Thread:VisualEditor/Feedback/External links/reply (18)

It's possible to convert a pre-existing bare URL into a labeled link:.

It's also possible to add a URL first and then label it during the same editing session:

The process in both cases is the same as relabeling an internal link: Put your cursor in the middle of the link and type the new label. Then, when what you're looking at is something like, go back and delete all of the visible parts of the link target (the   and   parts).

The only procedure that is conveniently supported at this time in VisualEditor is to always type the link label first, and then add the link taget inside the linking tool. If they wanted people to be able to add the link target first, and then label it conveniently, then the linking tool would need two boxes (i.e., the same two boxes used in Google Docs, etc.: one for the label and one for the link).