A friend has asked you to send him a link via email, but you, being new to the world of the Internet and technology in general, not only do not know how to copy and paste the link in question, but you do not even know how to make it clickable, so that the person who receives it can access the site or Web page of reference, without having to copy and paste it in the browser.
Excuse me? That’s exactly how things are and you would like to know if I can help you out? Of course you can, of course you can! If you give me a few moments of your precious time, in fact, I can explain, in a simple but not too detailed way, how to copy a link and make it active.
I’ll tell you right now that, contrary to what you might think, this is a very easy operation, to perform which it is absolutely not necessary to be a “geek”. Also, know that the thing is feasible both from your computer, on Windows and macOS, and from smartphones and tablets, on Android and iOS. Now, however, enough chatting and let’s take action!
How to copy a link and make it active on Windows
If you are using a Windows PC and you are interested in understanding how to copy a link and make it active, the first thing you have to do is to locate the link you are interested in in the window of the program that contains it and select it by clicking and holding down the mouse button.
Next, drag the mouse cursor over the entire area you intend to copy, right-click on the highlighted link and, from the menu that opens, choose the Copy option.
If you don’t want to copy the text of a link (e.g. “click here”) but only the address to which it refers (e.g. https://www.aranzulla.it), right-click anywhere in the text containing the link and select Copy link/Copy link from the menu that opens.
After copying, open the program where you want to insert the link, right-click on the window where you want to paste the link and select Paste from the context menu that appears.
Alternatively, you can copy and paste the link using appropriate key combinations. To be precise, you can use the combination CTRL+A, to select all characters or, alternatively, you can use the key combination Shift+right arrow or left arrow, to select the next or previous characters to the currently selected one. Using the key combination Shift+Ctrl+left or right arrow, you can select entire words. Once the selection is made, you can copy and paste the link using the key combinations Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, respectively.
To make the link active, then, leave a space between the link and any content you intend to insert later, by pressing the space bar on the keyboard, or go over by pressing the Enter key.
You will easily realize that the copied and pasted link has become active, as it will be underlined and, in some cases, it will have a different coloring than before (generally, it will turn from black to light blue or blue) and bringing the mouse pointer over it instead of the “arrow” you will see a “little hand” appear.
As a practical example, if the link you want to copy is the address of a website, open the browser you usually use to surf the Net (e.g. Chrome), go to the portal of your interest and copy the URL in the address bar (located at the top of the browser window), highlighting it, right-clicking on it and choosing Copy from the context menu.
If you want to copy the link in a text document, open the program you usually use for this purpose (eg WordPad), start the creation of a new file, paste the link in the point of the sheet you prefer, always following the instructions above, leave a space by pressing the space bar and that’s it.
How to copy a link and make it active on macOS
The process that you need to implement to copy a link and make it on macOS is not so dissimilar from what I showed you in the previous lines for the Windows side, however, change some key combinations to be used.
In any case, the first thing you have to do is to locate the link you want to copy in the program window that contains it and then select it by clicking on it with the mouse and continuing to hold it down.
Next, drag the mouse pointer over the entire area of the link you wish to copy so that the link is highlighted, then right-click on the link and choose the Copy option from the menu that appears so that you can copy it to the Mac clipboard.
If you don’t want to copy the text of the link (e.g. “click here”) but only the address to which it refers (e.g. https://www.aranzulla.it), right-click anywhere in the text and select Copy link/Copy link from the context menu.
After copying the link, open the program where you want to paste it, right-click on the window where you want to insert the link and select Paste from the context menu that appears.
If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, you can alternatively use the combination cmd+a, to select all characters, or you can use the combination shift+right arrow or left arrow keys, to select the next or previous characters to the currently selected character. Instead, you can use the key combination shift+cmd+left or right arrow to select entire words. Next, you can copy the link using the key combination cmd+c and paste it using cmd+v.
To make the pasted link active, then, leave a space between it and any subsequent content by pressing the space bar on your Mac keyboard. Alternatively, go back to the beginning by hitting the Enter key.
You will immediately realize that the pasted link has become active, as it will be underlined. In most cases, then, an active link also assumes a different color (e.g. from black it becomes light blue or blue). Besides, bringing on the active link the pointer of the mouse, instead of the “usual” cursor (that is the arrow) you will see appear a “little hand”.
