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<A>

container
CSS: in-line element
start tag	required
end tag	required

Sandia Reference

An anchor is a point at which a reader can click to "jump" to another place in the same page, another page or a specific place in another page.

W3's description

accesskey=

2.0

3.0

3.2

4.0

Let's suppose that you created a menu that were annotated by some of the letters of the alphabet and you wanted readers to be able to type a key and jump to that specific document. That's what "accesskey=" is supposed to do. Type "c" to jump to the sitemap. The syntax looks like this:
<a accesskey="c" href="sitemap.htm">Type "c" to jumpt to the sitemap.</a>

class=

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charset=

2.0

3.0

3.2

4.0

One of the most difficult things for a browser to do is determine the language that a page is written in. The objective of this tag is to tell the browser what language the next page will be in so it can parse the page correctly.

coords=

2.0

3.0

3.2

4.0

Several browser versions ago a new feature was introduced called "Client Side Image Maps". This was to replace the "Server Side Image Maps". HTML 4.0 has now started to define a replacement for CSIM. The combination of the <object> tag and the <a> tag is supposed to do the same thing as CSIM. Well, ok - really!

The syntax is supposed to look something like this:

dir=

"ltr"

"rtl"

effect=

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3.0

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4.0

HTML+ perceived a function similar to <frames>. An author could dictate under what condition a linked page was displayed.

"replace"

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4.0

replaces the contents of the current window with the document at the end of the link.

"new"

2.0

3.0

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4.0

opens up a new "window" (read browser window) and present the new page in the new window.

"overlay"

2.0

3.0

3.2

4.0

creates a "pop-up window" of similar ilk to a help window or Microsoft's "iframe". This is a partial window with the new page in it.

Href=

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HREF takes three arguments, "URL", "filename" or "#name" (all in quotes). Both cause the loading of an externally acquired file or when the reference points to a "#" (hash) entry, it points to target "#name" in the existing file.

The URL is the specification that stipulates what service, the server address, the location of the file and the port number (somewhat obsolete now) needed to download the requested file. The entirety must be included in quotes from the "=" sign to the closing character of the element ">".

PLEASE NOTE: the requests for information are from Sandia. Please respond to that author (as well as myself please) should you encounter effective descriptions of the arguments he is having problems with. The link is provided with each request.

"filename"

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This is the destination file. When it is presented without a full URL, it is assumed to be at the same location as the parent page.

"name"

This specifies the target "#name" in the target page be it the same page or one downloaded using a "filename" or "URL".

The <a name="name"></a> target cannot be placed inside tables. It is not recognized. Instead, close off the table, insert the target, and re-open the table. (tested with Netscape 3.0).

http:

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http: HyperText Transfer Protocol
This is the most commonly used access method. It requires a program running on the destination computer that understands and responds to this protocol. The file retrieved might be an HTML file, a graphic file, a sound file, an animation sequence file, a file to be executed by the server (e.g. cgi-bin files), or a word processing file. Whether the file retrieved can be handled depends on the browser.
<a href="http://www.synapse.net/~woodall/html.htm"></a>

https: https: HyperText Transfer Protocol
This is a variation on the standard access method designed to provide some level of security of transmission.

file:

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file: Local File Access
This method causes the browser to load a file from the locally accessible disk system. This is commonly used to preview Web pages being developed on a computer that has a browser, but does not have a server.
<a href="file:/d:\texts\html\www\icons\html.htm">file link</a>

ftp:

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1.2

ftp: File Transport Protocol
This method uses normal Internet FTP to retrieve a file. Most browsers will ask for a location/name on the local disk system to store the file. Some browsers will simply display a file that is text.
Access to anonymous ftp accounts may be accomplished with the following syntax:
<a href="ftp://ftp2.winzip.com/winzip/winzip95.exe"> Winzip FTP Link</a>
Access to non-anonymous ftp accounts may be accomplished with the following syntax:
<a href="ftp://user_name:password@ftp.domain.org/path/filename.xxxx"> Non-Anonymous FTP Link</a>
Note: Netscape 3.0 may have difficulty figuring out what to do with the file you download. I tried ftp-ing an html file and Netscape displayed it. In order to get Netscape to store the file, I hand to hold down the shift key when I clicked on the link. It then gave me a "save as" dialogue box for me to dictate a destination and, if necessary, a file name.

mailto:

0.9

mailto: E-Mail Form
The argument following the access code is the destination e-mail address. If the browser understands this access code, the browser will automatically generate an input FORM for entering the e-mail message. It may also accept additional arguments for default "Subject:" etc. Note that any special characters in an e-mail address (e.g. "%") must be URL converted (e.g. "%25").
<a href="mailto:nor@synapse.net">E-mail Link</a>

If you are using Netscape 2.0 or later or Lynx 2.5 it is now possible to include a subject variable in the "mailto:" argument. The delimiter is the "?" followed by "subject=" and the closing delimiter is the closing quotes to the href argument. If the browser does not recognize the subject field, it will append the string to the address and the message will be returned to the sender as an unreachable address. The syntax is as follows:
<a href="mailto:nor@synapse.net?subject=E-Mail Test">E-Mail link with subject line</a>.

