Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
4
In gvDaily's news roundup postings, links are used to support key points and to support key reader
goals, such as a link for military people to get a special invitation to join Google Voice. Although
those readers might well follow the link, it pops up in a new window. The blog, remaining onscreen
in its own window, invites readers to continue reading after they've signed up. (Some web users
hate this kind of nannying, though; “I know where the Back button is,” they might say if asked.)
At the point in the post where the reader might be expected to get tired of reading, the posting
concludes with Quick Takes, an area of brief bulleted highlights with less formatting. This is a way
of telling the reader, “just bear with us a little longer.” Again, the links are meant to be supportive
of the content rather than distracting from it.
If you lack experience in using HTML-style formatting such as that used in the example, it can be
very useful to try using it yourself, even in a made-up example, and keep the result handy for reuse.
Using Hyperlinks as Formatting
Hyperlinks, or links for short, are familiar to you from your own use of the Web. As a blog author,
though, it's worth considering the link options that WordPress gives you.
You can:
Link any text you want to any web page by entering its URL in WordPress.
Have the link take the user to a new location in the same window or open up a new window,
which leaves the current blog post onscreen.
Add text that's shown when the user hovers their mouse over the link, giving an additional clue
about the destination.
WordPress takes a tremendous amount of hassle and worry out of
the process of creating and maintaining links. Creating links and
keeping them up to date is much harder in many web page cre-
ation packages, or when working directly in HTML, than it is in
WordPress.
We discuss the use of links in detail later in this chapter. However,
because of the way people's visual systems work, and because of
their experience in using the Web, links serve as a kind of format-
ting as well.
Links are displayed in underlining and in a different color than
other text—usually blue for unvisited links and purple for recently
visited ones. (The most common definition of recently visited is
within the last 30 days.) Underlining is traditionally used for
emphasis in other forms of publishing, as is color (when the bud-
get allows for it); the way in which links combine underlining with
colored text ensures that links jump to the reader's attention.
Evidence has also been gathered by testing people as they surf the
Web. Web surfers are always on the lookout for answers and for
novelty. It's said that the most powerful words in marketing are
tip
Use strikethough to carry off
an Internet-friendly form of
ironic humor. Simply write
something very direct or
pointed, apply strikethrough
to the strongest word or
words, and then add some
words that are gentler or more
politically correct. This makes
it look as if you'd edited your-
self, or been edited by some-
one higher-up, and forgotten
to take out the original word-
ing. An example: “The reason-
ing behind my boss's decision
was, as usual, incomprehensi-
ble sophisticated.”
 
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