The A Tag

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Free HTML Class | HTML Validators

The a tag creates links (both anchors within the current page and to external pages) within an HTML document.

HTML5 also allows the creation of placeholder links by using the a tag without any attributes.

• AvantGo Palm OS
• AvantGo Windows CE
• Chrome 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Firefox 1, 2, 3, 4
• Internet Explorer 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Netscape 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8
• Opera 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
• Safari 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• WebTV/MSN TV

HTML Versions

• HTML 3.2, 4.0
• HTML5
• XHTML 1.0

Global attributes and event attributes. Plus:

• coords (obsolete in HTML5)
• href (required in HTML4 optional in HTML5)
• hreflang
• name (obsolete in HTML5)
• rel
• rev (obsolete in HTML5)
• shape (obsolete in HTML5)
• target
• type

CDATA Any text that you want linked. The following tags are valid within the <a> tag:
acronym, applet, b, basefont, bdo, big, br, button, cite, code, dfn, em, font, i, iframe, img, input, kbd, label, map, object, q, s, samp, script, select, small, span, strike, strong, sub, textarea, tt, u, var

The <a> tag is valid within the following tags:
acronym, address, applet, b, bdo, big, blockquote, body, caption, center, cite, code, dd, del, dfn, div, dt, em, fieldset, font, form, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, i, iframe, ins, kbd, label, legend, li, noframes, noscript, object, p, pre, q, s, samp, small, span, strike, strong, sub, sup, td, th, u, var

• standard link with a title
  

  <a href="http://webdesign.about.com/" title="About.com Web Design and HTML">Web Design / HTML at About.com</a>

  View
• named fragment
  

  <a name="bottom" id="bottom">the bottom of the page</a>

  link to this by typing:

  <a href="#bottom">link to the bottom of the page</a>

  View
• link to a frame called "main"
  

  <a href="/od/frames" target="main">frame link</a>

  View
• link in a series of pages
  

  <a href="/od/htmltags/p/bltags_abbr.htm" rel="Next" rev="Prev">Next</a>

  View
• link with an access key
  

  <a href="/od/accessibility/" accesskey="a">access key is a</a>

  View

• All of the attributes of the a tag are optional. The values for the element may then be set at a later time using dynamic scripts.
• Keep the a tags as the innermost tag in a nest of tags. This isn't required, but it makes the code cleaner and easier to script.
• If you set a target on a link and you're not in a frameset, that link will open in a new window with the name of that target.
• Links with access keys will open when that access key is pressed in conjunction with the alt or command key on the keyboard. This makes pages more accessible.
• Do not nest multiple a tags, this is not allowed.
• When creating image links, make sure that the closing </a> tag is flush with the final > of the image tag. Otherwise, some browsers display the additional white space as a small underscore beside the image.

More A Information

• Adding Links
• How to Write Internal Links
• Creating Better Links
• How to Open a Link in a New Window
• Mail Links
• How to Remove the Underlines From Links

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