Table of content

|Read No. | Name of chapter| |:———: |:————–:| |4|Links| |4|Latout|

# Links

Writing Links

Links are created using the < a > element. Users can click on anything between the opening < a > tag and the closing < /a > tag. You specify which page you want to link to using the href attribute.

Email Links

(mailto:): To create a link that starts up the user’s email program and addresses an email to a specified email address, you use the < a > element. However, this time the value of the href attribute starts with mailto: and is followed by the email address you want the email to be sent to.

Opening Links in a New Window

target: If you want a link to open in a new window, you can use the target attribute on the opening < a> tag. The value of this attribute should be _blank.

Linking to a Specific Part of the Same Page

At the top of a long page you might want to add a list of contents that links to the corresponding sections lower down. Or you might want to add a link from part way down the page back to the top of it to save users from having to scroll back to the top.

To link to an element that uses an id attribute you use the < a > element again, but the value of the href attribute starts with the # symbol, followed by the value of the id attribute of the element you want to link to. In this example, < a href=”#top” > links to the < h1> element at the top of the page whose id attribute has a value of top.

Linking to a Specific Part of Another Page

If you want to link to a specific part of a different page (whether on your own site or a different website) you can use a similar technique. As long as the page you are linking to has id attributes that identify specific parts of the page, you can simply add the same syntax to the end of the link for that page.

For example, to link to the bottom of the homepage of the website that accompanies this book, you would write:

< a href=”http:/www.htmlandcssbookcom/#bottom”>

Layout

Building Blocks

CSS treats each HTML element as if it is in its own box. This box will either be a block-level box or an inline box.

Controlling the Position of Elements

CSS has the following positioning schemes that allow you to control the layout of a page: normal flow, relative positioning, and absolute positioning. You specify the positioning scheme using the position property in CSS. You can also float elements using the float property.

• Normal flow (position:static)

  In normal flow, each block-level element sits on top of the next one. Since this is the default way in which browsers treat HTML elements, you do not need a CSS property to indicate that elements should appear in normal flow.

• Relative Positioning (position:relative)

  Relative positioning moves an element in relation to where it would have been in normal flow.

• Absolute Positioning (position:absolute)

  When the position property is given a value of absolute, the box is taken out of normal flow and no longer affects the position of other elements on the page. (They act like it is not there.)

• Fixed Positioning (position:fixed)

  Fixed positioning is a type of absolute positioning that requires the position property to have a value of fixed. It positions the element in relation to the browser window. Therefore, when a user scrolls down the page, it stays in the exact same place.

  Overlapping Elements (z-index)

  When you use relative, fixed, or absolute positioning, boxes can overlap. If boxes do overlap, the elements that appear later in the HTML code sit on top of those that are earlier in the page. If you want to control which element sits on top, you can use the z-index property. Its value is a number, and the higher the number the closer that element is to the front.

  

  Floating Elements (float)

  The float property allows you to take an element in normal flow and place it as far to the left or right of the containing element as possible. Anything else that sits inside the containing element will flow around the element that is floated.