Links and Link Cards

Make elements clickable: link to another tab, another document, or an external address, or drop a link card that previews a web page.

Links connect your diagram to the rest of your work. Shapes, text, sticky notes, images, drawings, tables and annotations can all become clickable jump points, and a dedicated link card turns a URL into a tidy bookmark with a title, favicon, and preview image. Together they let a diagram point at the things it describes instead of just naming them.

Linking an Element

Give a shape, text, sticky note, image, drawing, table or annotation a link (arrows and lines take none), and it gains a small "Follow link" badge whose hover card names the target. A link can point at:

  • A tab in the same document, or a specific element on another tab.
  • Another document entirely.
  • An external URL, which opens in a new browser tab.

To add one, right-click the element, open the Resources category and choose Add Link (it reads Edit Link once there is one). The Link element dialog opens on three choices:

  • External URL: type a Web address and press Save link (or Enter). Leave off the https:// and it is added for you.
  • Tab: pick one of the document's tabs.
  • Document: pick one of your other documents.

To change a link, open the same dialog again and pick a new target; the Remove link button at its foot takes the link off. The link follows the element if you move it, and like any edit it can be undone. For more on tab and element targets, see Linking Across Tabs.

SpecLink elementExternal URLTabDocumentWeb addressexample.com/specSave link
The Link element dialog, open on External URL: type the web address and save the link.
OverviewDetailSee detailDetail
A linked element gains a follow-link badge; clicking it jumps to the target, here another tab.

For safety, only http, https, and mailto addresses are allowed as external links. Other URL schemes are blocked.

A link card is a rectangular element that turns a URL into a rich preview: the page's favicon, its title, the address under it, and, when available, its preview image. It is the right choice when the link is the content, such as a reference doc, a ticket, or a related page you want visible on the canvas.

Open the palette's Collaborate category and pick Link Card, under Navigate. Click the canvas to drop it at its default size, or drag to draw it the size you want.

The empty card prompts you to add a link. Double-click it to open the link dialog and paste in a URL.

The card fills in with the page's title, favicon, and preview image automatically. Clicking the row along the bottom of the card, with its title, follows the link.

A link card recolours, moves, locks, layers, and resizes like any other element. To learn how the preview is fetched and what gets shown, see Link Cards.

Release notes, v2.4https://example.com/notes
A link card turns a URL into a rich preview with the page's favicon, title, and address.

Choosing Between Them

Both rely on the same kind of URL, so the choice is about emphasis:

  • Use an element link when an existing shape or node should also be clickable.
  • Use a link card when the bookmark itself is what you want people to see on the canvas.

Drop a link card next to the part of the diagram it supports, so a reader can jump straight from the picture to the source without hunting for it.

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