The hard link is one of two fundamental links in the Everything 2 writeup/nodes system. A hard link is created when you put square brackets around a word or phrase in your writeup. The square brackets can probably be found on your keyboard just above and to the left of your 'enter' key. They look like this: [ ]

By placing these brackets around words or phrases they become a hypertext link that will take you to the node of the same name. If a node does not yet exist with the title of your hard link then E2 will automatically run a search on the word or words in your link. A 'results' page will be displayed with 100 possible links to E2 nodes that do exist. Use this results page to double-check that your hard link is spelled correctly or as possible inspiration for the ever-so-clever pipe link.

The idea behind a hard link is to give the reader an easy-access link to other ideas or concepts that relate to your writeup. It's usually a good idea to hard link people's names, song/book/film titles, esoteric words and any phrases that you may have pipe linked to different E2 nodes or possibly to new ones. Don't hard link just to hard link - do it right. Link relevant words and concepts, don't use links for emphasis. If you wish to emphasize use HTML. If you've already linked a word or set of words you don't really need to link them again in your writeup. Once is enough. You may notice that I didn't hard link the words 'hard link' in this writeup - there's good reason for that. It's because Pete and Repeat went out in a boat. Pete fell in. Who was left?

See also:

soft link
pipe link
firm link
link and link
The Perfect Node will tie it all together for you.




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E2 Glossary