Creating Web Pages For Dummies®

Chapter 13. Adding Links to Your Web Page

In This Chapter

• Finding out about linking basics

• Linking within a page

• Avoiding mistakes

• Linking to a Web page

• Creating a mailto link

Web hyperlinks — the connections that let you go from one Web page to another with a single click — are the key to what makes the Web great. They're also a bit complicated to create, test, and maintain. We show you how to do it right in this chapter.

Hyperlinks, known as links for short, have a long and honorable history. They are the underlying concept behind hypertext — a kind of writing that takes advantage of computer and network capabilities to connect a spot in a piece of text to other information that supports, gives detail on, defines, describes, relates to, or even contradicts the information at the spot where the link is.

Hypertext was discussed and implemented in smaller systems long before the World Wide Web was invented. Theodor Nelson invented the term in about 1960 and promoted the idea for decades. He wrote a famous book called Computer Lib/Dream Machines that described many different types of hypertext and uses for it. (The book is currently out of print, but if you are interested, you may be able to track down a used copy on eBay or Amazon Marketplace.)

The idea of hypertext became popular within the computer industry throughout the 1980s, as more and more computers were getting connected to networks. The reason for the growth of interest in hypertext was simply the truth behind a rule called Metcalf's ...