All About hyperlinks

A hyperlink is a link from a document that opens another page or file when you click it. The destination is frequently another Web page, but it can also be a picture, or an e-mail address, or a program. The hyperlink itself can be text or a picture.

When a site visitor clicks the hyperlink, the destination is shown in a Web browser (Web browser: Software that interprets HTML files, formats them into Web pages, and displays them. A Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, can follow hyperlinks, transfer files, and play sound or video files that are embedded in Web pages.), opened, or run, depending on the type of destination. For example, a hyperlink to a page shows the page in the Web browser, and a hyperlink to an AVI (AVI: A Microsoft Windows multimedia file format for sound and videos that uses the Microsoft Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) specification.) file opens the file in a media player.

How hyperlinks are used

You can use hyperlinks to do the following:

Navigate to a file or Web page on a network, intranet (intranet: A network within an organization that uses Internet technologies (such as the HTTP or FTP protocol). By using hyperlinks, you can explore objects, documents, pages, and other destinations on the intranet.) or Internet
Navigate to a file or Web page that you plan to create in the future
Send an e-mail message
Start a file transfer, such as downloading or an FTP (FTP: A communication protocol that makes it possible for a user to transfer files between remote locations on a network. This protocol also allows users to use FTP commands, such as listing files and folders, to work with files on a remote location.) process

When you point to text or a picture that contains a hyperlink, the pointer becomes a hand , indicating that the text or picture is something you can click.

A URL contains a protocol (protocol: A method of accessing a document or service over the Internet, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).), such as HTTP (HTTP: Internet protocol that delivers information on the World Wide Web. Makes it possible for a user with a client program to enter a URL (or click a hyperlink) and retrieve text, graphics, sound, and other digital information from a Web server.), FTP (FTP: A communication protocol that makes it possible for a user to transfer files between remote locations on a network. This protocol also allows users to use FTP commands, such as listing files and folders, to work with files on a remote location.), or FILE, a Web server (Web server: A computer that hosts Web pages and responds to requests from browsers. Also known as an HTTP server, a Web server stores files whose URLs begin with http://.) or network location, and a path and file name. The following illustration defines the parts of the URL:

Protocol used (http, ftp, file)

Web server or network location

Path

File name

Absolute and relative hyperlinks

An absolute URL contains a full address, including the protocol (protocol: A method of accessing a document or service over the Internet, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).), the Web server (Web server: A computer that hosts Web pages and responds to requests from browsers. Also known as an HTTP server, a Web server stores files whose URLs begin with http://.), and the path and file name.

A relative URL has one or more missing parts. The missing information is taken from the page that contains the URL. For example, if the protocol and Web server are missing, the Web browser uses the protocol and domain, such as .com, .org, or .edu, of the current page.

It is common for pages in a Web to use relative URLs containing only a partial path and file name. If the files are moved to another server, any hyperlinks will continue to work as long as the relative positions of the pages remain unchanged. For example, a hyperlink on Products.htm points to a page named apple.htm in a folder named Food; if both pages are moved to a folder named Food on a different server, the URL in the hyperlink will still be correct.

In a Microsoft Excel workbook, unspecified paths to hyperlink destination files are by default relative to the location of the active workbook. You can set a different base address to use by default so that each time you create a hyperlink to a file in that location, you'll only have to specify the file name, not the path, in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.