As an example, if the link you want to copy is present in a text document, open the file that contains it with the reference program (e.g. Pages), highlight the link, right-click on it and select Copy from the menu that opens.
If you want to paste the copied link into an email message, open the email program (e.g. Mail), start the creation of a new email, paste the copied link into the clipboard at the point in the body of the message you prefer, leave a space by pressing the space bar and proceed with sending by pressing the appropriate button (the one depicting a paper airplane).
How to copy a link and make it active on Android
Let’s see now how you can copy a link and make it active on Android. For starters, locate the link you want to copy on the Android clipboard, open the app you’re interested in and select it.
To do this, tap on the starting point of the link and continue to hold until the link is highlighted in part, then use the two sliders you see on the display to highlight the entire link. Then tap on the Copy command in the menu that opens. Note that in some apps there is a special copy button (usually represented by two sheets of paper): in this case, after selecting the link, you can press the button directly.
If you don’t want to copy the text of a link (e.g. “click here”) but only the address to which it refers (e.g. https://www.aranzulla.it), long tap on any point of the text and select Copy link from the menu that opens.
Now, open the other application where you want to paste the link you just copied, tap on the point of the screen where you want to insert it and continue to hold for a few moments until you see the menu where you can choose the operations to perform with the clipboard. At that point, select either the Paste or the Clipboard option and then tap on the content of the clipboard you are interested in from the list that is shown.
Usually, links pasted on smartphones and tablets automatically become active. You can see this right away because active links are underlined. In most cases, the color of the link is also changed (e.g. from black to light blue or blue).
If, however, the pasted link is not active, you can remedy by leaving a space between the link and any other content, by tapping on the space bar attached to the on-screen keyboard. Alternatively, you can go back to the beginning by pressing the Enter/ Go key, which is always on the virtual keyboard.
I’ll give you a concrete example: if the link you want to copy is the address of a website, open the app you usually use to browse the web from your device (e.g. Chrome), go to the website you’re interested in, tap on the URL in the address bar (located at the top of the screen) and copy it to the Android clipboard, pressing the button with the two sheets that appear in its correspondence.
If you want to share the link you just copied through WhatsApp, start the famous messaging app on your device, select the conversation of interest in the Chat section or start a new one, first by tapping on the button with the cartoon at the bottom and then the name of the user, group or list from the next screen. Then press on the text field located at the bottom, paste the link as I indicated earlier and tap on the button with the paper airplane located on the right to proceed with sending the message.
Note: if you have connected a physical keyboard to your Android device, you can copy and paste links by following directions almost identical to those I gave you in the chapter of the tutorial dedicated to Windows.
How to copy a link and make it active on iOS/iPadOS
If you’re using an iPhone or iPad and, consequently, you’re interested in understanding how to copy a link and make it active on iOS/iPadOS (Apple’s operating systems for mobile devices), the first move you need to make is to locate the link you want to copy in the clipboard, opening the app that contains it and selecting it.
To do so, tap on the starting point of the link, tap on the displayed cursor and choose Select from the menu that appears. Then move the second cursor that appears so that the entire link is highlighted. Alternatively, if the link is the only selectable element, after tapping the cursor, choose the Select All option. Then choose Copy from the on-screen menu.
If, on the other hand, the link you want to copy is active, press on it, keep pressing for a few moments and then select Copy link from the menu that opens.
At this point, open the application where you intend to paste the copied link, tap on the point of the screen where you want to insert the link, tap again on the appeared cursor and choose the Paste option from the menu that opens.
Normally, in the mobile environment, pasted links become active automatically. You can easily recognize them as they are underlined and marked with a different color than the default one (e.g. they turn from black to blue).
If the pasted link is not active, however, to make it so, leave a space between it and any subsequent content by pressing the space bar attached to the virtual keyboard, or go back to the beginning by tapping on the enter button that is always on the onscreen keyboard.
To make a practical example: if you received the link you want to copy via email, open the app of your interest on your device (e.g. Mail), open the email message of your interest and highlight and copy the link as I indicated earlier.
Then, if you want to paste the link into a note, open the app you usually use to perform this type of operation (e.g. Notes), start creating a new note, pressing the appropriate button, and paste the previously copied link, as I explained a few lines above. Easy, isn’t it?
Note: if you have connected a physical keyboard to your iPhone/iPad, you can copy and paste links by following directions almost identical to those I gave you in the chapter of the tutorial dedicated to macOS.