Visual InterDev

Filtering Links

See Also

You can filter a link diagram to show only the types of items you want to see. You can apply more than one filter category to a link diagram. In Link View, you can set filters based on both the types of items and types of links between items.

Showing and Hiding Items

Filters can be used to show and hide specific types of items in the link diagram. Available filters appear on the Diagram menu and are represented by buttons on the Link View toolbar. For a list of filter categories, item descriptions, and icons, see Items in a Link Diagram.

The following filters apply to all types of items.

Filter category Toolbar button Displays
All items All types of items
External files All types of items outside of the project

Note   The external files filter category can be useful to hide all of the files that are not part of the current Web application.


To select one or more filters

Note   When you set a filter, it applies to the current link diagram only. If multiple link diagrams are open, you must set filters for each diagram separately.

Showing and Hiding Links

You can manage the complexity of the link diagram by limiting the types of links that are shown in the diagram. For example, you can choose to hide repeated links and links within a page, or to show only inbound links.

Repeated Links

A repeated link occurs if one page has multiple links to another page in the link diagram. For example, if you have a Web page that contains multiple links to your glossary page, you may want to reduce the complexity of the link diagram by hiding all but the first link to the glossary page.

To show and hide repeated links

Bookmark Links

Bookmark links are links that refer to a different part of the same page. You can hide all the bookmark links in a link diagram to reduce the size and complexity of a link diagram.

To show links inside pages

In/Out Links

You can also filter the link diagram to show only out links or only in links by changing the diagram layout options. For example, showing in links enables you to determine the impact of renaming or deleting an item because you can see other pages that currently link to that item.

Filter category Toolbar button Displays
Show in links Links that point into an expanded item, indicating that the item at the other end of the line links to the expanded item.
Show out links Links that point out of an expanded item, indicating that the expanded item links to the items it points to.
Show in and out links Both links that point out of an expanded item and links that point into an expanded item.

For more information, see Changing a Link Diagram Layout.