The World Wide Web got its spidery name from the plentiful connections (links) that link websites together with the click of a button. What most people don't know is that HTML links are actually HTML anchors constructed using anchor tags (<a>).

A Hypertext Reference (href) is an HTML attribute of an anchor (link) tag that requires a valid URL in order to properly direct a user to a different location. In other words, this Hypertext Reference is where users will navigate to if they do click on this link. Use the demonstration below as a reference.

The target attribute defines how each link will open when clicked. Will each one open in a new window, or will each one open in the current browser window? As the web designer, you call the shots as to how a user navigates from page to page, so long as you know how to handle the target attribute.

Link Targets:

html - download links

Placing files available for download is done in exactly the same fashion as placing text links. However, things become complicated if we want to place image links for download. The best solution for images is to use a thumbnail links, which we will discuss in the next lesson.

Use the <base> tag in the head element to set a default URL for all links on a page to go to. It's always a good idea to set a base tag just in case your links become bugged somewhere down the line. Usually, you should set your base to your home page.