<A>...</A>

Description

<Related pages>

	How to change an image when the mouse moves over it.
	How do I load a page in another frame?
	How can I change the color of a link?
	How can I change two or more pages when a link is clicked?
	How can I open a new browser window from a link?
	RFC 1630

This element is what the hyperlinked structure of the World Wide Web is based on. It is used in two ways:

1. Create a hyperlink to another anchor: By using the HREF attribute you create an hyperlink, this is a link which points to another document, somewhere on the internet. When a user selects this link, the browser will load the resource that the link refers to.
2. Create an anchor in a document: When you use the NAME or ID attribute you create an anchor, this is a position inside a document which can be used as the target for an hyperlink.

DTD

<!ELEMENT A - - (%inline;)* -(A)        -- anchor -->
 <!ATTLIST A
   %attrs;                              -- %coreattrs, %i18n, %events --
   charset     %Charset;      #IMPLIED  -- char encoding of linked resource --
   type        %ContentType;  #IMPLIED  -- advisory content type --
   name        CDATA          #IMPLIED  -- named link end --
   href        %URI;          #IMPLIED  -- URI for linked resource --
   hreflang    %LanguageCode; #IMPLIED  -- language code --
   rel         %LinkTypes;    #IMPLIED  -- forward link types --
   rev         %LinkTypes;    #IMPLIED  -- reverse link types --
   accesskey   %Character;    #IMPLIED  -- accessibility key character --
   shape       %Shape;        rect      -- for use with client-side image maps --
   coords      %Coords;       #IMPLIED  -- for use with client-side image maps --
   tabindex    NUMBER         #IMPLIED  -- position in tabbing order --
   onfocus     %Script;       #IMPLIED  -- the element got the focus --
   onblur      %Script;       #IMPLIED  -- the element lost the focus --
   >

Attributes

Core attributes: class id style title
Internationalization attributes: dir lang
Events: onclick ondblclick onmousedown onmouseup onmouseover onmousemove onmouseout onkeypress onkeydown onkeyup

ACCESSKEY
Description of the accesskey attribute

CHARSET
This attribute specifies the character encoding of the resource to which the link points.

HREF
Create a link to an URI, a Universal Resource Identifier (see RFC 1630 out=>

for the complete RFC).
A URI consists of the following elements :

<protocol>://<host>:<portnumber><path><anchor>?<parameters>

protocol

The protocol you want to use. Some well-known protocols are :

Protocol	Usage
http	Hypertext Transfer Protocol, for World Wide Web pages
ftp	File Transfer Protocol, for downloading and uploading files
news	Reading and posting messages to newsgroups
gopher	Menu like information system, used before the WWW got popular.
telnet	Remote login on another computer
javascript	Trigger the execution of a JavaScript function

host

The host computer which has to handle the request. This can be a four-number internet address, or the name of the computer.

portnumber

On a computer you can set up more than one server (program) which handle the same protocol. Each server is assigned its own portnumber to which it listens. Each protocol has a default portnumber, and most programs add this if the address does not contain a portnumber. For example the default portnumber for http is 80.

path

The directory on the computer where the information is stored.

anchor

For an HTTP address you can create anchors in a page, which lets you jump to a specific position in that page. Anchors are created with the NAME attribute of the A element.

parameters

If the address links to a program you can supply information to this program with this parameters. What parameters you can use depends completely on the program.

If you want to link to an anchor which has been created with the NAME attribute, Add the character # followed by the name of the anchor to the link. By using only the #<NAME> syntax as the destination of the link you can link to a specific position with the current document. This can be used for things like a table of contents.

HREFLANG
This attribute specifies the base language of the resource where this link points to. The HREF attribute must be supplied when this attribute is present.

NAME
Give the anchor a name that can be used as an the target of an URL in the HREF attribute. This makes it possible to jump to a specific place in the target document. To use this position add the character #, followed by the name to the URL in the link. The attribute ID can be used for the same purpose.
The value supplied is case-sensitive, and must be unique within a document. Although case-sensitive, two values which only differ in case are not allowed.

NOCOLOR
This prohibits the text of the link to be drawn using the color which was set with the LINK attribute of the BODY element.

ONBLUR
Description of the ONBLUR attribute

ONFOCUS
Description of the ONFOCUS attribute

REL
This attribute defines the relation between the current document and the anchor to which the link points. The value is called the "link type". The value for this attribute is a list of link types separated by spaces.

