Link-Making Tools
Exploring How Links Work
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After you've opened your Web browser and connected to the Internet, surf to a page you like that contains links.
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Point to a link whose link source is text, and right-click it.
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INTRODUCTION
Every link has two
parts
: the
link source
”the text, picture, or button that a visitor clicks to activate the link ”and the
URL
”the address of the page to which that link takes the visitor. Creating links is really just a matter of creating the link source in your page and then adding the URL behind it.
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TIP
Finding Links
When the link source is text, it usually appears
underlined
and in a unique
color
. When you point at a link (either text or a picture), the pointer changes from an arrow to a pointing finger.
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Choose
Properties
from the shortcut menu that appears.
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The Properties dialog box opens, noting the address (URL) to which the link points, along with other information.
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TIP
What About Those Addresses Ending in "ASP"?
Most links point to a file
path
”for example,
http://myserver.com/index.html
. Links ending in
.asp?
tell the server to do some special processing to access the latest information for the page they point to.
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Creating Links to Other Web Pages
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In FrontPage, on the page to which you want to add the link, type and format the text that will serve as the link source.
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Select the text.
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Click the
Insert Hyperlink
button on the Standard toolbar.
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If you know the URL of the page to which the link should lead, type it in the
Address
text box (be sure to include the
http://
part) and skip to step 8.
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INTRODUCTION
Now that you grasp the basics of what a link is made of, you're ready to create one to another Web page. Whether you know the exact URL of the page you want to link to or you need to surf to the page to find it, creating a link is a snap.
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TIP
Pictures Can Be Link Sources, Too
See the task "Using a Picture As a Link" later in this part to learn about using a picture as a link source.
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HINT
Keep Link Sources
Short!
Try to keep the link source short. If the link will be text that's within a paragraph a few lines long, don't highlight the whole paragraph in step 1; just select an appropriate word or two to serve as the link source.
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If you don't know the address of the page to which you want to link, click the
Browse the Web
button to the right of the
Look in
list. Your Web browser opens.
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Surf to the page. Then, while viewing the page to which you want to link, press
Alt+Tab
to switch back to the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.
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Click
OK
in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box to add the link.
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The link is added. (Use your mouse pointer to point to the link; notice that the pointer changes to a pointing hand.)
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HINT
You Might Need to Get Online
Depending on the way your PC and Internet software are set up, you might need to connect to the Internet between steps 5 and step 6.
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TIP
Avoid Reformatting Link Source Text
After finishing a text link, avoid monkeying with the character formatting of the link source text. Browsers display link source text with unique formatting to help the visitor instantly identify links. You don't want your character formatting to make your links hard for
visitors
to see.
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Linking to Files So Your Visitors Can Download Them
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After you've prepared the file to which you want to link and created the link source in your Web page, click and drag to select the link source.
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Click the
Insert Hyperlink
button on the Standard toolbar.
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The Insert Hyperlink dialog box opens. Navigate to the folder containing the file to which you want to link.
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INTRODUCTION
You might have content that you want to offer your visitors, but don't want to
turn
into a Web page. For example, if you have a long story, report, or other document in a word-processing file, it may be better to offer that file for downloading instead of turning it into a Web page. You can offer any kind of computer file for downloading ”documents, sound clips, pictures, and so on.
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Click the file's
name
to select it.
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Click
OK
.
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The link to the file is created.
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HINT
Be Informative
In the link source text (or near it), it's courteous to tell your visitors the file type (so that they can tell whether it's a file they're equipped to view) and size (so they can estimate how long it will take to download at the speed of their Internet connection).
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Linking to an Email Address
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Select the text you want to use as the link source for the mailto link.
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Click the
Insert Hyperlink
button on the Standard toolbar.
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The Insert Hyperlink dialog box opens. In the Link to bar, click the
E-mail Address
button.
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INTRODUCTION
A
signature
tells
visitors who created (or
manages
) the Web page they are viewing. Often, the signature includes a
mailto
link, which points to the email address of the Web page's author. You can create mailto links for signatures, or
anywhere
you want to help your visitor conveniently send email to you (or whomever).
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HINT
Forms Help Visitors Contact You
A mailto link isn't the only way your visitors can contact you. You can also provide a response form that enables visitors to send you questions or comments right from the Web page, without opening their email programs.
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{% if main.adsdop %}{% include 'adsenceinline.tpl' %}{% endif %}
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Type the email address to which you want to link in the
E-mail address
field.
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Click
OK
.
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The link is created.
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TIP
What's that "mailto:" Thing About?
When you type the email address in step 4, note that FrontPage adds "
mailto:
" to the start of it. This is the correct coding for a URL that points to an email address.
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HINT
A Quick Way to Make an Email Link
If you see the address you want to use listed in the
Recently used e-mail addresses
field in the Insert Hyperlink box, you can simply click that address to use it and then skip to step 5.
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Creating Bookmarks to Link To
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Click a spot on a Web page where you want a link to lead.
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Open
the
Insert
menu and choose
Bookmark
to insert a bookmark in the spot you chose.
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The Bookmark dialog box opens. Type a name for the bookmark in the
Bookmark name
field and click
OK
.
