Thanks for the reply, just in case anyone comes across this and needs a solution I found this little write up by Arik;
http://blog.atinypixel.com/2009/05/designer-on-rails-the-gsub-method/ still working through the details so I don't have the exact solution yet, but fairly close. Hope this helps anyone else that is looking to use gsub in the text to replace text with a link. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.

