A document spread across many tabs is far more useful when you can move between them from the canvas itself. Any shape, sticky, text box or other boxed element (except a video or embed, whose link is its address) can carry a link, and that link can point at another tab in the same document. Follow it, and the editor jumps you there. It turns a multi-tab document into something you navigate like a small site.
What an element can link to
A single link on an element can target any one of these:
- A tab in this document. Following the link switches to that tab.
- Another document. Following it opens that document.
- An external URL. Following it opens the address in a new browser tab.
A linked element carries a small link badge (unless your element indicators are set to Off). Hover it and its card reads Follow link and names the target (for example Goes to tab "DB internals"), so you can tell where a link leads before you click it. Click the badge to follow the link.
Linking an element to a tab
Right-click the element you want to turn into a jump point, expand Resources, and choose Add Link.
In the Link element dialog, switch to Tab and pick the target tab. The tab you are on is marked "current". The Document list offers your eight most recent other documents, and External URL takes a web address.
Click the element's badge to follow the link. The link travels with the element if you later move it.
To change or remove a link, right-click the element again and choose Edit Link: pick a new target, or use the Remove link button at the bottom of the dialog. Arrows can't carry links, and link cards manage their address in their own Link section instead.
When the target tab goes away
Deleting a tab removes every link that pointed at it, so you are never left with a badge that leads nowhere. Renaming or reordering the target tab doesn't affect its links: the hover card always shows the tab's current name.
Some patterns this enables:
- Drill-down. A "Database" node on the Overview tab links to a "DB internals" tab, so a click dives into the detail.
- Mindmap deep-dives. A leaf branch links to its own tab for deeper structure.
- Cross-references. A process step links to the tab where a related decision is written up, with no duplicated content.
Anyone who can open the document can follow links, including on a view-only share link; adding or editing links needs edit access.
For an external address, only http, https, and mailto links are allowed, and https:// is added if you leave off the scheme. See Links and Link Cards for more on linking elements to the web.
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