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How to link to specific posts?

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How can I link to a specific answer / reply in a forum post, rather than linking to the original post itself? I can't seem to find any "share" or "link" buttons next to individual posts, and a cursory look at the HTML shows no obvious anchor elements for each post either.

The reason I sometimes want to do this is if I am making a post on some other web site and want to make reference to a specific reply. Currently I just link to the topic itself and say something like "see John Doe's second reply", leaving it up to the person following the link to search the page for "John Doe" and figure it out. I can't figure out how to just directly link to, say, John Doe's second reply.

Thanks!

Sunday, March 1, 2015 12:12 AM

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You need to get the message ID. One way I know of is to view the user's activity, then open the message from that link.

Reply message ID

https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/e4ac98c2-b44e-419e-8abb-e86c9d4acc86/how-to-definemanage-possible-values-for-tags-details-in-file-explorer?forum=whatforum#74766eff-e29c-46b7-b84a-59c10fbd9474

Top level thread message ID

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/e4ac98c2-b44e-419e-8abb-e86c9d4acc86/how-to-definemanage-possible-values-for-tags-details-in-file-explorer?forum=whatforum

Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]

Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.
- Edited by Dave PatrickMVP Sunday, March 1, 2015 12:37 AM
- Marked as answer by JasonC4 Sunday, March 1, 2015 12:51 AM
Sunday, March 1, 2015 12:36 AM

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How can I link to a specific answer / reply in a forum post, rather than linking to the original post itself?

Use the RSS link. Additionally in IE you can use the RSS view's Displaying field to filter out only the post that you want (e.g. instead of scrolling to it). Then you can either right-click Copy Shortcut or just click on that link and capture what you get from the Address bar.

For example, here is a link to Dave's answer by the right-click Copy Shortcut method

https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/4fb9d481-741f-49ea-9059-ff1757ead511/how-to-link-to-specific-posts?forum=reportabug#b7e0c275-0645-4c3b-a314-480cb89ef04c

and here is what appears in the Address bar when I use it from the RSS View

https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/4fb9d481-741f-49ea-9059-ff1757ead511/how-to-link-to-specific-posts?forum=reportabug#b7e0c275-0645-4c3b-a314-480cb89ef04c

So, they are the same. I wasn't sure. I don't think they are the same on Answers where I use the same procedure. A problem with this technique on Answers is that we are limited to 40 messages per RSS View. So, you can only use it for smaller threads. I thought that was a problem here too but I just tested with a thread of over a 100 messages and could see them all, so it should have even greater applicability here.

FYI

Robert Aldwinckle
---
- Proposed as answer by Dave PatrickMVP Tuesday, March 3, 2015 1:16 AM
- Marked as answer by Mike Laughlin Tuesday, March 10, 2015 2:20 PM
Monday, March 2, 2015 5:28 PM

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You need to get the message ID. One way I know of is to view the user's activity, then open the message from that link.

Reply message ID

https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/e4ac98c2-b44e-419e-8abb-e86c9d4acc86/how-to-definemanage-possible-values-for-tags-details-in-file-explorer?forum=whatforum#74766eff-e29c-46b7-b84a-59c10fbd9474

Top level thread message ID

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/e4ac98c2-b44e-419e-8abb-e86c9d4acc86/how-to-definemanage-possible-values-for-tags-details-in-file-explorer?forum=whatforum

Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]

Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.
- Edited by Dave PatrickMVP Sunday, March 1, 2015 12:37 AM
- Marked as answer by JasonC4 Sunday, March 1, 2015 12:51 AM
Sunday, March 1, 2015 12:36 AM

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Ah, excellent, thanks. Actually, the message ID can also be determined like so:

Inspect the source for the post you want to link to using whatever method for your browser (e.g. in Chrome, right-click the post text and choose "Inspect Element").

There will be an enclosing <li> tag that has the message ID in it; Dave Patrick's post, for example:

<li id="b7e0c275-0645-4c3b-a314-480cb89ef04c" class="message answer">

Take that ID and add it as an anchor after the top-level URL (it seems you can actually get rid of the last part of the path as well if you want to shorten it a bit), e.g.:

https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/4fb9d481-741f-49ea-9059-ff1757ead511#b7e0c275-0645-4c3b-a314-480cb89ef04c

A bit cumbersome but still a little more direct than checking the user's profile. And that's the link. Sure wish they'd add a "link" button (feature requested).
- Edited by JasonC4 Sunday, March 1, 2015 1:11 AM
Sunday, March 1, 2015 1:09 AM

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How can I link to a specific answer / reply in a forum post, rather than linking to the original post itself?

Use the RSS link. Additionally in IE you can use the RSS view's Displaying field to filter out only the post that you want (e.g. instead of scrolling to it). Then you can either right-click Copy Shortcut or just click on that link and capture what you get from the Address bar.

For example, here is a link to Dave's answer by the right-click Copy Shortcut method

https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/4fb9d481-741f-49ea-9059-ff1757ead511/how-to-link-to-specific-posts?forum=reportabug#b7e0c275-0645-4c3b-a314-480cb89ef04c

and here is what appears in the Address bar when I use it from the RSS View

https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/4fb9d481-741f-49ea-9059-ff1757ead511/how-to-link-to-specific-posts?forum=reportabug#b7e0c275-0645-4c3b-a314-480cb89ef04c

So, they are the same. I wasn't sure. I don't think they are the same on Answers where I use the same procedure. A problem with this technique on Answers is that we are limited to 40 messages per RSS View. So, you can only use it for smaller threads. I thought that was a problem here too but I just tested with a thread of over a 100 messages and could see them all, so it should have even greater applicability here.

FYI

Robert Aldwinckle
---
- Proposed as answer by Dave PatrickMVP Tuesday, March 3, 2015 1:16 AM
- Marked as answer by Mike Laughlin Tuesday, March 10, 2015 2:20 PM
Monday, March 2, 2015 5:28 PM

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Rob, thanks. I knew if you saw this you could give us something more elegant.

Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]

Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015 1:17 AM

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