I don’t know what you mean by “building up links from scratch”, but the quicktags help with some of the coding. If you just type in the http address (ugly but many do) WordPress will automatically convert it into a link.
There are plugings that will help you with the process, and you can find those by searching http://www.wp-plugins.net for links (there are some Link Manager plugins, too, but skip those).
But the reality is that links have their own character and many programs can’t read your mind. A good link looks like this:
<a title="WordPress Support Forum" href="http://www.wordpress.org/support">get some WordPress support here</a>
While the text says “WordPress” how would any program know that the title of the site is “WordPress Support Forum” unless it had a script that would go out and grab the information from the site to post in on your site (bandwidth nightmare!)? And from the link itself, how would any program know that you want the text within the link to say something different than the link and the title description? Mind reading is a great feature request, but I think right now it’s on the back burner 😉
The Quicktags are fast and easy. Copy the link, click where in your post you want the link to show (or highlight the text – even better), click quicktag “link” and paste in the link. What I hope is in the words is a second window or place in the first window form that you can add a link description in order to meet web standards for accessibility, but let’s not ask for everything at the same time.
I have just found it easier and faster to type it all myself, pasting in the link, so I can make sure the “title” gets in there to meet web standards.
We all do this. This is part of the task of writing a website. So join the club.
