The <LINK> tag lets you create clickable links in your articles.

If you want a link to appear in the 'Article Data' box but don't want to put a link in the body of your article, then you should use the <REFERENCES> tag.

Optional attributes are shown in italics.

<LINK DNAID="...article..." POPUP="1">...text...</LINK>

<LINK DNAID="...article..." POPUP="1"/>

This version is used to link to articles within DNA (ie all pages except Personal Spaces).

• The ...article... argument can be of the form A123456, C123456 or F123456, or it can be a named article like GuideML-Clinic or Search (you can find out more about named articles here). Don't include any other characters like / or full-stops, and if you need to include a & character, then type it in as & like this: <LINK DNAID="F123456?thread=123456&amp;latest=1">.

• If ...article... is of the form A123456, then this tag also puts an article in the 'Referenced Articles' section of the Article Data box, the text of which will be the article's title.

• If POPUP="1" is present, then the link will open up a new browser window for the linked article.

• If the closed version of the tag is used, then the text shown for the link is the title of the referenced article. This enables you to put in links to articles that might have their titles changed, without having to worry about changing the GuideML that links to them.

Optional attributes are shown in italics.

<LINK HREF="...url..." TITLE="...title..." POPUP="1">...text...</LINK>

This version is used to link to websites outside of the BBC.

• For websites outside the BBC, the ...url... argument must be a well-formed and complete URL, normally starting with http://. The tag will put an entry in the 'Referenced Sites' or 'Related BBC Pages' section of the Article Data box, the text of which will be the ...text... argument if the TITLE attribute is not present, or the ...title... argument if the TITLE attribute is present. If you need to include a & character in your URL, then type it in as & like this: <LINK HREF="http://www.example.com/search.cgi?term=DNAID&amp;case=u">.

• If the TITLE attribute is present, then the tag will put an entry in the 'Referenced Sites' or 'Related BBC Pages' section of the Article Data box, using ...title... argument as the text for the reference link.

• If POPUP="1" is present, then the link will open up a new browser window for the linked page or site.

• There is no closed version of this tag available, as it's not practical to dynamically search for titles of off-site web pages.

Optional attributes are shown in italics.

<LINK BIO="...userid..." POPUP="1">...text...</LINK>

<LINK BIO="...userid..." POPUP="1"/>

This version is used to link to Researchers' Personal Spaces.

• The ...userid... argument is of the form U123456 and contains that Researcher's unique ID number. The tag will put an entry in the 'Referenced Researchers' section of the Article Data box, the text of which will be the Researcher's name.

• If POPUP="1" is present, then the link will open up a new browser window for the linked Personal Space.

• If the closed version of the tag is used, then the text shown for the link is the name of the referenced Researcher. This enables you to put in links to Researchers without worrying whether they'll change their names.

No 'Referenced Articles' Link for Named Articles, Forums, Categories or Anchored Articles

Currently linking to named articles, Forums or Categories with links like <LINK DNAID="GuideML-Clinic"> or <LINK DNAID="F123456">, or anchored articles like <LINK DNAID="A123456#anchor"> fails to put anything in the 'Referenced Articles' section.

Empty 'Referenced Articles' Sections

If a number of named articles are linked to from an article, then in come circumstances empty 'Referenced' sections are displayed with a header but no links. You can see this here.

Closed Tag with Named Articles, Forums, Categories

Linking to named articles, Forums or categories with the closed version of the tag, as in <LINK DNAID="GuideML-Clinic"/>, does not work properly. It simply puts an 'A' as the link text, though the link will work.

Effects in Links

If the text between <LINK> tags contains text effects such as italics, then that part of the text will not be displayed in the Article Data box.

Wrong Attribute

Links will not necessarily work if the wrong attribute is used, so please don't use tags like <LINK HREF="/A123456"> or <LINK DNAID="U123456">.

This is a numbered-article link to the h2g2 article on Preparing a Chicken.

This is a named-article link to the GuideML Clinic.

This is an external link to the BBCi website and the link is displayed in the 'Referenced Sites' section as 'Click here to visit the BBC!'.

This is a bio-link to the Hub Editor's Personal Space.

• The DNA GuideML Clinic