MACROMEDIA 38028779 - Macromedia Dreamweaver - Mac, Using Manual, Page: 358 / 582

Chapter 15 358
Creating links
The HTML tag for creating a hypertext link is called an anchor tag or an
a
tag.
Dreamweaver creates an anchor tag for objects, text, or images you create links
from. You can create links to other documents and files, and links to specific
places in a single document using the
a href
tag.
For example, if you selected the text
Home Page
in the Document window, then
created a link to a file named home.htm, the HTML source code for the link
would look like this:
<a href="home.htm">Home Page</a>
If you are creating a link to a specific place in a document, you first create a named
anchor, for example,
a name="MainMenu"
. Then you create a link within the page
that refers back to that named anchor, for example,
a href="#MainMenu"
.
Before creating links, be sure you understand how document-relative paths, root-
relative paths, and absolute paths work. See “About document locations and
paths” on page 354.
You can create several types of links in a document:
•
A link to another document or to a file, such as a graphic, movie, PDF,
or sound file.
•
A named anchor link, which jumps to a specific location within a document.
•
An e-mail link, which creates a new blank e-mail message with the recipient’s
address already filled in.
•
Null and script links, which enable you to attach behaviors to an object or to
create a link that executes JavaScript code.
Using Dreamweaver, there are several ways to easily create local links (between
documents in the same site):
•
Use the site map to view, create, change, or delete links.
•
In the Document window, use Modify > Make Link to select a file to link to.
•
Use the Property inspector to link to a file, by using the folder icon to browse
to and select a file, using the Point-to-File icon to select a file, or typing the
path of the file.
Note: Typing URLs or paths to a file can lead to incorrect paths and links that don’t
work. To ensure that the path is correct, use the folder icon to browse to your link.
•
Choose Make Link from the context menu, then select a file to link to.
To create an external link (to a document on another site), you must type the
absolute path (with proper protocol) in the Property inspector. Be sure you enter
the entire path (including http://) when creating external links.