Salesforce.com – Using rich text component for URL’s

We’ve already used conditional rich text boxes, showing certain alerts depending on products.  However, when working with a client this week, they are using Rich Text to replace the old classic “links” box that was always there on the left.  Only issue here is that we have create the rich text component on every page if you want it to always show, but there’s also some flexibility in that (maybe you only want it on the home page and not the account pages like it always showed up before — good and bad I guess).

So before I go further, quick shout out to Josh here for this tip.  Again, he gave me the idea, ping him and thank him if this helps a bit.  The bad news is that I was trying to do this with a custom link (i.e., Google Search) and it doesn’t seem to work in lightning.  Boo!

First thing first, on an account page, click the GEAR, then “Edit page” to get to the designer.

Then, drag the rich text component from the left, put it where you want on the right (I went upper side).  We’re going to use the “link” element as an option here.

Now highlight the word, click the link icon to open the link options.

Now, for the URL I’m just going to use a standard URL (google.com or something like that).  This is where intranet links and other things are fantastic.  I’m thinking you can also do mapped drives (//file: type of URL’s).  Paste that in the URL box.

Next, click the target tab (essentially just the ability to open in the same window, a new window, etc.  I say a new window here, it’s easier (true web folks will know more here).

Now we’ve got a link….  Frankly, I was really hoping to get this done on an account record with a dynamic link – can’t do it, can’t figure out how yet (I think it’s an Apex thing).  In the comments, if you know how please let me know!  As for the use of this, this could really work well on the home page I bet, like I said before, replacing our old “announcements” and custom link areas.