How to make Anchor Link in Dreamweaver 2020?

[bobzybach]

Hi: I need to make an Anchor Link in Dreamweaver 2020. It used to be easy with the Insert Menu, but now it is Code -- with NO instructions! I was lucky to find "Properties" in Windows, but all Tutorials seem to be geared toward Dreamweaver 2013 -- even the Adobe Chat guy gave me Menu instructions that no longer work -- then said to use this Forum. Very frustrated and way too much time trying to figure out what ysed to be very easy on Dreamweaver -- and no longer exists. Any help?

[BenPleysier]

What do you mean with anchor link?

If you want to create a go to link within the same page then you need to use an ID.

As an example, if you need to go the an element as in <div id="here"> then the link will be <a href="#here">Go to Here</a>

[bobzybach]

Ben: "Anchor Link" is what Dreamweaver used for years, along with an icon shaped like an anchor. Then they switched to the "ID" process you kind of describe. I stayed with the older version until recently and have had much difficulty with the transition. Most Dreamweaver consultants on the phone and by Chat were unable to help and I finally had to have a neighbor figure it out for me.

What is the reason for the NPD comment?

[Jon Fritz]

Anchors, the way they were produced in the past, are considered Obsolete under HTML5 Standards. Because of that, Adobe deprecated the old Anchor function from DW, just like they did the APDiv button when it was clear absolute position layouts were going to be more trouble than they were worth.

As Ben said, you now use html ids on the elements you want to link to (each one in a given page needs to be unique) then use the id as the target of the link further down the page. Linking to an id from another page on your site works in a similar fashion...

<a href="thepage.html#theid">Go to a specific spot on the other page</a>

[Jon Fritz · Accepted solution]

The simplest way to do it is...

1. Highlight the text or element you want to jump to when the link is clicked
2. In the Properties window, with the HTML button selected on the far left, add a unique id to the id field

3. Highlight the text or element you want to use as the link
4. Put a # symbol followed by the id name from step 2 in the Link field and hit Enter/Return

[bobzybach]

Thanks Jon: Appreciate the background and insight. Yes, it was the lack of knowing about the # symbol that was particularly frustrating.

[Nancy OShea]

Tools don't build great web apps, people do.  Among other things, you need some coding skills and basic understanding of web terminology to build modern websites.  

Without understanding code, it's unlikely you'll get the results you're hoping for.  Read chapters below, do code exercises and take quizzes at the end.
- https://www.w3schools.com/html/
- https://www.w3schools.com/css/
- https://www.w3schools.com/js/

Good luck with your project! 🙂

[bobzybach]

Hi Nancy: Thanks for your feedback. I have been building websites since 1996 and have taught many others to do so. They are rudimentary, but content is comrehensive and easy to locate. My interest with Dreamweaver was that it started out being WYSIWYG, which was easy to learn and to teach, and then went through a number of transitions that made your advice to learn basic coding necessary. This was just one of several dozen online educational projects I have been working on the past 25 years, but just got confused by the transition to coding after avoidiung it all this time. 

[Nancy OShea]

Back in 1996, the web was in its infancy and not very sophisticated.  To say A LOT HAS CHANGED since then is an understatement.  Most devices & technologies we rely on today didn't exist 5 years ago much less a quarter-century ago.  The Internet has always been driven by code but now it's more complicated.  Ongoing education is vital to keep pace with rapid changes.