Putting the Hyper in Your Hypertext

The biggest difference between text in a printed document such as a book and text on a web site are the links to other web pages, to other web sites, to other sections on the web page (these are called targets), and to forms, such as a form to send an email message to the webmaster.  A hypertext page is hyper because it allows the viewer to jump around!  Hypertext allows viewers to create their own books, their own texts.  There are three kinds of links you'll probably want to add to your basic web site: targets, links, and a form link so people can email you with questions.  Directions for each are given below.

Targets            Links           Email Links

Targets

Targets are special kinds of links that allow the viewer to zoom to a specific section of the web page.  Let's say you are setting up a web page that lists all the courses available at Austin High School.   Since Austin offers many courses, you want to make it easy for viewers to go immediately to the kinds of courses for which they need information. You create a table that contains all the different curriculum departments (English, science, math, etc.).   It might look like the sample below:
 
 
English Math Science Social Studies Athletics
Foreign Language Music Fine Arts Technology Applications Business

Underneath the table, you set up a subheader for the English department (let's say you choose "Header 3").  Next, you click on the bullet icon (4th icon from the right on the formatting toolbar) and type the list of courses offered.  It may look like this:
 

English

You want to target the English  header so that when viewers click on the word English in your table, they jump to the English course listings.  Highlight the header for English.  Click on the target icon (it looks like a bull's eye). A little window will appear, asking you what name you want to use for your target.  The default is the title you've highlighted.  Since "English" is a good name for the target, click "OK."  A little box with the bull's eye icon will appear to the left of your heading.

Now go back to your table, highlight the word "English" in the table and click on the link icon (it looks like a piece of chain link).  A window will open with three tabs at the top.  You want the tab that says link, so if that isn't the tab that is showing, click on "Link."  There are 2 boxes on the tab where you can enter information.  The first box allows you to enter a filename or a web page address (called an URL) to link your page to another.  Ignore this box, you don't need it for a target.  The second box, which asks you to "Select a name target in current page (optional)" is the one you want.  Highlight the word "English," make sure there's a little black dot next to the words "Current page" and click OK.  The first box will automatically display "#English."  The # is html source code for "this is a target."

To see if your target works, save your composer file with an .html extension and click on the Preview icon.  Netscape will open the Netscape browser.  Click on the English link in the table and you'll see the program jump to the English heading.

Make sure to set up your targets before you create your links, or you'll make a big mess of things.
 

Links

To create a link, highlight the word (or words, or numbers, or a graphic) that you want linked to another file or another web site.  Now click on the link icon. The link window will appear on your screen. There are two boxes where you can enter information.  The first box will ask you to "link to a page location or file."  If you want to link it to a file and you know the file name, type it in the box and then click "OK." You don't need to enter anything in the second box, since that's for targets and you aren't creating a target.  If you don't know the file name, click on the "Choose file" button, find your file on your hard disk or floppy disk, highlight it, and click on the "Open" button.  The file name will appear in the box. Click "OK."  Your link will now be underlined on your web page.  Save your file and click the preview icon to check to see if your link works.

Let's say you want to link some text to another web site altogether.  Click on the link icon.  When you see the link window, type the entire address of the web site in the box labelled "link to a page location or file."  For example, if you want to link to the Hypertext News web site, you'd type: http://hypertext.news.com in the box.  Click OK.  Your link will now be underlined on your web page.  Save your file and click the preview icon to check to see if your link works.

E-mail Form Links

The e-mail form link is a specialized kind of link.  Let's say you want people to email you with questions, comments, and compliments about your web site.  In the footer, you type the words "Email me!"  Highlight the words and click on the link icon.  In the "link to a page location or file", type "mailto:" and your email address.  Then click "OK."  Your entry might look like this:

mailto:smartstudent@hotmail.com

Save your file and click on preview.  Click on your "Email me!" link.  A message window should open so you can write yourself a congratulatory email message.
 
 

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Last update 2/24/07