Index


Link Tags



The <LINK> tag shows the relationship of the current page to the other pages in the web site. So with a slight bit of a difference, the LINK tag acts much like the META tag does.

As an example, you could specify the table of contents (toc) as the REL (relative) value. The url specified in the second attribute (href) would be the current page's Table of Contents.

<LINK REL="toc" href="http://thewebguild.net/index.html">

The Link tag has several attributes that will let you refine the tag for your uses. Here is a listing of the different attributes and what they can do for you.

<LINK REL="string" REV="string"
   HREF="url" HREFLANG="language"
   CHARSET=charset
   TITLE="string"
   MEDIA="screen  | print | projection | braille  | speech  | all"
   METHODS="string"  TARGET="window"
   TYPE="mimetype" URN="name">


CHARSET
Defines the character encoding of the link. Character Encoding is a method of converting a stream of bytes (what the browser recieves data as) into a stream of characters (what the user will hopefully understand).

HREF
The url of the page being referenced.

HREFLANG
Specifies the language of the document being referenced in href.

MEDIA
Indicates the device that the output will be directed to.

METHODS
Provides information about the functions that a user can perform on an object.
This attribute is not supported by eithier Netscape 4.0 or IE4.

TARGET
Specifies the frame or window that the referenced document is to be loaded into.

TYPE
Defines the mime type of the link.

URN
The Uniform Resource Name for the target document.
This attribute is not supported by eithier 4.0 or IE4.

Placed in the head section, the LINK element does not require a closing </link> tag.


There are two possibilites for showing the relationship that exists: REL indicates that the specified page has the relationship to the current page. Like in the above example. REV indicates a reverse relationship. The current page holds the relationship to the specified page.

For example:
<LINK REV="copyright" href="http://thewebguild.net/register.html">
is stating the the current page holds all of the copyright information for the file specified in the second attribute.

When using the TITLE attribute, it must contain the same title as the document it refers to.

Some possible values for REL and REV:

REV="alternate"
Defines substitute versions of the page
REV="made"
Indicates the author of the document. The URL is a
mailto: using the author's e-mail address.
REL="stylesheet"
This indicates the location of the appropriate style sheet for the current document.

Originally, the following LINK tags were supposed to allow advanced browsers to automatically generate a navigational buttonbar for the site. For each possible value, the URL could be absolute or relative. Unfortunately, the support for this use isn't widely supported. Even though they may be ignored, these tags can still help you document the site's heirachy.

REV="appendix"
Indicates a document wich acts as an appendix for a series of documents.
REV="bookmarks"
Provides a means to orient a visitor within the site. Several bookmarks may be placed within the same document.
REV="chapter"
Indicates a page that acts as a chapter for the site.
REL="copyright"
Indicates the page holding copyright information for the site.
REL="glossary"
Indicates the glossary of terms for the site.
REL="help"
Indicates the help file for the site.
REL="home"
Indicates the site's home or starting page.
REL="index"
Indicates the index page for the site.
be a list of the contents arranged alphabeticly instead.
REL="next"
Indicates the next document within a series.
REL="previous"
Indicates the previous document in a series.
REV="section"
Points to a page that acts as a section in a series of documents.
REV="start"
Indicates the first document in a series of documents.
REV="subsection"
Indicates a page which acts as a subsection in a series of documents.
REL="toc"
Indicates the table of contents for the site.
REL="up"
Indicates the document which is logically directly above the current document.


And that's the HTML that you can stuff into the HEAD section. Go to the next section to see what you can do with the content of your page, or goto the head section generator to make the head section for your web page.






The Web Guild

© 2001 Thomas Rumley
webmaster@thewebguild.net