Hyperlinks are a great way to help your readers navigate throughout your newsletter and in and out of other linked sources of information.  The IMN system provides a “rollover” effect for the hyperlinks when your readers’ mouse pointer hovers on the links. While they are useful to the reader, we’ve seen many newsletters that use a variety of effects for their rollovers.  This can be a little confusing to the reader.  We recommend standardizing them in order that the links behave identically throughout your newsletter.   This approach will help your readers easily identify hyperlinks within the text and throughout the newsletter so they can navigate your newsletter quickly and easily. 

Throughout the IMN system, there are automatically generated links, such as Full Story, Web Link, and Printer Friendly Version, that are helpful navigation tools for your readers.  The IMN system makes it very easy to customize these links so that you can not only standardize them, but you can also change them to match your layout.  You have the option of customizing not only the way the hyperlink appears, but also the how the hyperlink appears in the event the mouse hovers over the link.

The most common rollover effects used are changes in text color or text decoration (e.g. underlined text), but a wide variety of effects can be implemented using the text Styles Editor in the newsletter layout.  Here’s how to accomplish this: 

To set rollover effects, edit the Element Properties (you can get there from the Single or Multiple Article Edit links on the Layout page). You’ll see the Text Styles box on the right side of the Properties page:

There are a number of “Mouse Over” properties that can be customized, depending on the type of layout element you’re editing (note: you might have to scroll down in the Text Styles box in order to see some of the options).

To set a rollover effect, click the Edit button next to one of the Mouse Over links.

The familiar style options appear here, where you can select the font face, color, size and decoration for the rollover.

Make the desired changes, save, and you’re done!

Now when a reader hovers their mouse over the various links in your newsletter, they’ll see a consistent pattern to the links, making the navigation throughout your newsletter easier for them.

If you have any questions, please contact me.  

Want to learn more from Brenden?  Here is a library of his most recent tips:

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