Special Edition Using Microsoft® Word 2000

Explaining Hyperlinks

By now, you've surely clicked on hundreds, if not thousands of hyperlinks in the course of your work (or leisure) on the Web. Usually, when you click a hyperlink, you "go" somewhere; that is, another Web page loads into your browser. Did you ever wonder what was actually happening when you clicked that link?

Behind the scenes, in its most basic form, a hyperlink is an HTML tag containing some display text and an address. The HTML code for a hyperlink to Microsoft's home page would look like this:

<a href="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft Home</a>

The hyperlink tag, also called an anchor, begins with <a href, which tells the browser that a hyperlink is starting. The address, http://www.microsoft.com, is specified next. ...