LINKS
Links are fundamentally what makes hypertext hyper. The concept of being able to link one electronic document to another could be considered the original difference between text and hypertext.
Hyperlinks are part of the Anchoring system in HTML. Using Anchors you can link to resources. There are a variety of ways to use anchors. From linking to a location within a single page to linking to other pages within a site, pages on someone elses site, linking to media like images or movies, or even link to an email address.
To add a hyperlink in DW select the text to become the link, then in the Properties panel in the Link Field type in the address of the site you are wishing to link to. It is recomended that you go to the site you are linking to and copy and paste the address from your browser to ensure the address is typed correctly.
When using the Properties panel to link to internal pages you can also drag the Link target to the Files Panel and let go of the mousebutton when over the file you wish to link to.
You can also add links in DW through the INSERT > HYPERLINK command. This is easy and straight forward. Not all the fields need to be filled out, only the Text an Link fields are usually necessary.
Anchors
<a> anchor: the anchor tag is used to indicate a link in HTML. It is used as either the link or the place being linked to. Sample links below. I've used the # symbol to act as a dummy link. In a real hyperlink the href (hypertext reference) would be a URL (uniform resource locator, commonly refered to as the address).
<a href="#">Link text</a>
Link text
<a href="http://www.boomcity.biz/">Boomcity.Biz</a>
Boomcity.Biz
Targets
Hyperlinks can open links in a variety of ways. For most websites there are two options, only if a site uses frames are other techniques useful. As frames are discouraged this document only covers the _blank and _self targets.
_self
target will open the link in the window you are currently browsing with.
<a href="#" target="_self">Link Text</a>
Link Text
_blank
target will open a link in a new window, leaving the page you are currently browsing open behind the new window.
<a href="#" target="_blank">Link Text</a>
Link Text
Named Anchors
By naming anchors within a page, internal links can be made within a page. Using the Name attribute of the anchor that location can be linked to. These named anchors are easy to add in DWCS4 through INSERT > NAMED ANCHOR.
<a name="label">The content</a>
To link to the named anchor above would look like this:
<a href="#label">Any content</a>
Any content
Email Links
Using the Mailto: syntax you can create links that open a default mail client when clicked instead of a webpage. Although easy to apply and fairy robust in it's abilities it's not always a good idea to use the mailto syntax for fear of spam. If an email address is available online there is a good chance it will be exploited. External Mailto reference page
The same site has a slick little application to convert an email address into code so that browsers can still use it, but it does not appear to be an email address to spambots.
Mail To Syntax Examples
Simple MailTo
- <a href="mailto:email@domain.com">
MailTo with Multiple Recipients
- <a href="mailto:email@domain.com,email2@domain.com">
MailTo with Subject
- <a href="mailto:email@domain.com?subject=Comments from MailTo Syntax Page">
MailTo with a Copy
- <a href="mailto:email@domain.com?cc=email@domain.com">
MailTo with a Blind Copy
- <a href="mailto:email@domain.com?bcc=email2@domain.com">
MailTo with message already started in Body
- <a href="mailto:email@domain.com?body=I am having trouble finding information on ">
MailTo with multiline message in Body
- <a href="mailto:email@domain.com?body=The message's first paragraph.%0A%0ASecond paragraph.%0A%0AThird Paragraph.">
