A HYPERLINK is a navigation tool you can incorporate into your page which enables visitors to click on a word or image, and be taken to the URL you point the link to. The first thing you need is the URL of the site you want to make a link to. The URL is the address of a web site that begins with http:// Next, decide what word or sentence you want to use for the link: let’s say you wanted to give your visitors access to a web search engine as YAHOO. We will call this link: Click here to go to YAHOO. The next thing you want to do is actually place the LINK TAG in your web page. The link tag looks like this:

<A HREF="URL">TEXT</A> 

For this particular example the code is:

<A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com"> Click here to go to YAHOO</A> 

You can also place a LINK on your page, that when clicked, allows users to send you an email message. To specify that a LINK is to an email address you will use the MAILTO TAG.

The code should look like this:

<A HREF="MAILTO:webmaster@techhowto.com"> Click here to send me an email</A> 

Since not all browsers support the MAILTO tag, it’s a good idea to also write out your email address in full. That way your email address will be visible for others to see.

Graphics can also be used to link to a specific document either within your own web site or to a website anywhere else. But first let’s discuss how to add an image to your site.

To place an image on your page, we will use the IMAGE TAG <IMG>. The IMG TAG is a stand alone TAG which does not require a closing TAG. You simply place the IMAGE TAG where you want your image to appear. This takes a little practice, but in no time at all you will be putting images and pictures all over your web site. The IMAGE TAG looks like this:

<IMG SRC="URL" ALIGN=top> 

Where the above example says "URL", put the location of where the image can be found. Don't forget to put quotation marks around the location. ALIGN indicates how you want your text to line up in relation to your graphic. In the above example, specified that I want the text I input right after the IMAGE TAG to line up with the top of the actual image. If you only use the IMAGE TAG, your image will usually be placed on the left side of your browser screen. There is a way to position images anywhere you want on the screen, but first you need to learn about tables.

Now that we know how to add images, let’s make them LINKS. In order for an image to link to an external site, we need to know where the image is stored and the "URL" of the desired site. Let’s say we wanted the above image to link to yahoo's web site.

The code would look like this:

<A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com"> <IMG SRC="URL" ALIGN=top></A>

Once again its time to try these examples on your own. Try adding your own images and making links to different web pages. Remember to take your time and fully understand the concept presented in these tutorials.