Mosaic is different. It uses the syntax:
<a href="mailto:nor@synapse.net" title="subject here">Mosaic e-mail Link</a>.
Netscape will not recognize the "title=" attribute so it will discard it but the message will be sent. (based on comments from Michael Seaton 15/6/96)

news: news: USENET News
Only argument following the access code is the group or article name. The syntax is as follows:
<a href="news://news.synapse.net/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html">text</a>

nntp: nntp: Local Network News Transport Protocol
(ed: I am still researching/working on this definition.) mjhanna@sandia.gov

view-source: This was found in a Netscape technical document that was dealing with fonts and cascading style sheets. It pointed to the source of a document at bitstream. This is the syntax that they used: <a href="view-source:http://www.bitstream.com/world/index.htm">

wais: wais: Wide Area Information Servers
(ed: I am still researching/working on this definition.) mjhanna@sandia.gov

gopher:

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1.2

gopher: GOPHER
(ed: I am still researching/working on this definition.) mjhanna@sandia.gov

telnet: telnet: TELNET
The arguments following the access code are the login arguments to the telnet session as user:[password]@host.

cid: cid: Content identifiers for MIME body part
(ed: I am still researching/working on this definition.) mjhanna@sandia.gov

mid: mid: Message identifiers for electronic mail
(ed: I am still researching/working on this definition.) mjhanna@sandia.gov

afs: afs: AFS File Access
(ed: I am still researching/working on this definition.) mjhanna@sandia.gov

prospero: prospero: Prospero Link
(ed: I am still researching/working on this definition.) mjhanna@sandia.gov

x-exec: x-exec: Executable Program
(ed: I am still researching/working on this definition.) mjhanna@sandia.gov

id=

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lang=

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list of language codes
list of country codes

methods=

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"This is a comma separated list of HTTP methods supported by the linked object. The browser might choose a different way of rendering the link for say searchable objects." (HTML+)

METHODS is expected to be a white-space-separated list of HTTP methods supported by the object and accessible to the user. RFC 1866 suggests that the content of the anchor element may be rendered differently depending upon the HTTP method.

md=

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"Specifies a message digest or cryptographic checksum for the linked document designated by the HREF attribute. It is used when you want to be sure that a linked object is indeed the same one that the author intended, and hasn't been modified in any way." (Microsoft)

name=

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this is the vehicle that establishes a target within a page. See also "ID" above. "Name" is considered to be too confusing and is expected to be replaced by "ID".
Note: if the target is inside a table, the link may not work. If this is the case, test the link outside the table. This cost me a day of debugging.
Further Note: This was expected to be deprecated in HTML 4.0 but it continues to hang on.

nocolor

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This is a WebTV tag.

This turns off the colour that is established with the <body link="#XXXXXX"> tag.

Example
<a href="mailto:nor@synapse.net" nocolor>/a>

onClick=

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This is WebTV's description from their 1.2 DTD. "Defines JavaScript code to execute when the user selects an image or link text."

onMouseOver=

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Note: See also the <body> tag. The attribute "onload=" serves a compatible function to this attribute.

This is a Java applet that can be used in HTML as an attribute to the HREF attribute. It takes a very specific form: <A HREF="filename" onMouseOver="window.status='your text here...'; return true">. This puts your text on the status line (usually at the bottom of the screen) when the reader's mouse is over the graphic. Caution must be exercised since this is not automatically erased when the user moves off of the link. See onMouseOut= below. Note: in ADV-HTML a solution to another problem (similar but not the same) the solution was to make sure that the height and width of the image was specified in all images on the page. move your mouse over this line and watch the status line. When you move the mouse off, you will see the effect of onMouseOut=

<a href="anchor.htm" onMouseOver="window.status='the anchor page'; return true" onMouseOut="window.status='the mouse is not on the line'; return true">move your mouse over this line and watch the status line. When you move the mouse off, you will see the effect of onMouseOut="</a">

OnMouseOut=

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Note: See also the <body> tag. The attribute "onload=" serves a compatible function to this attribute.

See the explanation to "onMouseOver=" above. Take a look at the implementation of the onMouseOver= statement.

print=

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This attribute dictates how related documents should be handled in the event that the document is printed. The arguments below provide direction how links are handled.

"reference"
default

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The url of the link will be handled similarly to a footnote (i.e. numbered with a reference address at the bottom of the page).

"footnote"

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The entire document at the end of the link will be printed as a footnote.

"sidebar"

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The entire document at the end of the link will be printed as a sidebar.

"section"

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The document at the end of the link will be printed "as a follow on section" (HTML+). I would think that this would be like an endnote such as found at the end of a chapter.

"silent"

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This argument defeates printing any document at the end of the link.

