The second tool is the Internet Button Bar, which provides a subset of the most commonly used functionality in the Links Palette. By default, the Internet Button Bar includes buttons to create Bookmarks, Document Links and URL Links, as well as a button to toggle live links on and off. And because you can customize any button bar to suit your individual needs, you can add the links buttons to the button bar you use the most.
3. Kinds of Links to Meet Your Needs
Bookmarks identify specific locations in a document. Clicking a Bookmark in the Links palette will jump directly to the specified ClarisWorks text or object. Better yet, you can use Bookmarks in conjunction with Document Links to link two objects within the same or different ClarisWorks documents. And for clarity, you can create folders in the Links Palette to group your Bookmarks.
Document Links provide three ways to connect ClarisWorks files. First, a Document link can open one ClarisWorks file from within another. Additionally, a Document link can jump directly to a Bookmark in a second file so that you can send a reader right to the relevant information. Finally, a Document link can jump to a Bookmark in the same file as the Document link. Like anchors on a Web page, Document links within a file allow directed navigation from location to location.
URL Links store the Internet address of a Web page. Clicking on a live URL Link will launch your default browser and open the specified Web page. Because the URL is stored in the Links palette, you can hide complex Web addresses behind simple graphics or text.
4. Simple Examples of Links in Action
Offices, schools and homes often store related information in different places and different forms. One example is a company's personnel department which needs to distribute policies and procedures to every employee. The centerpiece of this effort is an annual Personnel Manual, but there are also additional documents that can change throughout the year and other information stored on the corporate intranet that was not available when the handbook was completed. The four examples below show how links in ClarisWorks can help unite all of that information to be accessed through a single file.
A. Bookmarks can tag the beginning of each section of the personnel manual for ease of navigation. Before creating Bookmarks, it is useful to create folders to group your Bookmarks together. To do this, show the Links palette and choose New folder in the Special Menu. Create a folder named Corporate Policies and hit OK. Use the same steps to create a folder called Benefits.
Now you are ready to create the links themselves. First select the text you want to bookmark, in this case the heading of the section called Your Health Insurance Options. In the Links menu in the Links Palette, choose New Bookmark. Name the Bookmark (ClarisWorks suggests using the selected text 'Your Health Insurance Options' but you can change the name if you wish), choose the Benefits folder and hit OK. Repeat these steps for each section of the manual.
B. Internal Document Links provide a handy tool for creating an interactive table of contents. The first page of your personnel manual contains an index of the different sections of the document, the same sections which you bookmarked above. In the index, highlight the phrase Health Insurance. In the pop-up menu in the Links Palette, switch from Bookmarks to Document Links. Under the Links menu, in the palette, choose New Document Link. The suggested name is Health Insurance and the document is <current document>. All you need to do is choose the Your Health Insurance Options Bookmark and hit OK. Once you have done this for each section, you can jump directly from the index to the specified section.
C. External document links allow you to open other ClarisWorks documents by clicking on text or an object. Instead of duplicating information and maintaining two copies, you can access the same information from multiple locations. In the Personnel Manual example, this company maintains a Corporate Backgrounder file that gets updated throughout the year as changes occur. To create this link, select the text Corporate Backgrounder from the index section of the Personnel Manual. Switch to the Internet button bar. Click on the New Document Link button (graphic here), hit the choose document button and navigate to the file named Corporate Backgrounder.cwk.
Hint: ClarisWorks will try to find the path to the original document. If that path is not available, place the target document (Corporate Backgrounder.cwk) in the same directory as the source document (Personnel Manual.cwk).
D. URL links extend the reach of your ClarisWorks documents to the World Wide Web. For up to the minute accuracy, the corporate phone book is stored in a database and accessed off of a Web page. Once again, the personnel manual contains only a reference to the Phone Book in the index with a picture of a telephone next to it. To create a URL link, select the telephone graphic and choose the New URL Link button (graphic here) in the Internet button bar. Type in the URL of the phonebook on your intranet and hit OK. With one click on the telephone icon, ClarisWorks will launch your default browser and bring your phone book to the screen.
5. That's ClarisWorks 5.0
This provides only a few simple examples of the powers that links add to your ClarisWorks documents. As you begin to work with links, you can build incredible connections between the different kinds of information stored around your company.
For further information about creating links, see the New Features in ClarisWorks 5.0 section of the online help. For additional examples of links, check out the many Stationery Index documents located in the ClarisWorks Stationery folder in your ClarisWorks 5.0 folder.