Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. What are these strange beasts? Tom grammar As CP says, the correct and unambiguous way to write a URL address is to enclose the complete root address in angle brackets, like this: or . http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=15407#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=15407#Comments Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:08:20 GMT Quick and Dirty Tips Admin grammar Thank you, Jim. We have corrected the typo. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=14244#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=14244#Comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:47:04 GMT Jim Kessler grammar As usual, great stuff. But it's The Full Monty, not Monte. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=14167#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=14167#Comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:02:48 GMT noether grammar GG doesn't like it when her wordprocessor automatically converts URLs to active links, but she's probably in the minority on that one. If you don't like it, simply instruct your wordprocessor not to do it. When MS Word makes one, for example, you can move your mouse over it to make an "auto correct" menu appear that has the option "Stop automatically creating hyperlinks". If you want to remove only that single active link (rather than disabling auto-links altogether), you can right-click it and select "remove hyperlink." Finally, GG is correct that the underlining of URLs is distracting in printed work, but that's no reason to remove the link altogether. In MS Word, you can simply sweep over it and type CONTROL-SPACEBAR to format it like the rest of the sentence without removing the link, which can be useful if you later decide to post the document online where linking makes sense. Normal formatting is also nice for internal links (i.e., links to other places in the same document); I love it, for example, when the entries in a table of contents are actually linked to the pages that they refer to. You can also alter the formatting of the links using MS word "styles" so that your printed version has no underlining, but the on-line version shows them as normal. In short, if your wordprocessor isn't treating links in a way that you would prefer, there are undoubtedly solutions that you can apply permanently or only for that one document. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13967#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13967#Comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:23:37 GMT Grammar Girl grammar Thanks for all the insights and suggestions! I talk about tinyurl.com in my book, but the podcast was getting a little long, so I left it out. I already felt as if I might have been overwhelming people with too many different points. I may do another show about online writing, and if I do, I'll mention it there. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13821#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13821#Comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:53:21 GMT Ben grammar I also do as ajk does, inserting an extra space between the URL and the terminating punctuation. Sometimes I'll even go back and delete the space, so the punctuation is right up against the URL (as it would be in print), but it's not part of the active hyperlink. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13779#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13779#Comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:15:03 GMT CP grammar As always, I enjoy your work--you manage to distill so many big topics down to their really essential elements! My own preference is to use basic top-level urls in the course of sentences ("I have a lot of friends at facebook.com."), where there would be no confusion about terminal periods. However, I always enclose longer urls in , so there is no question about exactly what constitutes the actual url, and I can still use terminal periods. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13766#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13766#Comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:09:32 GMT Rene' Hynson grammar Very great tips to help you everyday. I like the way Grammar girl is always there with helpful hints. THanks for everything. Love your page. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13738#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13738#Comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:14:05 GMT bigjohn756 grammar I don't know what your policy is regarding including reference websites, but, http://tinyurl.com is one that you might consider. I use it for all of those long, cumbersome URLs which you mention. I expect that there might be other objections to using such a URL as well, but, I wouldn't know. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13732#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13732#Comments Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:03:26 GMT ajk grammar When writing for the web, I sometimes use an extra space after the URL and before the period, e.g., http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com . This keeps the period out of the URL but allows it to complete the sentence. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13727#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx?commentid=13727#Comments Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:05:03 GMT Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:08:20 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-URLs-in-text.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us