8c. Links to the World: Internet Sites

OK, so you've been itching and itching to hit the Information Super Highway, right? Here, we will extend our use of anchor tags to create links to resources out there on the Internet.

HTML FOR ANCHORS TO THE INTERNET

Linking to another site on the Internet combines a combination of what we worked on before in the lesson on Links to Local Files (Lesson 8a) by incorporating what we have learned about URL's (Lesson 8b). The full HTML format for an anchor link to an item on the Internet is:

    <a href="URL">Text to Activate Link</a>

Where URL is the full Uniform Resource Locator of the requested web site, in quotes, the address for the Internet site where you want to send your viewer. The string Text to Activate Link is what will show up as a hypertext link in your web page (usually but not always) underlined and in blue. When a viewer clicks on this hypertext link, the web browser will link them to the Internet site indicated by the URL. Remember that a URL can be linked to any other World Wide Web (WWW) server, Gopher server, FTP site, or any text, graphic, sound, video file on any server.

Now, we will add a hypertext link to a site that has information about volcanoes on the planet Venus. Follow these directions to add anchor links on your HTML document:

1. Open your index.html file in the text editor.
2. Below the heading, Volcanic Tours Of Venus, and under the rest of your text, enter the following:

   <a href="http://www.solarviews.com/eng/venus.htm">
   Venus</a> has its fair share of volcanic landforms, 
   one of the largest known volcano in the inner planets is,
   <a href="http://www.solarviews.com/raw/venus/sapas.gif">
   Sapas Mon's</a>.
   

   Note: How we have made a links to two different types of information here. The first hyperlink connects to a web page that describes information about the planet Venus. The second is a link to an image of a volcano on Venus called Sapas Mon's.

3. Save and Reload in your web browser.

Note: I have just shown you how to make a hypertext link, linking directly to an image from another web server. You could quite easily use an off-site URL in your <img.../> tags for your own web pages. I STRONGLY urge you to contact the site's creator and there permission first before you do this.

Now we are going to add some hypertext links to other sites that you found of interest before.

FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING STEPS

1. Open your HTML document index.htm in the text editor.
2. Underneath the last entry you made enter:

   <ul>
   <li><a href="">WEB SITES NAME HERE</a></li>
   <li><a href="">WEB SITES NAME HERE</a></li>
   </ul>
   

3. Now click your mouse once in between the two quote marks you inserted in step #2 and Paste in the URL from the web site you copied or manually enter the address. The final anchor tag should look like:

    for example,
   <li>
   <a href="http://www.galaxy.com/galaxy/Science/
   Geosciences.html">Galaxy Directory - Geosciences</a>
   </li>

Note: You have again just set up the HTML structure for an Unordered List, with each list item a hypertext link to a site that offers information about the relevant task. For a review of lists, see lesson 6

Add as many links as you like; you don't have to add just One.

CHECK YOUR WORK
Compare your document with a SAMPLE of how this document should look. If your page looks different than the example, review the text you entered in the text editor. Make sure it matches the text instructions in the 8c. Links to the World: Internet Sites section of this lesson. After viewing the sample, you can close the window that opened.

Practice
Use the list item, and practise making links using the <a href...>...</a> tags to create links inside of your document to other web sites for all the sections of your web site.

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