Lesson 4: Linking Pages

Creating A Hypertext Link

WWelcome to Lesson 4... in this part you will learn 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.

Now an example: The String written below would create a link to Filipino Computer Club - Dubai page.

<A HREF="fccdubai.htm">Click Here to See the FCC-Dubai Page</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."
fccdubai.htm is the ADDRESS of the link. Also notice that the address has an equal sign in front of it and is enclosed in quotes. Why? Because it's an attribute of the Anchor Tag, a command inside of a command. Remember that from Lesson 3?
Where it reads "Click Here to See the FCC-Dubai Page" 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 to See the FCC-Dubai Page

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".

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.

I believe a little of both. I'm of the opinion your readers should be allowed to have a very easy time of it all in terms of navigating your Web pages. But it's your page and you make that 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:[email protected]">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

Go ahead, click on it. I know you're dying to. You'll get an e-mail dialogue box addressed to me. Then you can write if you want. The same thing will work for you. Just place your e-mail address in place of mine following the format above.

And that wraps up Lesson4main. Do the exercise below then move on to our next topic.

Next lesson we will get into the fun part of the World Wide Web, images.

Exercise 4:

A) Create a file and name it "links.html" (without the quotation marks) and on that file...

1. Create a link to "Overseas Filipino Webmasters Zone " with this address "www.ofwzone.com"
2. Create a link to "Filipino Computer Club - Dubai " with this address "http://www.fccdubai.com"
3. Create a link to "Philippine Labor Office / OWWA Dubai " with this address "http://www.babalikkarin.com"
4. Create a link to "Emirates Internet" with this address "http://www.emirates.net.ae"
5. Create a link to "Filipino Sites" with this address " http://www.philippines.com "
6. Create a link to "Zablan Information Systems" with this address "http://www.zablan.com"
7. Create a link to "Filipino Photographers Guild" with this address "http://www.lightform.org"
8. Create a link to "Aguman Kapampangan" with this address "http://www.aguman.com"
9. Create a link to your file "resume.html" in your floppy disk with text "My resume".
10. Create a link to "e-mail me" with your own e-mail address.

When you do this exercise, use the tags that you already know... the more you explore, the better.

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