick way to see the linked document without clicking on the document link icon is to choose View, Document Link Preview from the menu. The name of the linked document appears in a Preview pane at the bottom of the screen.

Anchor Links

To link to a particular location in a document, you should use an anchor link. Anchor links consist of an anchor and a link. You can use anchor links entirely within a single document or split between two documents. A table of contents is an example of using anchor links entirely within one document; you create the anchor in the content paragraph and the link in the table of contents. When the reader clicks the link, the document scrolls to the anchor paragraph. If the anchor and link are split between two documents, clicking the link in one document would cause the second document to open, then scroll to the anchor paragraph.

1. Open the document you want to link to and put it in Edit mode (try using Ctrl+E to do so). If the document you want to link to is the same one you are working in, you will have to save the document (Ctrl+S) before you can create an anchor link in it.

2. Place your cursor anywhere in the content paragraph that you want to link to.

3. Choose Edit, Copy as Link, Anchor Link from the menu. A dialog will open, showing the first few words of the paragraph. Edit or accept the words, then click anchor. A small anchor link icon appears next to the paragraph (it can only be seen in Edit mode).

4. If you want to place the link in the same document, place the text cursor at the point in the document where you want the link to appear. If you want to open the document where you want to place the link, making sure that it is in Edit mode.

5. Click where you want the link to appear, and then choose Edit, Paste from the menu.

Mail has a special Link Message mail memo you can use to send document links. When Mail is open, choose Create, Special, Link Message. A mail memo opens with Link Message as the subject (you can add to this) and a place in the body for you to paste the link. Instructions are already in the memo that tell the recipient to open the document by clicking on the link icon. You only need to enter the recipient information and send it.

Database Links

A database link connects to the default view of another database. To create a database link, choose Edit, Copy as Link, Database Link from the menu while the database is opened.

View Links

A view link works similarly to document links and database links. To create a view link, follow the previous steps, but open the view to which you want to link when you copy your view link. Choose Edit, Copy as Link, View Link as your menu commands.