"reference"

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The url of the link will be handled similarly to a footnote (i.e. numbered with a reference address at the bottom of the page).

rel=

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"Used to describe the relationship of the linked object specified with the HREF attribute. The set of relationship names is not part of this specification, although "Path" and "Node" are reserved for future use with hypertext paths or guided tours. The REL attribute can be used to support search for links serving particular relationships." (Microsoft)

The only example of "rel=" and "rev=" that could be found is UdiWWW. Please refer to the <link> tag for more a functional explanation.

"next"

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WebTV's (1.2) description: "REL=next indicates that the link is the next page in a sequence."

"parent"

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WebTV's (1.2) description: "REL=parent indicates that the current page is the parent of a destination page."

"previous"

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WebTV's (1.2) description: "REL=previous indicates that the link is to the previous page."

"same"
default

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WebTV's (1.2) description: "REL=same indicates that the author of the linked page is the same as the current page."

rev=

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"This defines a reverse relationship. A link from document A to document B with REV="relation" expresses the same relationship as a liink from B to A with REL="relation." REV= is sometimes used to identify the document author, either the author's email address with a "mailto" URL, or a link to the author's home page. Tables of contents can use anchors with REV="ToC" to allow software to insert page numbers when printing hypertext documents. The plain text version of this specification was generated in this way!" (Microsoft)

WebTV doesn't help either: "Defines a reverse link. Indicates that the Web page to which there is a link has a reverse link from the target page back to the source page." from their 1.2 DTD.

The only example of "rel=" and "rev=" that could be found is UdiWWW. Please refer to the <link> tag for more a functional explanation.

selected=

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This tag is somewhat peculiar. It appears that WebTV might have operational differences from PCs. I don't understand the tag so I quote directly.

"Use the selected attribute to indicate that this anchor should be initially selected with the yellow Highlight rectangle. If two anchors in one web page have the selected attribute, the first one in the HTML definition will be selected. This corresponds to the anchor closest to the top-left of the page.
The selected anchor may not appear in the first screenful of the page. The WebTV interface won't scroll to that anchor in order to make it appear. Instead, the selection will appear when the viewer scrolls to that part of the page.
Syntax: <a href="url.address" selected>...</a>
Origin: WebTV

shape=

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"This is used to define shaped buttons on top of images or figures, and is explained later on." (HTML+)

Goto the CSIM test page and take a look at the <area> tag. In place of <area> read <a> instead.

In HTML+, the shape takes on a slightly different definition. The only argument to shape is the actual coordinates of the shape. There is no "coords=" attribute.

"default"

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"circle x,y,r"

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4.0

"rect x,y,w,h"

2.0

3.0

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4.0

"poly x1,y1,s2,y2,..."

2.0

3.0

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4.0

"polygon x1,y1,s2,y2,..."

2.0

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4.0

size=

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"The size in bytes for the linked document. This should only be used as a guide to progress in retrieving documents, as it is likely to get out of step with changes to the target document." (HTML+)

style=

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tabindex=

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A looong time ago, before rats (read mouses) there was this thing called the "Tab Key". It was great, just a few taps with the left pinky and you were where you wanted to go. We have now "pregressed" back to the tab key.

The "tabindex=" attribute takes, as an argument, a number indicating the order of the "focus" of the browser. The objective is to allow the reader to tab around all of the important links on the page and select one with the "enter" key.

Goto the sitemap. There are 25 links on this page. If your browser supports "tabindex=", The Compendium Logo at the top centre of the page should be the first item highlighted when you hit the tag key. #2 is the Sandia Reference just above the logo.

target=

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This allows the anchor be loaded into the frames window indicated by "target=".

"_blank"

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makes the link to load into a new blank window. This window is not named. (Netscape)

"_parent"

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"This target makes the link load in the immediate FRAMESET parent of this document. This defaults to acting like "_self" if the document has no parent." (Netscape)

"_self"

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"This target causes the link to always load in the same window the anchor was clicked in. This is useful for overriding a globally assigned BASE target." (Netscape)

"_top"

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"This target makes the link load in the full body of the window. this defaults to acting like "_self" if the document is already at the top. It is useful for breaking out of an arbitrarily deep FRAME nesting." (Netscape)

title=

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HTML+ "Defines the title to use when the linked document is otherwise untitled."
CAUTION: do not use this definition. It is outdated.

"This is informational only and describes the object specified with the HREF attribute. It can be used for object types that don't possess titles, such as graphics, plain text and Gopher menus." (Microsoft)

"Title is little used or supported and is a Level 1 attribute, but is expected to be the title of the HREF document. RFC 1866 suggests TITLE can be displayed as a margin note or on a small box while the mouse is over the anchor. (Sandia)

"Title=" has suddenly taken on a new role. The objective of HTML 4.0 is to make browsers more user friendly for the handicapped and title= is one of the potential tools. Follow the link for more detail.

type=

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"The MIME content type of the linked document - for use in providing presentation cues only, as it could easily become out of date." (HTML+)

urn=

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"URN stands for Universal Resource Number. RFC 1866 describes it as a preferred, more persistent identifier than the value of HREF." (Sandia)