Filed under: Software, Odds and ends
Safari: Make Link
Perhaps I'm missing the obvious here, and it wouldn't be the first time, but what does the 'Make Link' option in Safari do? It shows up when you control-click (or right click) on a highlighted URL in Safari. The trick is that it doesn't seem to do anything.I thought perhaps it would send a link to the clipboard, but it doesn't. It doesn't add the URL to your bookmarks. It doesn't do anything I thought it would. You can select it all you want, but it doesn't seem to do a darned thing.
I asked Dave if he could give it a try, and he did with the same results. Anyone out there know what the heck 'Make Link' is supposed to do?
Oh, and don't even get me started on 'Open URL,' which does function but it is entirely pointless.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
davetron5000 said 9:07AM on 8-31-2005
I don't have my mac in front of me, but my guess is that it's one of those crazy textfield features that makes sense everywhere else. If you type in an URL in textedit or some other app and right-click, "Open URL" probably opens it in safari and "Make Link" might well make the link clikable in the text area in question. Try it in TextEdit and see what happens....
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CyBeR said 9:11AM on 8-31-2005
#1 is correct. If you type 'http://www.apple.com' in textedit, for instance, and then choose 'Make Link', it'll become a clickable link.
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Reefdog said 9:24AM on 8-31-2005
It can perform an address autocomplete. For instance, type in "http://www.ap" (and delete whatever Safari automatically autocompletes for you), then choose Make Link. The autocompleted address will show again. (In that case, probably http://www.apple.com.) It only works when you've already typed in "http://www."
So yeah, that's an absolutely useless function, but I also imagine it's not intended to be the main function.
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John Calsbeek said 9:26AM on 8-31-2005
So the "One Text Field To Rule Them All" Cocoa approach does have its drawbacks...
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Reefdog said 9:29AM on 8-31-2005
Whoa. I just noticed that you can make links in all text boxes, this comment box included. I'm curious if they get converted differently by the TUAW link-maker.
http://www.apple.com <- Just text.
http://www.apple.com <- Chose "Make Link".
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Viveka said 9:58AM on 8-31-2005
<< Anyone out there know what the heck 'Make Link' is supposed to do? >>
(Do you really not know how to use Google? Or are you just trolling for comments?)
http://www.google.com/mac?q=safari+%22make+link%22&btnG=Google+Search
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Scott McNulty said 10:11AM on 8-31-2005
Viveka, thanks for suggesting Google. What a sweet site! You mean it searches the internets for me?
;)
I did try google first, but I didn't find anything that told me what I wanted to know, so I thought I would ask the good TUAW'ers and:
a. get a great answer, which I did
b. share the answer in an update to the post, which I will
Thanks to all of you!
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Zon Wakest said 10:23AM on 8-31-2005
weird, this doesn't work in mail.app, so now I really don't get it, the one place I can see this would be useful and it doesn't work.
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Scott Gardner said 1:23PM on 8-31-2005
This does work in Mail.app, v2.0.3 anyway. Just highlight a text string (could be a word, or a complete URL, whatever) and ctrl+click on it and select "Edit Link..." Enter the web address and voila. You can also use this function to create mailto: links and ichat: links (e.g., enter this as your URL:
aim:goim?screenname=email@address.com
...replacing with your iChat email address, o' course!).
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Twist said 1:35PM on 8-31-2005
I see poor transplanted Windows user using the Mac's in the GCOM labs at my college every day who can't figure out how to make Safari load a web page because it is missing the Go button next to the URL field. Since they can't wrap their minds around the concept of the Return or Enter buttons the Open URL contextual menu item might be good for them (if the labs had two button mice).
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abacsalmasi said 1:57PM on 8-31-2005
What it does is automatically makes the selected text into a clickable link without having to add any code, in case you want to add one to a post, like this (http://www.stableresearch.com).
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DoubleWah said 2:50PM on 8-31-2005
While we're (sort of) on the subject - does anyone know any way of previewing the url of a link without actually clicking on it in safari? I *wish* safari would just pop up a little tool-tip telling my where a link was taking me, or have a status bar at the bottom like a lot of other browsers do... Is there some plugin out there that does this?
Si
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Miraz Jordan said 3:19PM on 8-31-2005
Safari does have a status bar but for some reason it's switched off by default. Just visit the View menu to turn it on. See Mac Tip # 135 at http://mactips.info/tips/index.php?p=601 for more detail and visit the MacTips site for hundreds of other useful Mac Tips (Rss feed available).
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superg said 6:02PM on 8-31-2005
you can also click and drag the link a bit and the url will show up. I read somewhere that this is more secure as the url listed in the status bar can be faked somehow.
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Grant Hutchins said 3:05AM on 9-02-2005
I would imagine the menu options are there so that it is accessible to blind users or people who would need alternative interfaces to enter URLs. They probably have a way of accessing context menu items that would be a lot easier and natural to that type of user.
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