Page Anchor

Page Anchors, are not pages but links to specific content or places on an existing page. You likely have experienced page anchors while navigating a website whether you know it or not. A page anchor typically has a "#" in it, and would appear like this: domain/page-name#anchor-name. The # after the page name denotes a specific place on that page. This is great when you have a page that has multiple pieces of content on it and you want to provide a convenient way for visitors to get to that content further down a page. For example, you have an Alumni page, and at the bottom of that page you have a form for them to submit an update to their information, you can set the row, column, or widget to have an anchor, then drop a button widget at the top of the page that links to that anchor point. This provides a quick way to get to the form without scrolling all the way down. 

Anchors are also useful in marketing and social media posts, as they provide a unique, memorable, and quick way to direct visitors to a very specific point on a page. As noted, you can do this using the URL domain/page-name#anchor-name. After creating and publishing an anchor, visit your site and then just copy the URL with the anchor and then paste wherever you need to use it!

To create an anchor:

1. On any page right click the content you wish to set an anchor point to. This can be a row, column, or widget.
2. Choose Set As Anchor
   
3. Give the anchor a name, and choose whether you are adding this anchor to the navigation or not. Anchor names cannot contain special characters (this is because as noted it will become part of the page URL, which cannot contain special characters). If including the anchor in the Navigation you can edit the name later and include some characters so the navigation displays it the way you want.
   
4. By Default the "Add to site navigation" is checked. IF you keep this selected, when you click Add it will add the Anchor to the bottom of the Pages Panel. Be sure to move it. You can then drag and drop it in the page panel like a normal page.
5. Anchors added to site navigation will appear with an Anchor Icon in the Pages Panel.
   
6. When ever you add or edit an anchor be sure to Republish the site.

To link to an anchor:

1. If you chose to Add the anchor to the navigation, you need only go to the pages panel and click on the Anchor.
2. You can visit your live site and choose the anchor from the navigation. Adding and displaying the Anchor in the navigation, means that when visiting your live site, visitors would see it in the navigation just like all the pages. They would not know that it is an anchor.
3. If you choose to not add the anchor to site navigation you would need to link to it using other methods. Any widget that provides a link option will also provide the option to link to an Anchor.
4. Add a widget to a page, in the link options choose Anchor
5. By default the Anchor option would show the current page then provide a drop-down list of all the Anchors that exists on the selected page.
   
   
6. This means that from within the editor and widgets, you can link to your anchor from pretty much any widget and any page anytime you want to.
7. Alternatively, if you know the anchor name, you can visit the live site, visit the page, and then add #anchor-name to the URL. The URL with the anchor name can be copied and pasted and used in emails or social media posts.

To edit or delete an existing anchor:

1. Go to the page where the anchor exists.
2. Right click on the content (the row, column, or widget).
3. Choose Edit Anchor. The editor will give you the option to change its name or delete the anchor. (Note, if the content shows "Set As Anchor" when you right click it, then the content selected is not your anchor point. An existing anchor would show as Edit Anchor.)
   
4. Alternatively, you can go to the Pages Panel, and open the settings for the Anchor by clicking the 3 dots to the right of its name. This method allows you to:
   • Rename: This changes the visible display name of the Anchor in the Navigation. This can be handy if you needed or wanted special character to display in the Navigation that the page name would not accept when creating it (like an ' or !). If you need to edit the original underlying anchor name, you need to edit the Anchor directly on the page
   • Show or Hide from Navigation: Used to hide or show it in the main navigation widget.
   • Edit the Anchor: here you can change the page or set it to another existing anchor point on the selected page.