1. XP
Adding Hypertext Links
to a Web Page
BY- mynk
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2. XP
Learning Objectives
Create hypertext links between elements within a
Web page
Create hypertext links between Web pages
Review basic Web page structures
Create hypertext links to Web pages on the
Internet
Distinguish between and be able to use absolute
and relative pathnames
Create hypertext links to various Internet
resources, including FTP servers and newsgroups
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3. XP
Creating a Hypertext Document
Hypertext documents contain hypertext
links, items that you can select to view another
topic or document, often called the
destination of the link.
These links can point to:
◦ another section
◦ the same document
◦ to a different document
◦ to a different Web page
◦ to a variety of other Web objects
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4. XP
Opening A Web Page
This figure shows
that a browser
may only show a
portion of the
web page. The
user must scroll
down to see the
rest of the web
page.
vertical scroll bar
horizontal scroll
bar can also be
shown
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5. XP
Adding Hypertext Links
You can place
hypertext links at
the top of a web
page to make it
easier for the
user to navigate
to a particular
section of the
document instead
of scrolling.
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6. XP
How an Anchor Works
When the user clicks
hypertext links one of the hypertext
links, the link will go
directly to that section
(anchor, which is the
destination of the link)
within the web page.
anchor
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7. XP
Creating Anchors
 The <a> tag creates an anchor, text that is specially
marked so that you can link to it from other points in
a document.
 Text that is anchored is the destination of a link; it is
not the text you click on.
 Each anchor has its own anchor name, using the
“name” attribute i.e. <a
name=“cc”>Classes</a>.
 An anchor doesn’t have to be text. You can mark an
inline image as an anchor.
 Adding an anchor does not change your document’s
appearance in any way. It merely creates locations in
your Web page that become destinations of links.
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8. XP
Creating Links
 To create a link to an anchor, use the same <a> tag you
used to create the anchor.
 The <a> tags used to create links are sometimes called
link tags.
 Use the href attribute, which is short for Hypertext
Reference, to indicate the location to jump to.
◦ href can refer to an anchor that you place in the document or to a
different Web page or a resource anywhere on the Internet
◦ it is important to note that the href attribute is case sensitive
 Youlink to an anchor using the anchor name preceded by a
pound (#) symbol i.e. <a href=“#gra”>Grading</a>.
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9. XP
Creating Links Continued
After you create You should be careful to make
the anchors that each anchor name unique within a
serve as document.
destinations for
your links, you
need to create the
links themselves.
The <a> tag
you use to create
the anchor and
the href
attribute to
indicate the
location to jump
to.
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10. XP
Text Links in the Browser
If the headings do
not appear as text
links, check your
code to make sure
that you are using
the <a> and </a>
tags around the
appropriate text,
the href attribute
within the tag, and
the quotes and #
symbols.
Text formatted as links
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11. XP
Web Page Structures
Storyboarding your Web pages before you create
links helps you determine which structure works
best for the type of information you’re presenting.
You want to ensure that readers can navigate easily
from page to page without getting lost.
You’ll encounter several Web structures as you
navigate the Web.
Examining some of these structures can help you
decide how to design your own system of Web
pages.
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12. XP
Linear Structures
This figure shows one common Web page structure, the linear structure, in which
each page is linked to the next and to previous page, in an ordered chain of pages.
Link to
previous page
In this
structure you
can jump only
from one page
to the next or
previous page
Link to next page
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13. XP
Augmented Linear Structure
This figure shows an augmented linear structure, in which you include a
link in each page that jumps directly back to the first page, while keeping
the links that allow you to move to the next and previous pages.
first link jumps to second link jumps back to beginning
previous page
third link
jumps to
third page has three links next page
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14. XP
Hierarchical Structure
This figure shows the
hierarchical structure,
which starts with a
general topic that
includes links to more
specific topics. Each
specific topic includes
links to yet more
specialized topics, and
so on.
In a hierarchical
structure, users can
move easily from
general to specific and
back, but not from
specific to specific.
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15. Hierarchical Structure on XP
AltaVista Web Page
As with the linear
structure, including a link
to the top of the structure
on each page gives users
an easy path back to the
beginning.
Subject catalogs such as
the AltaVista directory of
Web pages often use this
structure. This figure
shows this site, located at
http://www.altavista.com.
