Tip of the Week

Tip for: 12.02.02

Link Menu

Have you ever wished that you could access one of your research databases, or quickly access a frequently used web site without having to close Alexandria? You can by using the Link Menu in Alexandria. This menu can be used to open web sites, aliases to frequently used applications, and electronic documents.

Items are accessible from this menu by placing them in the Link Menu folder that is found in your Alexandria program folder. To access this folder on a Mac: Open up your hard drive by double clicking on it. Then, find your Alexandria folder and open it by double clicking. You should see a folder named Link Menu inside of it. At this point you can either double click on the folder to open it up to drag and drop into, or simply drop the items on top of the folder. To access this folder on Windows: Double click on My Computer. Select the drive that is your hard drive (generally the C: drive) and double click on it. Then, find the folder called Program Files and double click to open it. Next, double click on the Alexandria folder. Located inside this folder you will find the Link Menu folder. As with the Mac, you can either double click to open it up to drag and drop into it, or simply drag and drop items on top of the folder. This folder can also be found on Windows by right clicking on the Start menu and selecting Explore and then following the same steps listed above. On Windows, you can also copy and paste application aliases and documents into
the folder.

To add a web site:

Open up your web browser and type in the web address of the site you wish to add to your Links Menu.

Highlight the address.

To drag and drop it: Click on the highlighted address and while holding down the mouse button drag it to the Link Menu folder or your desktop. This will create an icon that links to that web site. If you placed it on the desktop, you can then drag it into the Link Menu folder.

To add an alias to a software application:

Open the program file by following the same directions used to open the Alexandria folder.

On Mac:

<ctrl> click or right click on the icon used to launch the selected program.

Then select Make Alias from the drop-down menu that appears.

The resulting icon can then be dragged and dropped into the Link Menu folder.

If a shortcut has already been placed on the desktop, simply <ctrl> click or right click on the shortcut and select Duplicate from the list. This copy can then be moved to the Link Menu folder.

On Windows:

Right click on the icon used to launch the selected program.

Then, select Create Shortcut.

The resulting icon can then be dragged and dropped or copied and pasted into the folder.

To add a copy of an electronic document:

From a CD or web site, drag and drop the file to be moved into the Link Menu. It will then be copied there.

A file already on the desktop can be duplicated and then moved into the Link Menu folder by right clicking or <ctrl>clicking and then selecting Duplicate. On Windows, select Copy and then Paste to move a file.

After these items have been added and Alexandria restarted, the items placed in this folder will then be accessible. When first installed, the links on the Library Workstations and Research Workstations are duplicated from the Data Station. They can then be customized for each particular station.

Using the Link Menu for frequently used applications, web sites, and electronic documents can be a big timesaver. Placing the electronic PDF of the user's manual in the Link Menu, can also make it very quick and easy to find terms and information that is needed when working with Alexandria.

We hope that this will help as you look for ways to save time and make things accessible to your patrons.

Thank You,
The Alexandria Staff Librarians