Markdown link format - Newb question

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1

Hi all,

So if I get it correctly the format of links is the following:
[Text to display](https://address "optional link title")

I came across the following format in a document and I can’t figure out what the text given before the address in the parenthesis is doing. Kind of link title too?
[Text to display](some text: https://address)

I got also the following, which puzzles me even more.
[Text to display](some text: https://address1 another text: https://address2)

What’s the trick there?

Thanks for helping :slight_smile:

2

It doesn’t appear to be an anchor syntax supported by Jekyll’s default Markdown processor Kramdown. Maybe the document is using a different flavor of Markdown? Or maybe a custom extension? Of course, the extra “some text:” might just be a typo…

1 Like
3

It would help if you had a link to that document. Is it Jekyll related project?

I’ve never seen that markdown format before

4

Unfortunately, I am not an expert on this, but here is what I can share with you:

Basic markdown URL

When I am working on my website and hand-typing a URL, I just use the []() format, like this:
[My website](https://www.cambermast.com)

Which outputs like this:
My website

As you can see, the text in the brackets displays as a link for the text in the parenthesis.

Optional link title

When I use a markdown editor, like, say, Forestry.io, it uses the link title by default. Of course, I can manually type that if I want, but it does seem like a little extra work for not a ton of value (in my opinion, anyway).

Here is what the optional link title looks like:
[My website](https://www.cambermast.com "A consulting firm and sponsor of the Agile in Action with Bill Raymond podcast")

Which outputs like this:
My website

Looks the same, right? Now, using a mouse on a computer, hover over the URL and you will see the link title display. I suppose this could be good for a little extra SEO goodness, or to give the reader a little extra reason to click the link, but I have read (at times contradictory) articles that say accessibility screen readers have some problems with the links, so think about that and do your research.

Two links, one line

You provided the following example:
[Text to display](some text: https://address1 another text: https://address2)

Here is the output:
[Text to display](some text: https://address1 another text: https://address2)

As you can see, the markdown processor for this website you are reading right now simply sees two URLs and converts them for you. It is not really markdown. I am truly not sure why you would want two URLs in one link and could not find it in any official markdown documentation (although maybe it is in GitHub flavored markdown or some other flavor?)

At any rate, I would avoid this one because wrapping two links into a single HREF is not really a standard thing you would do. However, I could see how maybe it is useful is you want to do a script that opens two URLs ala the following SO article? Anyway, I would not trust that this will output code you want to manage and it will probably not be supported on all platforms. I could be totally off base, but suggest you avoid it based on my thinking as I type this :slight_smile: