Create Internal Links

A hyperlink is a direct connection from the current location of the cursor to another location.

You can create an absolute hyperlink to another web site.

You can create a relative hyperlink to another document within your own web site.

You can create a mailto hyperlink to an email message preaddressed to whoever you designate.

You can also create an internal hyperlink to another position in your current document.

For example, you may want to place a hyperlink at the bottom of a web page that will take the visitor back up to the top of that same web page.

Or you might want to provide a short table of the contents of a particular web page and link each item in the table of contents to the exact position farther down on the web page where the discussion of that item begins.

When we create this internal hyperlink we are hyper linking to a place on the web page that is variously referred to as a bookmark, a marker, a target or an anchor.

Dreamweaver refers to such a place as a an anchor.

To create an anchor at a location in a web page:

• Position your cursor at the location you wish to use as your anchor.   Or you can highlight a word in the targeted line.
• Click on the Anchor button on the Common toolbar

Alternately you can choose Insert, Named Anchor from the main menu or Control + Alt + A from the keyboard.

The Named Anchor dialog box will appear.

If you have highlighted a word where you wish the bookmark to appear, that word will appear in the Anchor Name dialog box.

If you haven't highlighted a word or if you wish to change the bookmark name, type the desired name in the Anchor Name text box.

Click on OK.

A little anchor will appear on your page at the point where you have placed the anchor name.

To create a hyperlink to the anchor

• Highlight the clickable text.
• Type the pound sign (#) and the anchor name in the Link text box in the Properties panel. Do not leave a space between the pound sign and the anchor tag.

Alternately you can click on the Point to File button just to the right of the Link text box on the Properties panel. Then drag the cursor to the anchor tag button and let go. The anchor tag will appear in the Link text box.

You might want to link to a anchor in another file in your web site.   To do so, take the following steps:

• Highlight the clickable text in the first file.
• Create a relative link to the second file.
• Follow the URL with the pound sign and the anchor name from the second file.

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Dreamweaver 8 Tutorials
© Agatha Taormina
Last Revised: September 30, 2006