Link

For the video game character, see Link (The Legend of Zelda).

A link, also hyperlink in computing, is a part of a chain. A chain is made of many pieces of metal; each piece is a link.

Today, people also use the word link in a new way. The World Wide Web on the Internet is made of many different Web pages. The computer software that people use to make these pages (HTML) lets us go to other pages in a very fast and easy way.

The person who makes the web page can tell the computer to show a word or a picture on the Web page as a link. This means that when we click on the link with our computer mouse, the computer will show us the new page we want to see. Most links are blue, but they can be any color.

The color of the link will change to dark blue when clicked as the web browser recognises it in the browser's cache. Unless the cache is cleared, the link will always stay dark blue.

Ways of making links

There are many ways in making a link on a web page. The process is different for different internet software.

Plain HTML

In .htm and .html files, a link can be created using this code:

<a href="?x=http://www.example.com">Text of link</a>

WikiSyntax

WikiSyntax like MediaWiki uses a simpler way of making links. To create a link to another page of the same website:

[[Page name|Link text]] or just [[Page name]].

To link to an external website:

[http://www.example.com Link text], [http://www.example.com], or just http://www.example.com.

BB code

BB code is used in forum software. To create a link:

[url]http://www.example.com[/url], or [url=http://www.example.com]Link text[/url]