Docs

Mention people and attach files

Link a colleague's profile from the text with @handle, attach a data set or slides to a work, and link the file from the sentence that needs it.

On this page

Two kinds of link point from your text at things on LibreTimes rather than at the web: a mention links a person's profile, and an attachment link opens a file that belongs to your work. This guide writes both.

Mention a person

  1. Find the person's handle: it is the part after @ in their profile's address, such as @emmy_noether.
  2. Type @ and the handle where the name belongs in the sentence:
The construction follows an idea of @emmy_noether, and the proof was
simplified by @emil_artin.

When the work is saved, each handle that belongs to a profile becomes a link to it. A handle that matches nobody stays plain text, so a typo shows as an unlinked @name rather than a link to a stranger. If the person later changes their handle, your mention follows them, because it is tied to the person and not to the spelling.

A few rules decide what counts as a mention:

  • A handle is 3 to 30 letters and digits, with single underscores between them. Case does not matter: @Emmy_Noether is @emmy_noether.
  • An @ inside an address, such as emmy@example.org, is never a mention.
  • An underscore at the end belongs to the sentence: @emmy_ mentions @emmy.
  • To write a handle without linking it, put it in inline code: `@emmy`.

Mentions are for pointing readers at a person: a collaborator, an acknowledgement, the author of an idea. Who wrote the work is its byline, which is set in the work's details, not by mentions in the text.

Attach a file to the work

Data, slides, code or a high-resolution figure can travel with the work as attachments, listed under its text.

  1. Close the editor and open the Attachments tab of the work's form.
  2. Choose the files, or drag them in. Each may be up to 100 MB.
  3. Give each file a description that says what it is and whether it is worth downloading.

Attachments follow the work's visibility: a reader who can see the work can open its files, and nobody else can. See Attachments for formats that will still open in ten years.

Link a file from the text

A file listed under the work is easy to miss. When a sentence relies on one, link it from there.

  1. In the editor, choose Visual and put the cursor where the link goes.
  2. In the toolbar, open More blocks (the … button) and choose Attachment.
  3. Choose one of the work's files, or Upload a file to add a new one.
  4. In Label, write the words the reader will click, then choose Insert.

The link appears in the sentence as a small chip with a file icon. In Code, it is written like this:

The raw measurements are in :attach[the data set]{#0198a3f2-7c41-7000-8000-1f2e3d4c5b6a}.

The words in brackets are the label; the part in braces is the file's id, which the editor fills in. You never need to type an id yourself, and one copied from another work does not work here: the file must be attached to this work.

The result

In the preview, each mention of an existing person is a link to their profile. After you save, each attachment chip opens its file in a new tab: the browser shows what it can, such as an image or a PDF, and downloads the rest. The work's page lists every attached file under the text, with its description.

Comments take mentions but not attachment links, since a comment has no files of its own. For an image that should appear in the text rather than be opened, use an image or a figure instead.