Thanks Hood-- not exactly what i wanted - but your clue helped.
I went to the "mach general discussion" page and right clicked the topic that I wanted to refer to
I then selected the option to copy the topic address. when I pasted that copy into a document
it gave me the topic number- many thanks
fred
( I have made a notepad note headded for example " forum questions dealing with homing switches". I have this note minimized
on the taskbar. As i find a topic that i want to refer back to at a later date I just copy and paste the link onto that note
for future reference. That page is printed and filed in the manual in the section dealing with limits and homing. When I have a problem
with homing I have a ready list of appropriate address where I may find the solution . It is also very easy just to open the note
and click on the link to go straight to the topic)