fresh.li has a new feature: it is now possible to make an external link in your menu.This can be useful if you have a blog or webshop hosted by another service and you want to link directly to it from your menu.
Or if you want a contact link that will open a new mail addressed to you when a visitor clicks on it.

This tutorial teaches you about the new feature and also explains how to make website links and so called mailto links in the text of a page or section of your portfolio.

Log in to your fresh.li account and click manage. On your manage page you can manage all your menu items; sections, pages and now links. To add a link in your menu click add link in your options box on the right.

Then fill in the form.

The link title will be shown in your menu, the link destination is where your visitors will go if you enter a URL (i.e. http://www.example.com), or open mail software if you enter an e-mail address (i.e. info@example.com).

Tip: copy the url from your browser instead of typing it, this way you will always get the right url without typos.

And that’s it! The external link is now in your menu. Off course you can always drag and drop the link to another place in your menu and change the order of the different items in your portfolio navigation when you are on your manage page. Simply click & hold the title bar of the item and drag it to the new location, when you drop it the new location is saved.

There are two ways to make a link in your text; by using the easy Markdown or the standard web language HTML. One is not better than the other, they are just different.

Markdown:

[title of your link](http://www.your_url.com)

Type the title of your link between the square brackets [ ]. This can be anything; the word ‘here’ for example or simply the title of the webpage your linking to.

Type the url of your link between the parenthesis ( ). This has to be the exact link, if there is a typo in it, it will  not work. Copy and paste it to be safe.

HTML:

<a href="http://www.your_url.com">title of your link</a>

Type the url of your link between the quotation marks ” “. This has to be the exact link, if there is a typo in it, it will  not work. Copy and paste it to be safe.

Type the title of your link between the angle brackets > <. This can be anything; the word ‘here’ for example or simply the title of the webpage your linking to.

Tip: the more descriptive your link title the better; so ‘my latest exhibition at Tate Modern’ is better than ‘click here’.

For making mailto links (when a visitor clicks this his/her mailing software will open a new mail addressed to your e-mail address) you can use both Markdown and HTML.

Markdown:

[mail me](mailto:info@example.com)

Type the title of your  mailto link between the square brackets [ ]. This can be anything like ‘contact’ or your e-mail adress. 

Type mailto: followed by your e-mail adress without any spaces between the parenthesis ( ). 

HTML:

<a href="mailto:info@example.com">mail link</a>

Type mailto: followed by your e-mail address without any spaces between the quotation marks ” “.

Type the title of your mailto link between the angle brackets > <. This can be anything; the word ‘contact’ for example or your e-mail adress.

Tip: if you use a word like ‘contact’ in the title people who do not use desktop e-mail software (because they use Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc.) might not be able to contact you because the mailto link does not automatically open their e-mail app. To prevent this make sure your full e-mail adress is mentioned at least somewhere on your website or use your e-mail address as the title instead of a sentence.