HYPERTEXT LINKS TO OTHER DOCUMENT
A book is a large document and, as such, is difficult to manage in a single HTML document. Such a document should be thought of not as a single document but the sum of component parts.
Think of a book’s contents page as a master document with links to the various chapters which are not stored within the same document but each chapter stored in separate documents (or files) on the serving system.
It is important when writing HTML documents that files should not become too large. It is a waste of Internet resources to transfer and load large documents.
The contents page contains the link information whilst the various chapters are stored in linked documents. Having obtained the link information your browser loads the new document positioning the viewing screen at the top of the document. (Unless an anchor point within the document is being referenced.)
Any text that has a link associated with it is shown, by your browser, in a different colour.
Text that has a link associated with it must be marked in the following way:
- <a href="external file">
- This must be typed at the beginning of the link text. Note: there is a space after the a. The "external file" takes different forms depending upon whether the link’s reference is within the current directory of the serving system; referencing another document on the same system but in a different directory or a stored on another system anywhere in the world!
- </a>
- Is typed after the link text.
To reference another document the link description takes the following form:
<a href="simple.html">This is a reference to an external file.</a>
Note: the double quotes (“) before and after the file’s name, “simple.html” in this case.
The above would appear highlighted in the following way when viewed by your browser:
This is a reference to an external file.
To follow the link, click on any part of the highlighted text. Use your browser’s Back button to return to this calling point.
