( Internal Link in a text document)

[p campbell]

I know in a standard OSX text edit document one can place,
audio file, a movie file, a picture file and a click-able web-link.
is there a way to make click-able link that could send Me to a specific
folder or file on my computer or external hard drive?
I've tried dragging a alias into the document and it won't open.
I'm shure link is the wrong word but I would like it to work like a web link.

[dmc72]

I know in a standard OSX text edit document one can place,
audio file, a movie file, a picture file and a click-able web-link.
is there a way to make click-able link that could send Me to a specific
folder or file on my computer or external hard drive?
I've tried dragging a alias into the document and it won't open.
I'm shure link is the wrong word but I would like it to work like a web link.

I don't have my Mac in front of me so I can't test it, but have you tried the file:// notation in place of http://?

[p campbell]

What I'm trying to do is create some kind of symbolic link (alias) that will
work in in text document. I can't get a alias to to work in the text document.
I want to click on the alias and it would open a folder where ever it was located
on mac or external Hard Drive. Please don't give up this would be a cool
feature I just don't have the programing back ground to pull it off. I'm not exactly
sure what you mean by replacing the http:// with file:// all I know web links start
with the former. I'm all ears if want to explain.
Thanks P Campbell

[dmc72]

What I'm trying to do is create some kind of symbolic link (alias) that will
work in in text document. I can't get a alias to to work in the text document.
I want to click on the alias and it would open a folder where ever it was located
on mac or external Hard Drive. Please don't give up this would be a cool
feature I just don't have the programing back ground to pull it off. I'm not exactly
sure what you mean by replacing the http:// with file:// all I know web links start
with the former. I'm all ears if want to explain.
Thanks P Campbell

There are many kinds of links possible; the http:// specifies that the protocol to be used for this link is http -- a web document. You can also specify ftp://, for transferring files. file:// specifies that the file is locally reachable. There's probably a better explanation available, but that will do for our purposes. Quick note: if you use your browser to read a local file (Firefox: File -> Open File...), you'll notice that the URL is a file://.

Try this:
* Open TextEdit
* Click on Format -> Text -> Link... (assuming you're already making a rich text doc, if not switch to that first).
* You'll get a dialog box asking for the Link destination. Put in something like this: "file:///Users/myUsername/test.txt" (not the quotes).
* Hit OK, and you'll have a link in your document.

When I tried this, it brought up the file in Zend Studio, even though I was pointing to a text document, so I guess Zend has grabbed the file:// protocol.

For the link, replace "/Users/myUsername/test.txt" with the path to the file you want. Note also that there are three slashes up front. The first two are part of the protocol specification ("file://"); the third is part of the path ("/Users/...").

When you save it, you can look at the rtf document with a different tool and see that it's marking this text as a link. That's how TextEdit knows that this text is special. Of course, you could put a file:// string into a plain text document, but the application you're using to read needs to know how to interpret it to let you click on it.

Dave.

[p campbell]

Dave, Sorry for the long delay in my reply, the holiday's ate me up.
first of all thanks for the tips on (text edit/links) and the file://.
I kept trying the file://Users/myUsername/ path I couldn't get it to work.
I was surfing the net and found this little free/donation app. called
Path Snagger by Bergen Street Software by the way I made a donation
this is a cool little app. http://www.bergenstreetsoftware.com/ after installation
when you control click (I use a laptop) it brings up a contextual menu and one
of the options is snag path File:// once you click on the file it copies the path
to your clip board. Then you paste it into your text document. When I pasted
into the document the path came up (file://localhost/Users/My user name/Desktop/Untitled%202.rtf) then I followed your instructions format /text /links pasted the
path then selected all it worked. the localhost was the key and %202 must be a space identifier.
Anyway Dave thanks for the help resolving this issue. I'm a computer neophyte and any help is truly appreciated. I do have another question
when you paste the path into the link window how does text edit turn it into a clickable link? I'll wait for your reply then I'll post resolved very helpful.

Thanks Again, Paul