QuickLink

Overview

QuickLink is a web service, much like that provided by tinyurl.com, which you can use to obtain a short URL (Web address), to use to refer to a much longer one.

For example, the following URL:

http://info.anu.edu.au/policies/Policies/Governance/Other/AcademicBoardandPolicySubCommittees.asp

could become the much shorter,

http://quicklink.anu.edu.au/abcd

This is useful in several situations, including:

• reading a URL to someone over the phone,
• when putting a URL into an email message: many email clients will mangle the link, making it hard for a recipient to visit the website,
• when a URL is placed in a printed publication,and so needs to be typed by a user.

QuickLinks can only be generated by a web browser on the ANU campus, BUT the resultant links can be used by anyone, anywhere on the internet. QuickLinks never expire (though the URL which they point to can still expire).

Obtaining a QuickLink

To obtain a QuickLink, you need to tell the service the URL you have, it will then give you a short version of it, either 4 or 5 characters in length.

Just visit http://quicklink.anu.edu.au/, enter the URL, and hit the 'Create QuickLink' button. The new link will appear and will work immediately.

Quicker QuickLinks

If you find yourself making regular use of QuickLinks, you might want this shortcut; visit the QuickLink page, and go to the bottom, you will find the following line, which is itself a link.

'save this link as a bookmark in your browser'

Bookmark that link, then when you have browsed to a page that you want a QuickLink for, just select that bookmark.

This special bookmark may not work in all browsers, but has been tested in both Firefox 2, and Internet Explorer 7. You will need javascript enabled in your browser to allow this to work.

Customised QuickLinks

In some situations, you may want a specific QuickLink, something easy to remember, instead of a string of random characters and digits. If you want a quicklink like this, then you can submit a helpdesk job asking for it, we will create it for you. If you want http://quicklink.anu.edu.au/inscrewtable, to point to your page, just ask.

These customised quicklinks MUST appear under the http://quicklink.anu.edu.au/ server name, but they can be longer than the 4-5 character default links.

Forgot, or Lost, your QuickLink?

If you forget a QuickLink you've previously generated, just generate a new one.