Link
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When to use
Use a regular link for navigation between pages of the same window.
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This option is in the Settings dialog. "Configure servers" opens another page of the same dialog.
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Do not use a button to navigate to another page of the same window.
Use an external link for navigation to web resources. See below for the external link icon.
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Use a regular or drop-down link for secondary actions in packed or small UI areas.
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The "Reset" action is a link for two reasons: (1) The action appears only when the default value in the field is changed and reverting to a default is considered a rare scenario. (2) A lightweight link fits better than a button in this busy layout.
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The "Modify options" drop-down link fits into the top right corner of a busy layout.
Do not use links for primary actions or when a UI is not constrained. Use a button or a drop down list instead. These controls can be selected from the keyboard and are bigger and easier to click.
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How to use
Writing guidelines
Use sentence capitalization.
Add an ellipsis to a button-link if it opens another UI area where input is possible. See examples for the Button.
Do not use words like "navigate" or "click here". A link already implies navigation or clicking.
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When possible, replace "Learn more" and other generic phrases with more informative ones.
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Link as a part of text
A link can be a part of a checkbox or radio button label or of any stand-alone text, like the text in an empty state or in context help.
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Make a link the minimum phrase that is enough to understand what will happen without reading the whole text.
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Link in a tree or table
Use a link as a secondary action for some items of a tree or table.
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If an action is needed for all items of a tree or table:
Add an icon button to a toolbar.
For a list of choices, add a separate table column of drop-down cells (see Table).
If a link in every tree or table line has meaningful formatting, leave it:
Links in the "Push Commits" window have the format that helps understand the relation between them: "[remote repository] : [branch]". Moving these links elsewhere would break this meaning.
External link icon
Always add the arrow icon for an external link. The icon shows that the user will switch to a browser and lose the current context.
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An exception is a help topic link in empty states. The help icon already hints that this is an external help resource, so the arrow icon is unnecessary.
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Drop-down link
Drop-down links show a context menu or a popup. Use DropDownLink
to implement a drop-down link.
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Placement
Lay out button-links as buttons and dropdown-links as combo boxes. See Layout.
Built-in behavior
A focused link is activated from the keyboard with Space.