Introduction to HTML 3: Creating Links

Creating A Hypertext Link

In this section you will learn only one thing: How to create a link to another page. It's a set tag format like any of the others you have seen so far. Once you learn the format, you can make as many links as you want to any other page you want.

IE:: What is below would create a link to the HTML Goodies home page.

<A HREF="http://www.htmlgoodies.com">Click Here For HTML Goodies</A>

Here's What's Happening

A stands for Anchor. It begins the link to another page.
HREF stands for Hypertext REFerence. That's a nice, short way of saying to the browser, "This is where the link is going to go."
http://www.htmlgoodies.com is the FULL ADDRESS of the link. Also notice that the address has an equal sign in front of it and is enclosed in quotes because it's an attribute of the Anchor tag, a command inside of a command.
Where it reads "Click Here For HTML Goodies" is where you write the text you want to appear on the page. What is in that space will appear on the page for the viewer to click. So, write something that denotes the link.
/A ends the entire link command.

Here's what will appear on the page using the command above...

Click Here For HTML Goodies

Now, without clicking, simply lay your pointer on the blue words. You'll see the address of the link you created come up along the bottom of the browser window, down where it usually reads "Document Done".

This is called the status bar.

What To Write For The Link?

There are a couple different schools of thought on this. One suggests that what you write for links should be quite blatant. This includes text like "Click here for this" or "Here's a link to...". The other states that since the hypertext links will be blue (or whatever color they're set to), that the links should be just another word in the text set up as a link. This is a judgement call - it is up to the author to make this decision.

E-Mail Links From Your Page

This is what's known as a mailto: command. It follows the same coding scheme as the hypertext link above. What this format does is place blue wording on the screen that people can click to send you a piece of e-mail.

Here's the pattern:

<A HREF="mailto:jburns@htmlgoodies.com">Click Here To Write Me</A>

Notice it's the same format as a link except in a link you write "mailto:" in place of the http:// and your e-mail address in place of the page address. Yes, you still need the </A> tag at the end. Please notice there is NO SPACE between the colon and the e-mail address.

Here's what you get using the "mailto:" command above:

Click Here To Write Me

NOTE: The "mailto:" command will attempt to launch the local mail client. If one is not configured, it will bring up the Outlook Express and ask if you would like to configure your E-mail account. If you are using a Web based mail client, then the "mailto:", just say no to the configuration questions and Outlook Expres will start with a default compose window. You can now copy the recipient's address, launch you regular mail client (like Yahoo mail or Hotmail) and paste the address in your client.


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