Chapter 5. Links
The humble hyperlink may not raise eyebrows anymore, but the notion that you can navigate a whole sea of information, jumping from one island of content to another with a simple click, is a very recent and powerful invention. Interested in a particular band? Go to Google.com, type in the band’s name, click to go to its Web site, click to go to the page that lists its upcoming gigs, click to go to the Web site for the club where the band is currently playing, and click to buy tickets.
Although links are a basic part of building pages, and although Dreamweaver—for the most part—shields you from their complexities, they can be tricky to understand. The following section provides a brief overview of links, including some of the technical distinctions between the different types. The rest of the chapter helps turn you into a link-crafting maestro, with sections on formatting the appearance of your links and on creating a navigation menu.
Note
If you already understand links, or are just eager to start using Dreamweaver, jump to “Adding a Link” on Adding a Link.
Understanding Links
A link is a snippet of code that gives a Web browser directions for how to get from one page to another on the Web. What makes links powerful is that the distance covered by those directions doesn’t matter. A link can just as easily lead to another page on the same site as to a page on a Web server halfway around the globe.
Behind the scenes, a simple HTML tag called the anchor (<a>) tag makes each ...
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