Hyperlinks

What is a Hyperlink?

A hyperlink is a piece of text, a graphic or a section in a graphic that when clicked takes the user to another location either within or outside of the current application. The cursor will usually change when hovered over a hyperlink as in the animated gif below.

Internal and External Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks can be internal or external.

Internal Hyperlink

Internal hyperlinks take the user to another location within the current site. This could be either a new screen or a bookmarked heading in a large section of text.

External Hyperlink

External hyperlinks take the user to a different website.

Absolute and Relative Addressing

Absolute Addressing

A hyperlink uses absolute addressing when the full domain and pathname are entered such as below.

This means that the link will ALWAYS refer to that exact page and is used for external hyperlinks.

Relative Addressing

Relative addressing is when only the filename and perhaps a sub folder is referred to. It means it is held on the same website/domain.

Relative addressing would only be used for internal links.

Example of a relative hyperlink below (using the sitemap to the right)

Sitemap used for a website.

Summary

Internal Hyperlink/Relative Addressing

External Hyperlink/Absolute Addressing