Known link types are:

Alternate: Designates substitute versions for the document in which the link occurs. When used together with the lang attribute, it implies a translated version of the document. When used together with the media attribute, it implies a version designed for a different medium (or media).
Stylesheet: Refers to an external style sheet. This is used together with the link type "Alternate" for user-selectable alternate style sheets.
Start: Refers to the first document in a collection of documents. This link type tells search engines which document is considered by the author to be the starting point of the collection.
Next: Refers to the next document in an linear sequence of documents. User agents may choose to preload the "next" document, to reduce the perceived load time.
This is the only value supported by WebTV.
Prev: Refers to the previous document in an ordered series of documents. Some user agents also support the synonym "Previous".
Contents: Refers to a document serving as a table of contents. Some user agents also support the synonym ToC (from "Table of Contents").
Index: Refers to a document providing an index for the current document.
Glossary: Refers to a document providing a glossary of terms that pertain to the current document.
Copyright: Refers to a copyright statement for the current document.
Chapter: Refers to a document serving as a chapter in a collection of documents.
Section: Refers to a document serving as a section in a collection of documents.
Subsection: Refers to a document serving as a subsection in a collection of documents.
Appendix: Refers to a document serving as an appendix in a collection of documents.
Help: Refers to a document offering help (more information, links to other sources information, etc.)
Bookmark: Refers to a bookmark. A bookmark is a link to a key entry point within an extended document. The title attribute may be used, for example, to label the bookmark. Note that several bookmarks may be defined in each document.

REV
This attribute defines the relation between this anchor and another document that points to this anchor. It is the reverse of the REL attribute. The value is called the "link type" and is a list of link types separated by spaces.

See the REL attribute for the possible values for this attribute.

SELECTED
Use the selected attribute to indicate that this anchor should be initially selected with the yellow Highlight rectangle. If two anchors in one web page have the selected attribute, the first one in the HTML definition will be selected. This corresponds to the anchor closest to the top-left of the page.

The selected anchor may not appear in the first screenfull of the page. The WebTV interface won't scroll to that anchor in order to make it appear. Instead, the selection will appear when the viewer scrolls to that part of the page.

TABINDEX
Description of the TABINDEX attribute

TARGET
The TARGET attribute forces the load of that link into a targeted window. It is only used in combination with the HREF attribute. The value supplied with the attribute must be the same as the name of the window, and is case-sensitive. You can give a window a name with the FRAME element. If a window with the supplied target name does not exist then a new window will be created with that name.
If you do not specify a target window the current window will be used, or the target specified with the BASE element.

Magic TARGET names
These names all begin with the underscore character. Any targeted window name beginning with underscore which is not one of these names, will be ignored.

Value Description

_blank This target will cause the link to always be loaded in a new blank window. This window is not named.

_self This target causes the link to always load in the same window the anchor was clicked in. This is useful for overriding a globally assigned BASE target.

_parent This target makes the link load in the immediate FRAMESET parent of this document. This defaults to acting like _self if the document has no parent.

_top This target makes the link load in the full body of the window. This defaults to acting like _self if the document is already at the top. It is useful for breaking out of an arbitrarily deep FRAME nesting.

Value	Description
_blank	This target will cause the link to always be loaded in a new blank window. This window is not named.
_self	This target causes the link to always load in the same window the anchor was clicked in. This is useful for overriding a globally assigned BASE target.
_parent	This target makes the link load in the immediate FRAMESET parent of this document. This defaults to acting like `_self` if the document has no parent.
_top	This target makes the link load in the full body of the window. This defaults to acting like `_self` if the document is already at the top. It is useful for breaking out of an arbitrarily deep FRAME nesting.

TYPE
This attribute specifies the content-type of the resource to which this link points. The value of this attribute must be a MIME type. A MIME type defines what kind of resource the link points to. For example, a HTML file has a MIME type of text/html.

Examples

Here's a link to

<A href="#top" onclick="alert('Go! link Go!')">the top of the page</A>.

Here's a link to the top of the page.

A link to a zip file : <A href="htl.zip">download this list</A>

A link to a zip file : download this list

Create a link to <A href="mailto:schluter@knoware.nl">my email address</A>

Create a link to my email address