Add clickable links to customiser descriptions

A description in the customer customiser can hold a clickable link. Use a link to send customers to a mounting guide, a size chart, an installation video or your contact details. Customers do not have to leave the customiser to read the description. This article is for merchants who edit customisers in the merchant admin.

Before you start

Open a customiser. Go to Customisers and click the name of the customiser.
Know where the link goes. This is the link target. It is a web page, an email address or a phone number.

Where you can add links

Links show to customers in the descriptions on these pages:

Sizes, Fonts, Icons, Backboards and Mountings
Mountings, in the Mounting Colours Section: the Section Description field
Materials, Jackets, Tube Colours and UV Colours (Neon signs only)
Additional Input Options
Forms: the Description of each form field

On most of these pages, the Description field or the Section Description field is on the page. On Additional Input Options, the Description field is on the form for each item. On Mountings, the Section Description field for the mounting colours is in the Mounting Colours Section.

The page names change with the sign type. For example, a stencil customiser has Sheets and not Backboards. Some pages show only for some sign types.

The link button also appears in some other Description fields, for example on the Review Screen and in the Custom Design steps. Customers see those fields as plain text. A link in those fields shows as the text you typed. Do not add links there.

Add a link with the link button

In the menu on the left, open the page that holds the description. This example uses Materials.
Find the Description field. Click the link button on the right of the field.
In Link text, type the words that the customer clicks. For example, type Mounting guide.
In URL, type the link target. For example, type https://example.com/mounting-guide.
Click Insert link.
Look at the Preview box under the field. Use it to check the link text.
Click Save.

The button adds the link at the end of the text in the field. If the text is not empty and does not end with a space or a new line, the button adds a space before the link.

If the link does not appear, check the two fields:

Link text cannot be empty. It cannot contain square brackets.
URL must use one of the formats in the next section. It can also start with a single /, or with # and a name. It cannot start with //.

Link targets you can use

Target

Starts with

Example

Web page

https:// or http://

https://example.com/size-chart

Email address

mailto:

mailto:hello@example.com

Phone number

tel:

tel:+15551234567

The examples show the format only. Use the real address of your own page, email address or phone number.

A target cannot contain spaces. A target that starts with // does not work. A target that starts with a single /, or with # and a name, is also accepted. A relative link opens on the site that runs the customiser. In an iframe embed, that is the Sign Customiser site, not your store. Use the full https:// address for a page on your store.

Type a link by hand

You can type the link in the field. Use this format:

Read the [mounting guide](https://example.com/mounting-guide) before you choose.

Put the words that the customer clicks in square brackets. Put the target in round brackets directly after the square brackets. Do not use a closing round bracket ) in the target.

If the format or the target is not valid, the customer sees the text as you typed it. The text is not a link.

What the customer sees

The link shows in the description in the customer customiser. It is underlined and has the link colour.

A link to a web page, or a relative link that starts with /, opens in a new browser tab or window. The customiser stays open in the first tab.
A link that starts with mailto:, tel: or # does not open a new browser tab.
Text that does not use the link format looks the same as before.

Edit or remove a link

Open the page and find the Description field.
To edit the link, change the words in square brackets or the target in round brackets. To remove the link, delete all of the link text, from the opening square bracket to the closing round bracket.
Click Save.

Limits

Only the link format in this article works. Other Markdown, such as bold text, does not change the text.
The Description field on the colour form holds 255 characters. The mounting colour form has no limit. The link text and the target count in this total. The link button does not check this limit. After you insert a link, check the length of the text.
The link button adds the link at the end of the field. To put a link in the middle of the text, type it by hand.