Send Web Links That Jump to the Exact Text You Mean

[It’s always something]

Didn't they have this since the 90s with anchors?

Anchors are server-side and created before you see the page. This is something that you can use to identify a particular chunk of text in a web page on an ad hoc basis.

 

[coolfactor]

Nifty feature, but what the heck were they thinking with a delimiter like `:~:` for Fragment Directives? Were they drunk?

Why not just a second Hash # character?

With a Fragment and Directive specified, hence separated # marks:

/some/webpage#SomeHeading#text=something

With only a Directive specified, hence the double-#.

/some/webpage##text=something

Developers are just making coding much more complicated than it needs to be!

 

[It’s always something]

Developers are just making coding much more complicated than it needs to be!

I don’t understand. This isn’t something that a developer would need to interact with, aside from browser developers, because it’s done entirely on/by the client browser.

Aside from that and in defense of the developers, this was something that was standardized by W3C.

 

[svish]

Good article. Have used it before and it is really useful sometimes.

 

[macbookj0e]

Didn't they have this since the 90s with anchors?



check out Brave Search and if you are willing to pay , Kagi.com is paid. No ads with many features.

Ah yes thank you I already use brave browser and search!

 

[gegy]

Wow! Didn‘t know that feature! Works on iphone and ipad too.
Thanks.

 

[MacHeritage]

I ran into this because of someone sending me this for their web site as a link and was like "what is this?" But it doesn't work on older browsers, so can be frustrating when sharing with a person who has to use an older browser. I still didn't know it was an official standard until this post though.

 

[MacBH928]

Anchors are server-side and created before you see the page. This is something that you can use to identify a particular chunk of text in a web page on an ad hoc basis.

I just discovered Brave browser has this feature its called copy link to highlight. Here is example from this page:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/send-web-links-that-jump-to-the-exact-text-you-mean.2455939/page-2?post=33878787#post-33878787:~:text=Nifty%20feature%2C%20but%20what%20the%20heck%20were%20they%20thinking%20with%20a%20delimiter%20like%20%60%3A~%3A%60%20for%20Fragment%20Directives%3F%20Were%20they%20drunk%3F

 

[It’s always something]

I just discovered Brave browser has this feature its called copy link to highlight. Here is example from this page:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/send-web-links-that-jump-to-the-exact-text-you-mean.2455939/page-2?post=33878787#post-33878787:~:text=Nifty%20feature%2C%20but%20what%20the%20heck%20were%20they%20thinking%20with%20a%20delimiter%20like%20%60%3A~%3A%60%20for%20Fragment%20Directives%3F%20Were%20they%20drunk%3F

I followed your link on my iPad A16, and it brought me back to your comment. When I scrolled up the page I found the text from your link, highlighted as it was supposed to be. It seems odd that Safari didn’t scroll to that text. Maybe a bug? 🤷‍♂️

 

[MacBH928]

I followed your link on my iPad A16, and it brought me back to your comment. When I scrolled up the page I found the text from your link, highlighted as it was supposed to be. It seems odd that Safari didn’t scroll to that text. Maybe a bug? 🤷‍♂️

I just realised this "brave browser" feature is actually the same Google implementation of sharing the text and the one that safari should implement according to the article but you have to have safari 18.2.

I think something is wrong with my original link. I tried it again with this one. It workedo n Brave, safari 17, and vivaldi:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/send-web-links-that-jump-to-the-exact-text-you-mean.2455939/page-2#:~:text=Aside%20from%20that%20and%20in%20defense%20of%20the%20developers%2C%20this%20was%20something%20that%20was%20standardized%20by%20W3C.

 

[It’s always something]

I just realised this "brave browser" feature is actually the same Google implementation of sharing the text and the one that safari should implement according to the article but you have to have safari 18.2.

I think something is wrong with my original link. I tried it again with this one. It workedo n Brave, safari 17, and vivaldi:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/send-web-links-that-jump-to-the-exact-text-you-mean.2455939/page-2#:~:text=Aside%20from%20that%20and%20in%20defense%20of%20the%20developers%2C%20this%20was%20something%20that%20was%20standardized%20by%20W3C.

Yes, this second link works perfectly 👍

 

[MacHeritage]

I just realised this "brave browser" feature is actually the same Google implementation of sharing the text and the one that safari should implement according to the article but you have to have safari 18.2.

I think something is wrong with my original link. I tried it again with this one. It workedo n Brave, safari 17, and vivaldi:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/send-web-links-that-jump-to-the-exact-text-you-mean.2455939/page-2#:~:text=Aside%20from%20that%20and%20in%20defense%20of%20the%20developers%2C%20this%20was%20something%20that%20was%20standardized%20by%20W3C.

For anyone reading this in the future, you don't need Safari 18.2, Safari 17.6 works fine with it (maybe Safari 16 too?). I am using 17.6 right now.

Your first link brought me straight to my own comment above with no highlighting but the second one worked fine.