Skip to main content
Solved

URL markdown not working as expected

  • November 3, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 147 views
S
Forum|alt.badge.img+10

Hello,

I am designing a base that needs URLs with markdown in this format:

[text to display](https://my.url.com)

However, when I try that... that's exactly what it looks like. I'm using long text fields with rich text enabled. I've tried a bunch of variants, including many I've seen in this forum, and it never shows display text -- always just the text exactly as entered. Whether or not the URL is interpreted as a URL is also an issue. It works sometimes, but no others. I'm using google Chrome for what it's worth. Is there an issue with my syntax?

Regards,

Scott

Best answer by Scott_Mullin

Hi Arthur,

I was able to get it to work by following this old forum post:

 
I can create a Single Line Text field {Site name}, a url field {url}, and a calculation that concatenated stuff so I get an output like "[{Site name}]({url})". Then I wrote an automation that would copy the formula result to a rich text enabled Long Text field called {link}. The end result is a normal URL with display text.
 
I knew it was possible to have links like that in the long text because you can copy/paste them in from other sources. It looks like if you directly put that markup language in the Long Text field it adds some hidden characters that prevent the markup?
 
We're replacing an existing workflow in Google sheets, and we (incorrectly) assumed Airtable would make it easy to do this.

  

 

 
Regards,
Scott
 
 

4 replies

S
Forum|alt.badge.img+10
  • Scott_Mullin
  • Author
  • Inspiring
  • November 3, 2023

I checked and I'm not getting any of the markdown attempts to work. Here's a screenshot:

 

 

 

 

Arthur_Tutt
Forum|alt.badge.img+19
  • Arthur_Tutt
  • Brainy
  • November 4, 2023

Hey @Scott_Mullin Unfortunately Airtable doesn't support markdown for hyperlinks in long rich text fields. Here's the official documentation: https://support.airtable.com/v1/docs/using-markdown-in-airtable

 

 

A couple thoughts - why does it need to be in that format? What is the use case / necessity?  By understanding your specifics I might be better able to offer a solution. 

As a workaround, the long rich text fields allow you to add hyperlinks to achieve the (visual) desired end result:

 

Let me know if this will work for you or more about what you're trying to achieve! 

 

 

 

 

Kenneth_Raghuna
S
Forum|alt.badge.img+10
  • Scott_Mullin
  • Author
  • Inspiring
  • Answer
  • November 4, 2023

Hi Arthur,

I was able to get it to work by following this old forum post:

 
I can create a Single Line Text field {Site name}, a url field {url}, and a calculation that concatenated stuff so I get an output like "[{Site name}]({url})". Then I wrote an automation that would copy the formula result to a rich text enabled Long Text field called {link}. The end result is a normal URL with display text.
 
I knew it was possible to have links like that in the long text because you can copy/paste them in from other sources. It looks like if you directly put that markup language in the Long Text field it adds some hidden characters that prevent the markup?
 
We're replacing an existing workflow in Google sheets, and we (incorrectly) assumed Airtable would make it easy to do this.

  

 

 
Regards,
Scott
 
 
Kenneth_Raghuna
Arthur_Tutt
S
Forum|alt.badge.img+10
  • Scott_Mullin
  • Author
  • Inspiring
  • November 4, 2023

For whatever reason my snipping tool blanched all the pictures out. Sorry to anybody who tries to look at those!

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement