Liane, Try searching for "osx link checker". There are a few of them.

[en.wikipedia.org ]

Xenu is what I use for both internal and external checks... It's free.

I always run on a live site but probably works fine locally.

[home.snafu.de ]

[edited by: Jon_King at 3:31 pm (utc) on Dec 31, 2013]

Thanks Travelin cat! I actually did do that and found a few … but got nervous by the terms of use. Some of them said it could cause damage

I was hoping some other Mac user could point me in the right direction for a programme they have used and that caused no damage.

Am I being too paranoid?

Hi Jon_King,

I think Xenu is for Windows isn't it? I'd like to test for broken links before uploading files.

Not to worry, I'll just download something from the net and hope nothing bad happens. :)

Liane

@Liane,

On our SEO Tools [webmasterworld.com] thread, a post of Tedster mentions a tool that can be used to checks links. The tool runs off the web, therefore it does not matter whether you are using Windows or Mac. You can then export the links to .csv to your computer.

Check the above thread and search for the message number #4401232.

Fabulous! That's a wonderful thread. I wonder why It didn't come up when I searched? Many thanks aakk999!

Do you have the stomach to go into Terminal? (I personally hate it with a passion, but it is sometimes necessary.) If so, you can install and run the w3c link checker locally. There's a longish list of options that you don't get with the online version.

:: detour here to check something ::

If your files are static html using relative links, you can do it simply by dragging in the file. Easier than typing the whole path! Otherwise give the "localhost" URL that you use with MAMP. (This is the part I just checked.)

Caution! If you run the w3c link checker locally, it will come through with your own IP. You may need to poke an additional hole if you normally block "libwww-perl", which unfortunately is part of its UA string.