Hyperlinks

How to make a hyperlink to a part of the Help Browser

Here is how you make hyperlinks to some portion of the Help Browser with Mathematica under MS-Windows.   The procedure should be similar on other platforms.

Step 1:
Find the part of the Help Browser that you want the hyperlink to jump to.  Don't use the MasterIndex radio button, because other radio buttons can access the same stuff, and I don't know how to make a link to the MasterIndex.  Once you have the right help page displayed make a note of the radio button selected, and the title of the Help Browser topic (to the right of the GoTo button).

Step 2:
Type the title of the Help Browser topic in a cell, and select the topic.  It doesn't matter what type of cell the hyperlink is in (Text, Section, Title, etc.), but one doesn't normally include a hyperlink in an Input cell.

Step 3:
Make the menu selection (Input |> Create Button), then from the pull down menu select the radio button you want to link to.  The choices listed should include:
    MainBookLink
    AddOnsLink
    RefGuideLink
    Getting StartedLink
    OtherInformationLink
The selection (RefGuideLink) reefers to the (Built-in Functions) button in the Help Browser.  The other selections refer to a Help Browser radio button by the same name.  After making the appropriate menu selection you should have your hyperlink to the Help Browser.

As an example we make a hyperlink to section 3.2.4 of the Main Book portion of the Help Browser.

A hyperlink to 3.2.4 in the Help Browser

You simply type in the appropriate text, select the cell bracket, and make the menu selection .  Next select "3.2.4" and make the menu selection  .  The text "3.2.4" is now a hyperlink to section 3.2.4 of the main book.

How to make a hyperlink to a part of the Help Browser, and control the way it looks.

Suppose you want to make the hyperlink in the next cell.  In this case the hyperlink will jump to section 3.2.4 of the Main Book, but the text for the hyperlink isn't  "3.2.4" as when the procedure from above is used.

A hyperlink to Number theory functions in the Help Browser

Steps 1-3:
Make an hyperlink to section 3.2.4 of the Main Book using the procedure above.  That will give you the hyperlink and text in the next cell.

A hyperlink to 3.2.4 in the HelpBrowser

Step 4:
Put the insertion point (place where keyboard input would go) in the cell containing the hyperlink you are making and make the menu selection (Format |> Show Expression) and you get the full expression of the cell as shown below.

Cell[TextData[{
  "A hyperlink to ",
  ButtonBox["3.2.4",
    ButtonStyle->"MainBookLink"],
  " in the Help Browser"
}], "Commentary"]

Step 5:
Edit the cell expression to look like the cell below.  Notice the cell is changed to include ButtonData→"3.2.4".

Cell[TextData[{
  "A hyperlink to ",
  ButtonBox["3.2.4",ButtonData->"3.2.4",
    ButtonStyle->"MainBookLink"],
  " in the HelpBrowser"
}], "Commentary"]

Step 6:
Make the menu selection (Format |> Show Expression) and the cell looks the same as it did before.  Now that you use the ButtonData option of ButtonBox you can change what the hyperlink looks like without changing what it does!

Step 7:
Use the keyboard arrows (not the mouse) to move the insertion point into the text for the hyperlink, and change the text of the hyperlink from "3.2.4" to "Number theory functions".  You should then have the cell below.

A hyperlink to Number theory functions in the Help Browser

How to make a hyperlink to a specific cell in the Help Browser.

The entire contents of The Mathematica Book is included in the Help Browser, and some hyperlinks in the Help Browser take you to specific paragraphs (cells) in the book. How can you make your own hyperlinks that do this?  I will explain how you can make
this button → Options in Show ←.

If you click on the above button you will see that it takes you to a specific paragraph in The Mathematica Book, and the top of the Help Browser will show that you are in section 1.9.4.  Now select the paragraph in the Help Browser that the button jumped to, and make the menu selection (Format |> ShowExpression).  Scroll to the bottom of the expression for this cell, and you should see that the cell expression has option
CellTags :→{"S1.9.4","4.15"}.  You then need to make a button with the options
       ButtonData:→{"1.9.4","4.15"}, ButtonStyle->"MainBookLink".  
The setting of the ButtonData option is the same as the CellTags setting except the 'S' in the first string was removed. The same button is shown below, and you can Show the expression of this cell to see what it should look like.

Now to make the desired button type 'A button to Options in Show in the Help Browser' in a text cell.  Then select 'Options in Show', and make the menu selection (Input |> Create Button |> Custom). Select 'Main Book Link' for ButtonStyle, check the box for ButtonData and enter {"1.9.4","4.15"} in the box below the ButtonData check. Next select OK and you should have the cell below.

A button to Options in Show in the Help Browser.

How to make a hyperlink to a web page

This is how you make a hyperlink to a web page using Mathematica under Windows 95/98.  The procedure should be similar under other operating systems.

Step 1:
In a text cell type the text that will be a link to a web page.

Step 2:
Select the text that will be the hyperlink.

Step 3:
Make the menu selection (Input |> Create Hyperlink).

Step 4:
A dialog box will come up.  Type the URL of the web page in the blank space next to "Other notebook or URL".  Click on the OK button and the selected text is a hyperlink to the URL you entered.

As an example I give a hyperlink to the Wolfram Research web page.

How to make a hyperlink that launches an email message

My computer uses Windows 98 and has Microsoft Outlook installed.  With my configuration I can follow the steps below to make a button which launches an email to message to (ersektr@navair.navy.mil).  I suspect the steps are similar with other confugurations.

Step 1:
In a text cell I type the text that I want to use for the hyperlink.

Step 2:
Select that portion of the above text cell which will be the hyperlink.

Step 3:
Make the menu selection (Input | Create Hyperlink).

Step 4:
In the field for "Other Notebook or URL" type
   mailto:ersektr@navair.navy.mil

Step 5:
Click on OK and the text that was selected is now a button that launches an email to
(ersektr@navair.navy.mil)

You might also like to know that the evaluating the next input cell will also launch an email message to
   ersektr@navair.navy.mil.

Still More

If you still don't see what you're looking try these links to Button Styles and Button Programming.

Created by Mathematica  (May 16, 2004)

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