Text, headings, anchors and links

Write formatted text in the small editor with the toolbar. Link to one part of a manual with the anchor that every section and every block carries.

Where the text editor appears

The Text block is the plain one: Formatted prose for anything the other blocks do not cover. The same editor appears in any field that takes prose rather than a single line, such as an answer in a FAQ, a rule in a typography block or the trademark text in a Legal block. See Every block, and what it holds.

If you may not edit the manual, there is no toolbar and the text is shown as it stands. See Roles.

The toolbar

There is no font, no size, no color and no alignment. Type and color come from the theme, so every page of the manual looks like the same document. Change them in Typography, Color and the design controls. H makes a heading one level below the section title: it is styled and searchable, but it is not a section and gets no anchor of its own.

Links

Select the words, press Link, and type an address at the prompt Link URL (https://...). Put the cursor in a link and press Unlink to take it off again.

These are the addresses a link may hold. Anything else is dropped:

An address longer than 2048 characters is dropped as well. Every link in a published manual opens in a new tab, so a reader who follows one does not lose the manual.

Tables

Table inserts a two by two table at the cursor, with an empty paragraph after it so you can keep typing. Borders, padding and alignment come from the theme. For a header row, a column count you choose and content kept in fields, use the Table block instead: Rows and columns for anything that reads better as a grid.

Pasting from somewhere else

Paste from a document, a mail or a web page and the wording arrives intact. Most of the look does not. What is kept: bold, italic, strikethrough, underline, headings, bulleted and numbered lists, links, tables and quotations.

• Colors, fonts, sizes, alignment and highlighting are removed.
• Images pasted into the text are removed. A picture belongs in an image block or in the asset library; see Uploading files.
• Embedded videos and forms are removed whole.
• Any other formatting is removed and the words are kept.

A field with formatting but no words

Deleting the words out of a text field is enough to empty it. The block prints no empty box on the page, and the field counts as missing for completeness.

The anchor every section and block carries

An anchor is the word at the end of an address that points at one part of a manual, the piece after the #. Every section and every block has one.

https://acme.stylehub.cloud/#logo-2

• It is made on the first save. A section takes it from its title; a block takes it from its kind, so a logo block becomes logo.
• It is unique across the manual. Two logo blocks in one section become logo and logo-2, in the order they stand.
• It is then kept. Rename the section, reword the block, move the block: the anchor does not change. A link mailed out last year still lands on the same paragraph.
• It is lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, at most 48 characters. Accents are dropped and anything else becomes a hyphen.

Changing an anchor by hand

Neither field takes effect until the section is saved.

A section

WhereDashboard, Brand manual, Content, a section, Owner, review date and internal notes

1. Open the section and click Owner, review date and internal notes.
2. Type into Link anchor. Leave it alone and the anchor is set from the title, as its placeholder Set from the title on save says.
3. The line under the field shows the address as you type.

The anchor is the only field in that panel that appears on the public page. The rest is internal.

A block

WhereDashboard, Brand manual, Content, a section, open a block

The Anchor field sits at the top of an opened block, above its content, with set on save as its placeholder. Both fields lowercase what you type, turn spaces into hyphens, drop anything that is not a letter, a digit or a hyphen, and stop at 48 characters.

Copying a link to one part of a manual

Two buttons on the published manual copy the link for you.

Either one copies the page address with the anchor on the end and reads Copied for a moment. Neither button is printed or included in the PDF. Opening the link scrolls straight to that section or block.

Where anchors are used besides links

• Search. Press / on a manual to search. It looks through blocks as well as sections, so a hit lands on the block rather than at the top of the section holding it.
• The API. Every section and block in the answer carries its anchor, and each block carries a finished link that ends in it. See the API examples (opens in a new tab) and the API documentation (opens in a new tab).
• Analytics. Which sections readers reached is counted per anchor. See Analytics.

Who may edit this

Writing text and setting an anchor both need the Edit sections and content permission. The owner, an admin and an editor have it. A viewer does not, and sees the text without a toolbar. See Roles and Custom roles. This works the same on every plan, Free included; see Plans and limits.

Where to go next

• Every block, and what it holds, for the blocks that hold structured content instead of prose.
• The editor, for how sections and blocks are arranged.
• Reading a manual, for search and the print view.
• Comments on a block, for asking a question about a paragraph instead of rewriting it.