Write Link SubPanel
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Contents
Write → Link
This Write Link SubPanel is used to add links, sometimes called a blogroll, to your blog. Links can enrich your blog by providing your user access to the other blogs, humor sites, search engines, sports teams, or chicken cacciatore recipies, you love so much!
Links can be organized by category, have internal references about your relationship to their destinations, be automatically associated with images, and can even be rated on a scale from zero to nine.
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Write Link
The following fields define a link:
- Name
- The name of the link is what is actually displayed on your site.
- Web Address
- This is where the link points. Sometimes called a URL, this is the destination, or the site, you want to go to when you click the link. Remember to add http:// at the beginning of your Web Address.
- Description
- You may optionally enter a description of your link here. This will be shown when someone hovers over the link, or optionally below the link. How the Description is displayed on your site depends on which theme you use. The WordPress Default and Classic Themes (the two themes delivered with WordPress) display the Description when you hover over the link.
Action Section
The action section if placed to the right of the Write Link area. Most important is the button to Save your link.
Keep this link private
- Do you want this link to be listed on your site or not?
- [ ]: Uncheck the box, and the link will be visible (the default).
- [X]: Check the box and the link will not be visible.
Save
- Click the the Save button to save this link.
Related
- Three related links are provided to give you quick access to related functions:
Categories
- Categories are displayed in a expanding/collapsing box that allows selection of one or more Categories in which to associate a link.
- Hint: If the Categories dialog area is collapsed (closed), then click on the ( > ) to expand or show the Categories. Clicking on a ( v ) hides (collapses) the dialog.
- In the list of Categories box, just check the box to the left of each Category to associate with the Link. By default, no Category is selected. Note: If no Link Category is specified, the Default Link Category will be assigned the Link when the Link is Saved.
- Two links (represented by left-hanging tabs) to the left of the Categories box allow you to show "All Categories" or just the "Most Used" (the top 10 most-used Link Categories) to choose.
- New Categories can also be added by clicking the Add New Category link, typing that Category Name in the box and clicking the Add button.
Advanced Options
Target
This expanding/collapsing box houses radio buttons that allow you to decide how the link's destination is displayed when someone clicks the link. Note: Specifying anything but none will cause validation problems for your blog. In this specific case, however, the validation problems will not cause problems for your viewers' web browsers.
- _blank - The destination will open in a new window.
- _top - If your site uses frames, this option could be handy. The destination will open in the current web browser window instead of the current web page frame. Don't bother with this option if you don't use frames, or if you don't know what frames are; neither the default Kubrick nor the classic theme use frames.
- none - The default option. This will open the destination in the current window (or the current frame if your site uses frames).
Link Relationship (XFN)
XFN stands for XHTML Friends Network. WordPress allows for the generation of XFN attributes automatically so you can show how you are related to the authors/owners of site to which you are linking. XFN tags are an effort to add meaning to the connections (links) on the world wide web, and are gaining in popularity. See XFN Relationship Definitions for a list of available relationships.
When you add a new link in the link manager, you may specify in this section of the SubPanel the relationship you share in real life with the author of the page to which you're linking. This will automatically add a rel="X" attribute to the HTML code for the link (where X is the relationship you specify).
XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can leave everything in this section blank and all your links will still work.
XFN Relationship Definitions
To specify your relationship, use the following.
- identity
- Use this checkbox if the link is to another of your own websites. This relationship is exclusive of all others.
- friendship
- These radio buttons allow you to specify one of four different types of friendships:
- acquaintance - Someone with whom you have exchanged greetings and not much (if any) more -- maybe a short conversation or two.
- contact - Someone with whom you know how to get in touch.
- friend - Someone you consider a friend. A compatriot, buddy, home(boy|girl) that you know.
- none - Use this if you want to leave the friendship category blank.
- physical
- Check the met checkbox if this is someone whom you have actually met in person.
- professional
- These two checkboxes allow you to specify your professional relationship with the author of the link's site.
- co-worker - Someone with whom you work or someone who works at the same organization as you.
- colleague - Someone in the same field of study or activity.
- geographical
- Use these three radio buttons to specify how you relate geographically to the author of the link's site.
- co-resident - Someone with whom you share a street address. A roommate. A Flatmate. A member of your family living in the same home.
- neighbor - Someone who lives nearby, perhaps only at an adjacent street address or doorway.
- none - Use this if you want to leave the geographical category blank.
- family
- Six radio buttons to specify your familial relationship.
- child - Your genetic offspring. Or someone that you have adopted and take care of.
- kin - A relative. Someone you consider part of your extended family.
- parent - Your progenitor. Or someone who has adopted and takes care (or took care) of you.
- sibling - Someone with whom you share a parent.
- spouse - Someone to whom you are married.
- none - Use this if you want to leave the family category blank.
- romantic
- Use these four checkboxes to define how you are "romantically" related to the author of the site.
- muse - Someone who brings you inspiration.
- crush - Someone on whom you have a crush.
- date - Someone you are dating.
- sweetheart - Someone with whom you are intimate and at least somewhat committed, possibly exclusively.
Descriptions of the XFN relationships were modified from those found at the XFN Getting Started page.
An XFN Example
Suppose a friend of yours whom you have met in real life owns the site http://www.example.com/. When you add that site to your list of links, you can specify that the owner of that site is a friend, and that you have met in real life. The link that is created will be of the form <a href="http://www.example.com/" rel="friend met">Example</a>. This link works just the same as a normal link, but contains extra information about your relationship to the site.
Further XFN Reading
For more information about XFN relationships and examples concerning their use, see the Official XHTML Friends Network Website.
Advanced
The following controls allow more advanced manipulation of your links.
- Image Address
- You can specify a URL of an image to associate with the link.
- RSS Address
- RSS is a form of Syndication. If you are linking to a site with an RSS feed, you can enter the feed URL here. Again, what WordPress does with this depends on your theme's template files. Currently, neither the WordPress Default or Classic theme displays the RSS Address.
- Notes
- Notes to yourself concerning the link.
- Rating
- You may chose to rate a link from 0 to 10, where 0 implies that the link is unrated. What the rating system actually defines on your site is up to you to decide.
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