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The bookmark is added in the spot you specified.
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INTRODUCTION
Links don't always lead to other pages or files. In a long or complex page, a link might lead to another part of the same page. Those links work because of
bookmarks
. Bookmarks in this context work much as they do in the physical world; you mark a spot on a Web page that you want to link to, just as you mark the page in a book that you want to view. Bookmarks are a great way to help your visitors easily navigate a long page, such as a detailed index, glossary, or frequently asked questions (FAQ) file.
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Linking to a Bookmark
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Create and select the link source, as you would when creating any kind of link, and then click the
Insert Hyperlink
button.
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The Insert Hyperlink dialog box opens. In the Link to bar, click
Place in This Document
.
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In the list of bookmarks that appears, click the name of the bookmark you want this link to lead to, and then click
OK
.
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The link is created.
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INTRODUCTION
After you've inserted your bookmarks, you can create links to them as easily as you do to anything else ”more easily, actually. Note that you can link from anywhere on a page to bookmarks elsewhere in the same page (as you do in this task), or from one page to bookmarks in another (see Part 9 for more information).
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TIP
A Bookmark by Any Other Name
What FrontPage calls a
bookmark
is often called an
anchor
or a
target
in other Web-authoring programs. And just to make things really confusing, the Netscape Navigator browser calls the shortcuts users create to easily go to Web pages
bookmarks
, as opposed to
favorites
, which is what Internet Explorer calls those shortcuts.
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Editing Links
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While viewing the page that contains the link in Design view, double-click the link to select it.
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Click the
Insert Hyperlink
button.
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Change anything you want in the Edit Hyperlink dialog box (which is identical to the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, except for its name).
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Click
OK
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INTRODUCTION
No matter what kind of link you create, you can change it if you need to later. You can even change one kind of link into another; for example, you can change a link to a URL into a mailto link.
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TIP
A Fast Way to Link to Oft-Used URLs
In both the Edit Hyperlink and Insert Hyperlink dialog boxes, note that there's a down arrow to the right of the Address field. To link to a URL you've recently used for another link, click the arrow and then choose the URL from the list that appears.
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Using a Picture As a Link
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Click the picture you want to make into a link to select it.
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Click the
Insert Hyperlink
button on the Standard toolbar.
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The Insert Hyperlink dialog box opens. Create a link to a URL, a file, an email address, or a bookmark exactly as shown in previous
tasks
.
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Click
OK
.
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INTRODUCTION
Creating a picture link is exactly like creating a text link ”the sole difference is that you start out by selecting a picture, not text. (Don't worry if you don't know how to add pictures yet; you'll learn how in Part 6. Go ahead and practice with any pictures your template might have given you.)
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TIP
Multiple Links in One Picture
This is just the tip of the iceberg for picture links. In Part 6, you'll learn how to put multiple links all in one picture, called
hotspots
, so that clicking different parts of the picture activates different links.
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Testing Your Links
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While viewing your page in Design view,
Ctrl+click
the link you want to test. (Press and hold down the Ctrl key, point to the link, click, and then release the Ctrl key.)
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If the link leads to a Web page, your Web browser will open and display that page.
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If the link leads to an email address, your email program will open and display a new message window, with the email address already entered.
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INTRODUCTION
To test your URLs, you can preview the page in either the Preview tab or your browser (refer to Part 2), and then click them. But while you're in the thick of editing your page, there's a faster way.
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If the link leads to a file, Windows opens whatever program it needs to display that file.
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If the link leads to a bookmark, no program opens; FrontPage
scrolls
to the spot in the Web page where that bookmark appears.
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TIP
You Might Need to Get Online
Depending on the way your PC and Internet software are set up, you might need to connect to the Internet after step 2 if the link points to a Web page.
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Removing Links
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While viewing the page in Design view, double-click the link to select it.
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Click the
Insert Hyperlink
button.
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Click the
Remove Link
button in the Edit Hyperlink dialog box, and click
OK
.
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The text or picture remains but no longer acts as a link.
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INTRODUCTION
Suppose that you attach a link to text or a picture, and then decide you want to keep that text or picture but don't want it to be a link anymore. FrontPage does not make it immediately obvious how one "de-links" text or a picture, but doing so is simple.
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TIP
One Task Works for All Links
These steps work for any type of link ”URL, email, file, and so on.
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Linking to Your Own Web Pages
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After you've created both Web pages, open the page in which you will create the link, and select the link source.
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Click the
Insert Hyperlink
button on the Standard toolbar.
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Use the
Current Folder
and
Recent Files
buttons
, or the
Look in
list and the folders
beneath
it, to navigate to the folder in which the page you're linking to is stored.
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In the list of files, click the name of the page to which you're linking and click
OK
. The link is added.
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INTRODUCTION
The best way to link among your own pages is to build them together as a Web site, as you'll do in Part 9. Doing so lets you easily manage the links, build navigation bars, and do other things that enhance the usability of your site.
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TIP
See a Map of Your Links
After creating the link (but with the page containing the link still open in Page view), click the
Hyperlinks
button in the Views bar to see a map of the links in the page and where they lead.
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