html - hyperlinks

HTML - hyperlinks

introduction
software
tags
basic page
text
layout
pictures
background
text color
< hyperlinks >
quick recap
tag overview
publishing
promotion
epilogue

By far the most important tag you will use is the hypertext link. <A> (anchor). More often referred to as hyperlink or just plain link. Linking to other pages is the most common use of this tag. This is a so called hypertext reference, referring to another hypertext document. This document is specified in the HREF attribute.

<A HREF="test.html">test</A>
test

The link is closed with the </A> tag. Between the opening and closing tag is specified what you will see on screen. Text will normally be displayed in blue and underlined.
Pointing your mouse cursor to such a link you can click it. You will be zapped to another web page, often containing new links. This tag interconnects web pages. The hypertext reference is the glue that ties web pages togheter. It simply is the basis of the current internet.

Using images
You can put something other than text between the anchor tags. You have probably seen buttons or icons on web pages. These are made with an image enclosed by an hyperlink. The image is made to appear with the IMG tag.

<A HREF="test.html">
<IMG SRC="button.gif" HEIGHT="18" WIDTH="40" ALT="button">
</A>

Email
Another hyperlink you will use often, is meant for sending e-mail. If someone would like to contact you about your web page, for example. This link needs a slightly different filling of the attribute. The link below can be used to send an email. If you click it, it will fire up your e-mail software, showing the e-mail address in the 'To:' field.

Email:
<A HREF="mailto:[email protected]"> [email protected]</A>

Email: [email protected]

And of course this again can be combined with a picture, like so.

Email:
<A HREF="mailto:[email protected]"> <IMG SRC="postbus.gif" WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 BORDER=0 ALT="[email protected]">
</A>

Basically you can use any image you want. But take care in making obvious it is in fact a link, not just an image. One way to do this is to put a BORDER to the image. Not pretty, but making very clear it is in fact a link. Adding text to the image may also help.

<A HREF="file.zip">file.zip</A>
file.zip

Downloadable files
If you want to publish downloadable files on your site, you can link them with a hyperlink. Just like you would link a normal web page. The browser will determine what to do with it. A html or text file is displayed. Any unsupported file type will be presented to the user, asking what to do with it. Either download it, execute it, or use an external program to process it.