A Webpage, as explained in the Web Terminology section, normally contains Internet Instructions (codes), Pictures, Text (the Information itself), Links and so on. However. The actual viewable (on-screen) content can only made up of Pictures, Video, Animation, Text and Links. Sometimes a webpage's viewable (on-screen) content is made up purely of text, purely of pictures, purely of links or a mixture of text, pictures and links for example. I breifly mentioned links in the Getting Started section, but in this section I will be explaining links in more detail as they can go unnoticed when you are a beginner to the internet.

A link is normally a piece of Underlined Blue Text or a picture. However. These days, with many programmers becoming more creative, the link can be anything from coloured text to an animated picture. Other forms of link include menus. Here are examples of standard links.

Fig 1.0  A Picture Link

Main Index Fig 1.1  A Text Link

Main Index   Fig 1.2  A Picture Link and a Text Link

Fig 1.0 shows a standard Picture Link, whereby when you click on the picture the link takes you to the main index webpage. You will know this by hovering the mouse pointer over the picture, but not clicking on it, and then looking at the status bar. The status bar will show you where a link is going. This applies to all links.

Fig 1.1 shows a standard Text Link, whereby when you click on the text the link takes you to the main index webpage.

Fig 1.2 shows a standard Picture & Text Link, whereby when you click on either the picture or the text the link takes you to the main index webpage. When you click on a Picture & Text link both the picture and the text are selected.

Fig 1.3  Example: The status bar showing you where a link is going

In certain circumstances it is always a good idea to check where a link is taking you. For example. If you are looking on a picture website for a desktop background or a picture to put on a birthday card you might click on a picture that takes you to a Registration webpage rather than the Picture Download webpage. This could be because the website owner is not allowing certain pictures to be downloaded for free.

The next type of link is the Hover Link. It changes its colour, size and/or imagery when you hover the mouse pointer over it.

Fig 1.4  A link that changes colour when....

Fig 1.5  ....you hover the mouse pointer over it.

A good website will always have the much favoured HOME, ABOUT and CONTACT US links on it.

Clicking on a HOME link means take me to the home (first) webpage of that website, which is normally its index webpage. The reason why a HOME link is good is because sometimes when you are searching the internet you get a link to another part of a website. Search engines do not always show you a link to a website's index page. They usually show you a link to the item you are looking for instead. For example. If you search for Car Wheels the search engine might show you a link to www.yoingco-cars.com/wheels.htm or a link to www.yoingco-cars.com. So assuming you would click on the www.yoinco-cars.com/wheels.htm link, because you wanted to look at the wheel pictures, you should expect a HOME link inside the wheels.htm webpage that takes you to its website's index webpage (www.yoingco-cars.com).

An ABOUT (or ABOUT US) link normally takes you to a webpage that tells you all about the company and its agenda and/or about the owner of the website. The ABOUT webpage sometimes gives contact details as well, so click on the ABOUT link if you do not see a seperate CONTACT US link within the main links or somewhere else on the webpage. This was the case with the BSL webpage above - It had a seperate CONTACT link elsewhere on the webpage.

Here is another example of a hover link.

Fig 1.6  A link that changes colour when....

Fig 1.7  ....you hover the mouse pointer over it.

Another sign of a good website is when it has Flag (Picture) links or Language (Text) links on it. It means the webpages of that website have been translated into those languages. For example. If you click on the Spanish flag, on the National Gallery website, it will take you to the Spanish Index Page of its website. From there, subsequent webpages will be in Spanish.

This final example of a hover link is a bit more complex to follow, as you will see.

Fig 1.8  Train Tickets selected....

Fig 1.9  ....Read this menu carefully....

Fig 1.10  ....Virgin Trains selected.

The first lot of links (Fig 1.8) are not difficult to understand. As you hover over a link it changes from natural text to text with a >> cursor next to it. Simply click on the link you want and it will give you more information - The links area changes (Fig 1.9). In this example I clicked on the Train Tickets link.

So far so good, but now the information has become confusing. For example. The dotted lines that seperated each link in Fig 1.8 have disappeared in Fig 1.9. So you have to ask yourself "Do I read all the text in Fig 1.9 as one statement with no links?" or "Is each piece of text a link?". Virgin have made the mistake of putting their text descriptions too close to their links. You would be forgiven if you read Virgin Trains as the heading and the description Plan A Trip.... as the link. It is in fact the reverse. Virgin Trains is the link and Plan A Trip.... is the heading. The other link is Thetrainline and Find Out Times.... is the heading. I clicked on the Virgin Trains link (Fig 1.10) which then took me to the virgin trains Journey Planner webpage.

The next example shows a Button link. Button links are like normal buttons you click on except that they carry out Internet actions instead. Actions such as Linking you to the bookings webpage, Registering your details, Booking your Tickets, Accepting payment and so on. Not all button links are to do with bookings though. Some buttons link to other websites/webpages and are made to look like buttons because the website owner does not want to use the standard text links.

Fig 1.11  Click on the button link to Book A Cheap Flight

The last type of link I am going to show you is the Menu link. It works the same way a normal menu but carrys out Internet actions instead.

Fig 1.12  Hover, but do not click, over the menu.

Hover, but do not click, over a menu - in this example the menu called Nevers And Its Region. This will automatically display its menu-items (the same as a normal menu).

Fig 1.13  Highlight and then select (click on) a menu-item

Now move the mouse pointer down the menu-items until you highlight the one you want and then select (click on) it. I chose the Sainte Bernadette menu-item which took (linked) me to a webpage about Sainte Bernadette.

Links hopefully look a lot clearer to you now. Out of all the things to do on the internet (book flights, search for something, download music and so on) Links are the most important thing because they help you to navigate around the internet. I have broken links down for you, but the reality is that not all website are neat and tidy. Most big commercial websites just slap their links anywhere and everywhere - Meaning. You must know how to identify a normal picture from a linked picture and a normal piece of text from a linked piece of text. If you see a picture of a mobile phone for example with the words Mobile Phone underneath it the chances are the picture and the text are links. A word of caution though. Do not just click on anything because it looks like an interesting link. Clicking on the wrong link could be fatal.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.

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