Oxfordshire local business directory and news website

What is an HMTL or Hypertext Link?

Categories : Latest Posts | News | Web Design |

Tags : A | ALT | HTML | Hypertext link | IMG | TITLE

It has been suggested that without HTML links the internet as we know it today just would not exist. Simply put it’s a piece of HTML code which when clicked on screen takes you to a different HTML document or generic file.

These links are everywhere and you probably clicked on an HTML link if you are reading this.

In HTML it is very simple to create one, look at the below example

<a href=”http://www.linkdestination.com”>displayed link text</a>

If we break this down we have <a> and </a>, this is an HTML tag and has the original meaning of anchor, although anchor is technically correct, mentally we know this as a link.

After the <a  we have href=”” , this again has the meaning of Hyperlink reference, or simply put the destination of the link. If the link points to a location outside of it current domain the http:// must be included in the link address.

Between <A></A> is the visible text of the link.

The above is the simplest form of the <A> HTML tag and can also be used to create a link out of a graphic, below is an example of this.

<a href=”http://www.linkdestination.co.uk”><img src=”http://www.file.com/image.jpg” /></a>

As you can see the only difference between the two tags is <img src=”http://www.file.com/image.jpg” /> , the <IMG> tag handles inserting images into HTML documents.

We can also add descriptions to the HTML links, and although these do not appear on page, when you hover your cursor over the link, the description of the link is shown, as per the example below:

<a href=”http:// www.linkdestination.com ” title=”longer explanation of the link”>link</a>

For images the idea is the same, just in a slightly different format

<a href=”http://www.linkdestination.co.uk”><img src=” http://www.file.com/image.jpg ” alt=”longer explanation of the image” /></a>

There are additional ways of harnessing HTML links, but these are outside the scope of what is discussed here.

From a users perspective links are vital, without them it becomes almost impossible to navigate a website. These links are also used on the basis for search engines, which use these links to discover new content. Finally hyperlinks are an essential tool for those users who have special needs, for instance blind web users who cannot see images and use technologies to speak the page.

When using a HTML link, spend a little time making sure it’s doing the job it should.

This article was written by Mark Excell of Websites by Mark

0 0 0 0