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16. Combination of Linear and XP
Hierarchical Structures
This figure shows a hierarchical structure in which each level of
pages is related in a linear structure.
overall structure is hierarchical
information about the play
informati
on about
the acts
each
level is
linear
the scenes
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17. XP
Web Structures Continued
A little foresight can go a long way toward
making your Web pages easier to use.
The best time to organize a structure is when
you first start creating pages, when those pages
are small in number and more easily managed.
If you’re not careful, your structure can become
confusing and unmanageable for the user.
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18. Multipage Document with XP
No Coherent Structure
This structure is
confusing, and it makes it
difficult for readers to
grasp the contents of the
overall Web site.
Moreover, a user who
enters this structure at a
certain page might not be
aware of the presence of
the other pages.
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19. Creating Links Among XP
Documents
Unlike creating hypertext
the chem.htm
links between elements on
document, which is
the same page, this process
the document
does not require you to set
containing the links.
an anchor in a file to link
to it; the filename serves as
the anchor or destination
point.
links to the links to the
conttxt.htm linktxt.htm
document, document, which
which contains contains links to
contact various Chemistry
information Web sites.
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20. XP
Linking to a Document
To create a link to a document, use the
same <a> tag with the href attribute i.e.
<a
href=“contact.htm”>Contact
me</a>.
In order for the browser to be able to
locate and open contact.htm, it must be
in the same folder as the document
containing the link.
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21. HTML Code that XP
Links to Other Documents
<a> tags to
point to other
documents
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22. Browser Displaying Links XP
to Other Documents
links to the Contact and Links
page
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23. Linking to a Section of a XP
Document
 Tonavigate to a specific location elsewhere in a document,
rather than the top, you can set anchors and link to an
anchor you create within the document.
◦ for example, to create a link to a section in the Web page
home.htm marked with an anchor name of “interests,” you create
an anchor in home.htm in the section on Interests, and then enter
the following HTML code in the current document:
<a href=“home.htm#interests”> View my interests </a>
 the entire text, “View my interests,” is linked to the Interests section in the
home.htm file, via the anchor name “interests”
 the pound symbol (#) in this tag distinguishes the filename from the
anchor name
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24. Adding Links to Specific XP
Locations in a Page
The pound symbol
(#) in these tags
(shown in red)
distinguishes the
filename from the
anchor name.
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25. Links in the Chemistry Page that XP
Point to Anchors in the Links Page
links
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26. Linking to Documents XP
in Other Folders
Browsers assume that if no folder
information is given, the file is in the same
folder as the current document.
When referencing a file located in a
different folder than the link tag, you
must include the location, or path, for
the file.
HTML supports two kinds of paths:
absolute paths and relative paths.
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27. XP
Absolute Pathnames
 An absolute pathname provides a precise location for a file.
 With HTML, absolute pathnames begin with a slash (/) and
are followed by a sequence of folders beginning with the
highest level folder and proceeding to the folder that
contains the file.
 Each folder is separated by a slash.
 After you type the name of the folder or folders that
contains the file, type a final slash and then the filename itself
i.e. /tutorial.02/case/parks.htm.
 HTML also requires you to include the drive letter followed
by a vertical bar (|) i.e. /C|/tutorial.02/case/parks.htm.
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28. XP
Folder Tree
This figure shows five
HTML files that are
located in four different
folders.
The top most folder is the
tutorial.02 folder. Within
the tutorial.02 folder are
the tutorial and case1
folders, and within the
case1 folder is the extra
folder.
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29. XP
Absolute Pathname
This figure shows absolute pathnames for five HTML files.
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30. XP
Relative Pathnames
A relative path specifies the location for a file in
relation to the folder containing the current Web
document.
As with absolute pathnames, folder names are
separated by slashes.
Unlike absolute pathnames, a relative pathname does
not begin with a slash.
To reference a file in a folder directly above the
current folder in the folder hierarchy, relative
pathnames use two periods (..) i.e.
../tutorial/chem.htm.
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31. XP
Relative Pathnames Continued
Relative pathnames make your hypertext
links portable.
Unlike absolute pathnames, If you move your
files to a different computer or server, the
hypertext links will stay intact.
If absolute pathnames are used, each link has
to be revised. This can be a very tedious
process.
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32. XP
Relative Pathnames
This figure shows the relative pathnames and their interpretations
for HMTL files and how they would be displayed.
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33. XP
Linking to Documents on the
Internet
 To create a hypertext link to a document on the
Internet, you need to know its URL.
 A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, specifies a
precise location on the Web for a file.
 You can find the URL of a Web page in the Location or
Address box of your browser’s document window.
