Links in-depth

We explain how to insert basic links to other pages in your flipbook or other websites in our article: How to add videos, links, and images to my flipbook? In this article, we look at this topic more in-depth, here is what we cover:

• Use cases and examples
• Other link types and parameters
• Creating links quickly using Copy and paste
• How to size and align links pixel-perfect?
• Changing how links are highlighted
• How do we extract links from PDFs?
• What to do if your extracted links are not working?
• What happens to my links when I replace the PDF?

Use cases and examples

First, let’s look at a few examples that show what you can achieve.

• Internal links are used to open other pages in your flipbook. This way your readers can quickly find what they are looking for. A common use is creating an index page. Here’s a neat example - click on the screenshot to see the actual flipbook!
  
  When you’re there, also note how they made the actual images clickable!  
• Product links - With a bit of work you can make your products clickable and drive visitors to your website where they can buy the item. This example shows how it can be done:
  
    
• Even if you don’t have individual products listed, then you can still drive traffic to your website. Look at this subtle example. The creator added some non-intrusive bullets and links on top of them. 
  
     
  To achieve an effect like this, you simply add a PNG image with a transparent background (like this one ) to your flipbook first as an Inline image.
  
  Then, you just add a small link on top of that. For a little extra  spice, you could even add an animated GIF instead of a plain image:

Tip💡Did you know that you can see how often (external) links were clicked on your stats page? It’s in the Audience Engagement section. Click in the Links clicked to see how often each link was clicked! 

Other link types and parameters

There's more you can do than just using links to other (web) pages

• Email links. If you want to make it easier for your clients to send you an email, you can insert a mailto-link. It looks like this
  
  When your visitor clicks such a link, instead of going to a webpage, we open their email app. What’s more, you can even use a preset subject, CC, or even a premade body text. The link below would prepare an email to support@flippingbook.com e.g. set the subject to ‘Test mailto link’
  mailto:support@flippingbook.com?subject=Test%20mailto%20link
  
  You can easily generate such links without any technical knowledge using https://mailtolinkgenerator.com/ 
  
  
• Phone links. If you sell or offer support by phone, then adding a tel: link makes it possible to call a species phone number right away. For example, adding tel:+1 347 429-8704 in the web address creates a link to call FlippingBook’s Support team.
  
  It works especially well on mobile phones. This delivery menu contains such links on the first and last page. Best viewed and tested on mobile devices!   
• Whatsapp. You can even start WhatsApp so your readers can send you a message there. as the web address, use https://wa.me/ followed by your phone number in full international format. Omit any zeroes, brackets, or dashes. For example, https://wa.me/13474298704
• Parameters. If you use web links then you can also add parameters to your link. A common use is UTM parameters like this in this link:  https://mysite.com?utm_source=flipbook&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring-promo  

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Creating links quickly using Copy and paste

If you add several links manually, then it may be useful to know that you can copy and paste links. This is done with the usual keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C (on Windows) or Command+C (on Mac). You can then paste the link with Ctrl/Command +V. This creates an exact copy of your link, with the same size, in exactly the same position. You can then move the new link around and change just the target page or web address. This way, you can quickly create consistent-looking links.

How to size and align links pixel-perfect

The standard way of sizing your links is to just move them around with your mouse and drag the corners. But what if you have several links that you want to have exactly the same width, height, and position? Or how to make it exactly match the image or text on which you placed it?

Use arrow keys

One tool you have at your disposal is the arrow keys. If you select a link and then use the arrow keys you can nudge them in either direction by a single pixel. 

Change Position and size settings

In the menu panel on the right-hand side, we show the exact position and sizes in pixels. You can edit these values. So if you want several links to be of the same size, and aligned on the left, then you can

• Change the first link to the ideal size.
• Write down the X value, width, and height of the first link.
• Manually edit the X value, width, and height of the other links accordingly.

Changing how links are highlighted

When your readers open a page that contains one or more links, the links will be briefly highlighted. Links are also highlighted when you move over them with the mouse. Finally, you can click anywhere on the page to highlight all interactive elements, including links. 

You can change the color of these highlights not in the editor, but in the general setting for your flipbook. 

1. Customize the flipbook
2. Unfold the Branding setting
3. Click on the button after Color Palette
4. Click on Link Highlights.
   
5. Select a suitable color. Note that you can use the Opacity slider to make the highlighting effect more or less pronounced.

Tip💡If you want your links to be clickable but not highlighted at all, then set the opacity slider all the way to the left. 

How do we extract links from PDFs?

When you upload your PDF to us, any text that either looks like a link or was specifically marked like it will be converted and added to the flipbook as an actual link. There are several types of links we support and extract by default:

• Links to websites. e.g. www.flippingbook.com or simply flippingbook.com
• Links to internal pages within a document
• Email addresses. e.g. support@flippingbook.com
• Phone numbers provided that they are presented in the international phone number format. e.g. + 44 1538 542-042 or 0013474298704

When it comes to links to websites, we support both http:// and https:// and add the protocol based if you included it in the link. However, if you didn’t specify the protocol (http:// or https:// ), then we use https:// by default. 

What to do if your extracted links are not working?

If your website doesn’t support https and your links are not prefixed either, this causes problems. For example, if you have a link that says flippingbook.com then we detect it as https://flippingbook.com. But if your site doesn't support https, you will see a security error in the browser when you click on this link. 

The best solution here is to contact your IT department/hosting provider and ask them to enable https! If that’s no short-term option, you can edit such links manually. But what if you have hundreds of such non-working links? In that case, contact our support team. We can enable an option for you so that your links will be extracted as http instead of https.

Side noteIf you communicate with a website using http then all data that you sent and receive back from that site is unencrypted. In theory, everyone could see the information. Obviously, that is a big risk if you send confidential data like passwords, personal information, or credit card numbers. If you use https instead, all data are encrypted.
Now, if you try to open a link using https, then you assume that all further communication is encrypted. But if it turns out that the website doesn't support encryption, the browser will decline to open it. After all, the reader expects all data they sent and receive to be encrypted! 

What happens to my links when I replace the PDF?

If you replace your PDF with a new one (this feature is available in Starter and higher plans), then we will ask you to do with any links and other content you added: keep them (if your PDF is pretty similar with just a few small edits) or remove them (if you basically have a completely new document. For all the details please have a look at our article Can I replace my PDF without changing the URL?