HubPages changes my link information

1. 57

   jstevens2posted 8 years ago

   Hi,
   
   I recently published an article on creating a pdf file and linked to a free funny pdf of mine as an example at the end of the article.
   
   The link is right when I'm in editing mode, but as soon as the hub is published Huppages adds extra numbers to my link making the link worthless.
   
   I am new to Hubpages so I have to ask, how do I stop HubPages from inserting extra numbers into my link? Or do I have to link to something else without a % sign in the url?

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2. 61

   dingdongposted 8 years ago

   Does your link contain special characters? like +, (, & etc.

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3. 81

   darksideposted 8 years ago

   You most likely have spaces in your file name and when parsed it converts them to an HTML attribute which is '%20'.
   
   So the problem will be at the other end. If you've uploaded the PDF do it again, and rename the file so it doesn't have spaces. Or use hyphens or underscores to replace the hyphens.
   
   Back in the 90s I remember when learning the ways of the HTML edit that using spaces in graphic files would see those image links break completely.

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   1. 61

      dingdongposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      How about other characters like '+' are they ok to use in a url?

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      1. 81

         darksideposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not entirely sure. I've always kept my file names neat and tidy and stuck with underscores and hyphens (or a combination of the two) rather than play around with other symbols which may play havoc with different servers or even within different file types. Keeping it simple avoids all sorts of issues.
         
         But I'll see what I can find.

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         1. 61

            dingdongposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks.

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4. 81

   darksideposted 8 years ago

   Also, it's a good habit to get into (having unspaced file names). Because of the way that hyperlinks work.
   
   This is your PDF:
   
   http://www.thingsgoingsmoothly.com/taco bell diet.pdf
   
   This is what it looks like as I suggested:
   
   http://www.thingsgoingsmoothly.com/tacobelldiet.pdf
   http://www.thingsgoingsmoothly.com/taco-bell-diet.pdf
   http://www.thingsgoingsmoothly.com/taco_bell_diet.pdf
   
   Notice the difference? In the second bunch of examples the links are automatically parsed and become live. Whereas the first one will send a person to http://www.thingsgoingsmoothly.com/taco

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5. 81

   darksideposted 8 years ago

   * From Reserved characters and words a list of characters to avoid:
   
   * Asterisk
   < >[ ] Brackets
   
   = Equal sign
   
   " Quotes
   
   \ / Slashes
   
   , . : ; Comma, Period, Colon, Semicolon

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   1. 81

      darksideposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      This site recommends to avoid the Plus Sign (+)

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      1. 56

         weblogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Blogger still adds plus sign to image urls, I wonder how they do. But, lots of good info from you. Thanks

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         1. 81

            darksideposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            If Blogger allows it then they've got things set up on their server to make it okay. Somewhere else though, it might cause grief. It's not usually a problem with a browser, but with the server side.
            
            Last decade there were a few things that Geocities would throw a wobbly over. It could have been the capitalisation of file extensions. It would look fine when previewed on your desktop, but then you'd upload it and it wouldn't show.
            
            At HubPages, when it comes to graphics, it doesn't matter about file names or whether file extensions are in upper or lower case. Or even if there are spaces in the file name, because it gets uploaded, given a new file name, and also optimised.

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6. 81

   darksideposted 8 years ago

   * The pound sign is a valid character to use in a file name but is not accepted in hyperlinks in Office documents.

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7. 57

   jstevens2posted 8 years ago

   Thanks for the insight and information.
   
   I have temporarily removed the link altogether so as not to detract from the article. I will add it again as soon as I can find the original of the file I was linking to and upload it with a new file name. (might just have to download from my own blog to get a copy)

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