Text links
This article explains how to work with text links, or to make them into actual web links.
Contents
Examples of plain text links
- google.com
- www.bbc.co.uk/news
- www.abc.com
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sorting_and_rearranging_bookmarks_-_Firefox
Firefox
Select the text link, drag to the new tab button.
- Variation -- into a New Tab, select all of a text link and then
- drag to the new tab button, or
- drag to the Location Bar then press Alt+Enter
- Variation -- into an Existing Tab, select all of a text link and then
- drag to a Tab on Tab Bar, or
- drag to Location Bar then press Enter, or
- copy (Ctrl+C), select Location Bar (Ctrl+L), paste (Ctrl+V), Enter
Extensions
Many extensions have options accessible through the addons listing, you should also read the developer's comments, and the developer's homepage for extensions you install to learn about each extension.
Linky extension
Linky (24KB) is designed to open multiple links, multiple image links, and multiple text links. To open text links, select an area that includes the text links you want to open then right-click and click on "Open selected text link in tabs" from the context menu. Because of it's nature it will be on the conservative side in recognizing text links.
Linkification extension
Linkification (66KB) makes text links visible as click-able links so you can see and click on were text links. Can be toggled on/off with a keyboard shortcut ("Ctrl+Shift+Y"), and has many options. The author has a test page (Plain-text URL Test Cases). Web authors may want to keep disabled, or deactivated but use the toggle before opening/refreshing a page and/or add their own domains on the links tab of the tab's options along with mozilla.org,mozilla.com,mozillazine.org to those that can be excluded along with localhost,google.com which are defaulted for exclusion.
URL Link extension
URL Link (94KB) is a Firefox and Thunderbird extension that allows you to select a single non-URL link in a mail/news message or web-page, and open it in a browser window.
Tab Counter extension
Tab Counter (23KB) is recommended when working with extensions that open additional tabs so you can see immediately if the count of tabs at far right of menu toolbar changes (default toolbar location).
Additional extensions
The following searches will locate additional/similar extensions:
- Google search: site:addons.mozilla.org inurl:en-US/firefox/addon -inurl:collection_id linkify OR linkification
- entered as: site:addons.mozilla.org inurl:en-US/firefox/addon -inurl:collection_id linkify OR linkification
- Addons search: linkify
Bookmarklets
Useful if you don't use the "Linky" extension or keep it disabled.
- Name: Linkify: convert plain text links to clickable links
- Keyword: linkify:
- Description: http://www.squarefree.com/2005/05/24/autolink-filters/
- Location:
javascript:(function(){var%20D=document;%20D.body.normalize();%20F(D.body);%20function%20F(n){var%20u,A,M,R,c,x;%20if(n.nodeType==3){%20u=n.data.search(/https?\:\/\/[^\s]*[^.,;'">\s\)\]]/);%20if(u>=0)%20{%20M=n.splitText(u);%20R=M.splitText(RegExp.lastMatch.length);%20A=document.createElement("A");%20A.href=M.data;%20A.appendChild(M);%20R.parentNode.insertBefore(A,R);%20}%20}else%20if(n.tagName!="STYLE"%20&&%20n.tagName!="SCRIPT"%20&&%20n.tagName!="A")for(c=0;x=n.childNodes[c];++c)F(x);%20}%20})();
