In the introduction I mentioned that HTML is a scripting language,
because it is a plain-text format that browser programs can read. The
commands which the browsers read are called 'markups'. But what is
HyperText? HyperText is a type of command that instructs browser
programs to either get a file from some other location and display it
(or play it if it is an animation, sound, or video), or it is a link
which, when selected, instructs the browser to go to another page.
Since any page can link to any other web page, and even different
sections within its own web page, the World Wide Web is essentially
nonlinear.
Take a look at the source code for this link to Wikipedia's
English-language homepage (confused? see web page anatomy). Notice that
it starts with an <a (anchor) phrase which includes the whole
website address within the brackets, then the word "Wikipedia's", then
a </a> (end-of-anchor) command.
In a Composer window, open "example.html". Select the word "Womprats"
which you added to the file. Choose Insert -> Link... and a dialog
box will open. In that dialog box, enter:
http://www.calogero.us
click OK, the dialog box will close, and the word Womprats will be blue
and underlined. Save the file. Open the page in the Browser window, and
move the cursor-arrow over the word Womprats. The cursor will change
into a pointing hand. Click the link, and the browser will go to the
Calogero.us homepage.
NOTE! A link to an outside webpage rarely causes problems, because the
whole address does not change. But links to pages within your website do change, if you start by linking
to other pages on your hard drive. Mozilla simplifies this issue by
using a 'relative location' format, which works fine so long as you
don't reorganize the directory structure of your site after creating
the links.
A. Make sure you have the "URL is relative to page location" box
checked when you create links
B. After uploading the files to the web, test all of your links to make
sure they work now that you have copied the whole mess to your
webhost's hard drive.
Back in Composer (with the "example.html" file open), choose Insert
-> Image... and in the dialog box that opens, choose Select File...
and choose a small image file from somewhere on your hard drive. A
small preview of the image will appear back in the dialog box, and
above it will be the address of the image, and a field into which you
should type alternative text. Why the alternative text? Partly to serve
blind people, who use speech-creation software so that they can browse
pages and know what is there. Type in something which describes the
image, click OK, and the image will now appear on your Composer page.
Again, you can click the <HTML>Source tab and view the commands
that make this work, or you can get on with finishing this tutorial.
back to Introduction
back to Web Page Anatomy
on to Formatting Web Pages
on to Web Page Graphics
on to Organizing and Uploading Web Pages