Make Link

Make Link is an extension for Mozilla Firefox which adds a context menu item (Make Link) which allows the user to easily copy links to the clipboard in HTML, forum-code or simple "text (URL)" format. It also allows the user to create his or her own link types to use with the extension, and to modify or remove the default three. From version 3.0.1 there is also support for Markdown by default.

The ‘Make Link’ menu gives the options of ‘HTML Link’, ‘Forum Link’ and ‘Text (URL)’

The function works in three different ways.

  • When used on a link it uses the link's own URL and link text for the new link.
  • When used on selected text it uses the page's URL as the new link URL and the selected text as the new link text.
  • When used elsewhere it uses the page's URL and title for the new link.

The copied link is stored in the clipboard to be pasted into whatever application the user wishes.

Version 3.0.2

Minor update to restore support for Unicode characters. Install version 3.0.2.

Version 3.0

Updates include: from now on updates will not over-write your custom link types; you can re-order link types in the customise screen; a new %imgurl% variable for grabbing links to images; an experimental %tinyurl% variable for shortened URLs from durl.us and tinyurl.com; fixes for all known bugs (except that new experimental feature). Install version 3.0.

Version 2.1

It's now possible to create multi-line link types. Also it is no longer necessary to restart Firefox after creating or editing link types. Other incidental bug fixes. Install version 2.1.

Version 2.0.5

HTML-style links will now be copied with the correct MIME type so they can be pasted into applications that recognise HTML. Install version 2.0.5.

Version 2.0.4

Updated to work with Firefox 2.0. Install version 2.0.4.

Version 2.0.3

Another minor bug fix. This prevents forum code and plain text URLs from being encoded with HTML character entities. It adds a checkbox to each link type definition to enable/disable HTML-style entities (like & for &). Also works with recent nightlies. Install version 2.0.3.

Version 2.0.2

A fix for the bug which prevented text-selection-links on newer versions. This bug was keeping version 2.0.1 out of addons.mozilla.org. Also changed some code that was misbehaving on at least one user's machine. No need to upgrade if these bugs didn't affect you. Install.

Version 2.0.1

Very minor bug fixes and code changes. Now works with Firefox 1.0.3. Install.

Version 2.0

This version introduced the ability to modify or create new link types. It comes with a built-in tutorial on creating link types. It also maintains the old default types for users who just want the simple version. It works with Firefox 0.8 to 1.0+.

Version 1.2

This version works on Firefox versions 0.9 to 0.9.1+. Get Make Link 1.2 for Firefox. You should uninstall old versions of the extension before attempting to install a new version. You can do this from the extension manager.

Changes since 1.1

Copies HTML links as type text/html as well as the usual text/unicode
This means that you can now paste Make Link–created links into word-processors, email programs or HTML editors and have them recognised as links.
Option to keep link title attributes when copying links
The link’s title is the text that shows up when you hover the cursor over it. There is now an option to preserve this when copying links. Access this from the extension options in the extension manager.
New ‘About’ box accessible from the Extensions Manager
Simple ‘About’ box describing contributors and licensing.
Fixed Bug: link-copying only takes effect when right-clicking on an image or text node that is a direct child of the link.
This bug prevented copying links when right-clicking on a child element of the link, for example an <em> element child of the link. It is now fixed.
Fixed Bug: images with computed width / height of 0 (zero) shouldn't have that encoded in HTML
This bug meant that HTML links which contained images would add width and height attributes of zero to the code if these attributes weren't specified in the original page.

Firefox 0.8

Firefox used a different extension mechanism prior to version 0.9. There is a version of Make Link available for these old versions of Firefox but it is not up to date. Get Make Link for Firefox 0.8.

Seamonkey (Mozilla Suite)

I'm told this variation for Seamonkey (a.k.a. the Mozilla Suite) works in at least version 1.7.7. It should work in earlier versions too, but I haven't tested it in any version.