Links show as plain text (not clickable) in articles: enable “Turn on link hyperlinking” permission

Overview

If a link looks correct in the editor (for example, it shows display text like “Click here”), but after you publish or preview the article it appears as a raw URL and is not clickable, the author is typically missing the Turn on link hyperlinking permission for the place where the article is posted.

What you’ll usually see

• In the editor (draft): Link display text appears normally.
• In preview/published: The full URL appears as plain text and cannot be clicked.

Definitions

• Place: The container where the article lives (for example, a knowledge base category/section).
• Turn on link hyperlinking: A Content permission that controls whether the system renders links as clickable hyperlinks.

Resolution

Prerequisite: You must have Admin access (or equivalent permissions) to update place permissions. If you don’t have access to Community Admin, ask a community administrator on your team to follow the steps below.

Step 1: Confirm the symptom

1. Open the affected knowledge base article.
2. Check both Edit (draft) and Preview (or the published view).
3. Confirm that at least one link is rendered as plain text (a raw URL) in Preview/published.

Step 2: Identify the place that controls the article

1. Determine the place (for example, the knowledge base category/section) where the article is posted.
2. Note: Permissions are evaluated at the place level, so a link may work in one category but not another if the permission differs.

Step 3: Open the place’s permission defaults

In Community Admin, open the permission defaults for the place that contains the article:

• Go to Settings > Places, select the place, then open Permissions > Defaults.
• If you don’t see Settings > Places in your Admin navigation, you can typically access place permissions from Settings > Community Structure by editing the category/board and opening its permissions page.

Step 4: Grant “Turn on link hyperlinking” in the Content section

1. In Permissions > Defaults, locate the Content permissions section.
2. Find Turn on link hyperlinking.
3. Set it to Grant for the role(s) that your knowledge base authors use in this place.
4. Save.

Important: Deny overrides Grant. If any role that applies to the author is explicitly set to Deny, the link will continue to render as plain text.

Step 5: Validate

1. Hard refresh the article page:
   • Windows: Ctrl + F5
   • macOS: Shift + Command + R
2. Re-open Preview/published view and confirm the link is now clickable and the display text is respected.

If the issue persists

1. Re-save the article: Open the article in Edit, then Save/Publish (even a no-op edit can help trigger a re-render).
2. Check effective permissions for the author: Use any available Member Permissions Lookup tools on the permissions page to verify the author’s effective permission for Turn on link hyperlinking at this place.
3. Look for a Deny at a different level: If permissions are inherited, a Deny at a parent or child place level can override what you expect. Verify the permission at the exact place where the article is stored.

Contact Support

If you cannot access Community Admin (or you have verified the permission is granted but links still render as plain text), contact Khoros Support and include:

• The affected article URL(s)
• The external URL(s) that should be clickable
• The place/category where the article is posted
• The author’s username/profile link
• A screenshot showing the link rendered as plain text in Preview/published view
• Approximate date/time (with time zone) when you last reproduced the issue

Summary

When a link appears correctly in the editor but is plain text (not clickable) in Preview/published, grant the Turn on link hyperlinking Content permission for the article’s place and ensure no applicable role is set to Deny. Then hard refresh and re-check the article.