 Once you know a document’s URL, you can create a
link to it by adding the URL to the <a> tag along with
the href attribute in your text file i.e. <a href
http://www.mwu.edu/course/info.html>Cours
e Information</a>.
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34. XP
Uniform Resource Locator
(URL)
Each URL follows the same format.
◦ The first portion of the URL identifies the
communication protocol, which is a set of rules
that governs how information is exchanged.
◦ Web pages use the communication protocol HTTP,
short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, so all Web
page URLs begin with the letters “http”.
◦ Following the communication protocol, there is
typically a separator, such as a colon and two slashes
(://) i.e. http://www.mwu.edu.
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35. Interpreting Parts of a XP
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
This figure interprets a Web page with the URL
http://www.mwu.edu/course/info.html#majors.
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36. Link to Another Page on the XP
Web
As long as your
computer is
connected to the
Internet, clicking
the text within the
tag navigates you
to the document
located at the
specified URL.
Links to the College Board AP Internet page
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37. XP
College Board AP Page
Chemistry page
remains open in
the original
browser window
AP page in a
separate browser
window
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38. Displaying Linked Documents XP
in a New Window
 By default, each Web page you open is displayed in the main
browser window, replacing the one you were viewing last.
 To force a document to appear in a new window, instead of
the main browser window, you would use the target attribute
in the href tag i.e. <a href=“url”
target=“new_window”>Hypertext</a>
◦ url is the URL of the page, and new_window is a name assigned to the
new browser window
◦ the value use for the target attribute is used by the browser to identify
the different open windows in the current browser session
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39. XP
External Hyperlinks
 You can set up external hyperlinks to open in the same browser
window by using the same value for the target attribute.
◦ if you do, the first hyperlink clicked opens the new window and
displays the contents of the external file
◦ as subsequent external hyperlinks are clicked, they replace the
contents of the already opened window, and the contents of the main
browser window remain unaffected
 Ifyou want your external documents to be displayed in their own
browser window, you can assign a unique target value for each
hyperlink, or you can assign the _blank keyword to the target
attribute i.e. <a href=“url”
target=_blank>Hypertext</a>.
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40. Linking to File Transfer Protocol
XP
(FTP) Servers
You can create links to other Internet
resources, such as FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) servers.
◦ FTP servers can store files that Internet users can
download, or transfer, to their computers
◦ FTP is the communications protocol these file servers
use to transfer information
◦ URLs for FTP servers follow the same format as
those for Web pages, except that they use the FTP
protocol rather than the HTTP protocol i.e. <a
href=
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com>Microsoft
FTP server</a>.
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41. XP
Displaying a FTP Site
Different browsers can display the contents of an FTP site in different ways.
This figure shows what it might look like with Internet Explorer.
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42. XP
Linking to Usenet News
Usenet is a collection of discussion forums
called newsgroups that let users exchange
messages with other users on a wide variety of
topics.
The URL for a newsgroup is news:newsgroup.
To access the surfing newsgroup alt.surfing, you
place this line in your HTML file i.e. <a
href=news:alt.surfing>Go to the
surfing newsgroup</a>.
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43. Accessing the alt.surfing XP
Newsgroup
When you click a
link to a newsgroup,
your computer
starts your
newsgroup software
and accesses the
newsgroup.
This figure shows
an example of the
Outlook
Newsreader
program.
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44. XP
Linking to E-mail
 Many Web designers include their e-mail addresses on
their Web pages, so that users who access the page can
send feedback.
 You can identify e-mail addresses as hypertext links.
◦ when a user clicks the e-mail address, the browser starts a mail
program and automatically inserts the e-mail address into the
“To” field of the outgoing message
 The URL for an e-mail address is mailto:e-
mail_address.
 To create a link to the e-mail address davis@mwu.edu,
the following code would be entered
<a
href=mailto:davis@mwu.edu>davis@mwu.edu</a>
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45. XP
Mail Message Window
window opens
when the
davis@mwu.edu
link is clicked
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46. XP
Adding an Email Link
the address
itself is in the
code for the
mailto: URL
mail message
window opens
with e-mail
address
already
inserted
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47. XP
Summary
• Learned how to work with hypertext links.
• Learned how to create anchors within a Web page.
 Created links to anchors.
• Created hyperlinks within a single document and
links to other Web pages.
• Discussed creating hyperlinks to resources
other than Web pages, such as FTP sites, e-mail
addresses and Gopher servers.
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