Insert related links to files or web sites in the XMetaL editor

You can edit the related link element to make links to websites and FTP locations, as well as to files outside the repository.

When you are linking to files you may use either absolute or relative pathnames. However, you should keep in mind that setups vary in different machines. You can safely use relative pathnames if you are sure that multiple documents will always be sent as a single package. However, if there’s a chance that only a portion of the files will be sent, and that the target file isn’t among them, then the link may become invalid.

  1. Place the cursor anywhere in the topic.
  2. Use Search to display topics in the Search Results view.
  3. Right-click any topic, then select XMetaL Editor > Insert as Related Link from the menu.
    Note: This inserts an XML related link. You'll need to edit its attributes so that it references the actual file or remote location.
    The topic title appears in the Related Links section, with the link created. If there is no Related Links section, XMetaL creates one.
  4. Place your cursor on the newly created <link>.
  5. Open the Attribute Inspector.
  6. In the <link> tag's href attribute, type the location you want to reference.

    The following table shows the types of location accepted by the href attribute and their syntax.

    Location type Syntax
    Web site http://sitename
    Secure web site https://sitename
    FTP site ftp://sitename
    Secure FTP site ftps://sitename
    Local file file://driveletter/filename

    The following screen shot shows an example of an edited href attribute.

    xmetal remote related link

  7. In the <link> tag's scope attribute, select external.
  8. Optional: Insert additional links as needed.