HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition

6. Links

Links are the distinguishing feature of the World Wide Web. They let you skip from one page to another, call up a movie or a recording of The Nields (or your favorite band), and download files with FTP.

A link has three parts: a destination, a label, and a target. The first part, the destination, is arguably the most important. You use it to specify what will happen when the visitor clicks the link. You can create links that show an image, play a sound or movie, download files, open a newsgroup, send an email message, run a CGI program, and more. The most common links, however, connect to other Web pages, and sometimes to specific locations on other Web pages called anchors. All destinations are defined by writing a URL (see page 35) and are generally only visible to the visitor in the status area of the browser.

The second part of the link is the label, the part the visitor sees and clicks on to reach the destination. It can be text, an image, or both. Label text is often, but not always, shown underlined and in blue. The more appealing, enticing, and attractive the label, the more likely a visitor will click on it. In fact, eliciting Web visitors' clicks is an art.

The last part of the link, the target, is often ignored or left up to the browser. The target determines where the destination will be displayed. The target might be a particular named window or frame, or a new window or frame.