[jecilop]

Thank you, both. I think I better understand this now. @Chaley, your first reply clicked for me finally. I think you tried to point this out for me in another post where you thought I spoke of catalogs, but I couldn't put those pieces together.

@Chaley,
So, this makes me wonder about a workaround that might work like this if I could just learn the reference field name?
Based on what I've read:
I'm thinking I could create a custom column (composite?) that returns the author links info.
Then I could reference my custom column in the template as I did with some other custom columns that worked.

Does this sound doable to you IF I can find out the field reference name?
I'm going to play a little and try the same tags I originally mentioned. I will only post back shortly if they actually work. No post means I'm still wandering.....

To be clear, I understand from your well-formed reply that it cannot generate as an active link. In fact, in some cases that attempt would be bad where I've stored more than one link associated with the author (yes, this can be desirable). Many e-reader apps allow a copy past of text which is one way to follow the info generated.


Just a note on the "why don't you just..." thoughts for those who might have them:
I don't put make a custom column with the links entered manually even with auto complete available because I would have to do them each time a book is added. I know I can group the entries and then enter once, but that is still cumbersome and doesn't take care of everything in one fell swoop that I can then Polish and included in metadata jackets. MY UNDERSTANDING is that the custom column would automatically generate the info based on the author entry, so it would be there. It may not generate as an active link yet, but it's a step toward it and learning about it and making it more useful.

I have a feeling that I may end up running an html insert in batch form on multiple books if I want to get active links in a book.

I'm going to ask Kovil to modify the mass edit metadata to have a "Append Comments" in addition to the "Set Comments" currently there. This is is something added to individual metadata downloads options a few versions back. I'm thinking he could do this rather easily and just overlooked the thought.

This would solve something I've been trying to do for awhile. In this manner, a link could be added to the comments which are then Polished into the books metadata jacket producing an active link. While not auto generated, this would work VERY well.