Most familiar to web site visitors is the hyperlink that takes them to another place on the web.  For example, when you use a search engine it presents you with a list of hyperlinks to a variety of web sites that might have the information you are looking for.

Such a link is called an absolute hyperlink. The absolute hyperlink goes out to a file external to the current web site.

<A HREF="[address]">[clickable text]</A>

The [address] stands for the location, the URL,  you want to link to; enclose it in quotation marks.

The [clickable text] is the text on your page that will appear in blue and underlined. A user clicking anywhere on the clickable text will be sent to the indicated address.

By convention URLs are typed in lower case.

A complete URL consists of several parts separated by forward slash marks:

• protocol (e.g., http): the type of file being linked to
• domain name
• directory path
• individual filename

Thus in the following URL

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/wdc/html/start1.htm

• the protocol is http
• the domain name is www.nvcc.edu
• the directory path is home/ataormina/wdc/html; each of these terms refers to a folder inside another folder on the directory tree
• the filename is start1.htm

When you put an absolute hyperlink on your page you must use as your address the entire URL, including the protocol.

I work at <A HREF="http://www.nvcc.edu">Northern Virginia Community College</A>.

NOTE:  I changed the default colors of my hyperlinks to match the colors on my web pages.