a

Summary

Defines a hyperlink, a destination of hyperlink, or both.

Overview Table

DOM Interface

HTMLAnchorElement

Description

The a element defines a hyperlink to any content, which could be an external site, another page on the same site, a section within the same page, an image, or a local file.

Syntax

<a href="[URI]">[Anchor text or image tag]</a>

<a id="#[identifier]">[Anchor text or image tag]</a>

<a>[Anchor text or image tag]</a>

Enclosed HTML

HTML enclosed by the <a></a> tags is typically text or an image. It is displayed in the page and (if the href attribute is present) is rendered as a link.

Common Attributes

download="filename.pdf"

href="http://example.com"

href="#TableOfContents"

id="TableOfContents"

hreflang="ja"

rel="help"

target="_blank"

Examples

<!-- Link to an external website. -->
<a href="http://www.example.com">Example website</a>
<!-- Link to an internal website in same directory. -->

<a href="home.html">Home</a>
<!-- Download link (HTML5 only). Value of download attribute is used as pre-filled file name in Save dialog.

If no value is specified for the download, the name of the resource will be used.–>

<a href="filename_on_server.pdf" download="meaningful_filename.pdf">Download your pdf</a>
<!-- Open a link in the window specified by the attribute TARGET. -->

<a href="http://www.example.com" target="_blank">Open example website in new window</a>
<!-- Include an IMG element as a part of the link. -->

<a href="http://www.example.com"><img src="images/bullet.png">A link with an image</a>
<!-- Link to an anchor on the same page. -->

<a href="#top">Go to top</a>
<!-- Define an anchor. -->

<a id="top"></a>
<!-- Invoke a JavaScript function (Not recommended) -->

<a href="javascript:alert(‘Link clicked’)">Click this link</a>
<!-- Links to a document and uses the ‘’rel’’ attribute to specify the relationship to the linked document. -->

<a href="http://www.example.com/help" rel="help">Link to help</a>

Notes

Remarks

For creating an anchor in the page, the name attribute is obsolete and should be replaced by id attribute.

Both text and images can be included within an anchor. An image that is an anchor has a border whose color indicates whether the link has been visited. To prevent this border from appearing, you can set the img element's border attribute to 0 or omit the border attribute. You can also use CSS attributes to override the default appearance of a and img elements.

The URI may refer to any protocol, e.g. http, mailto, file. A fragment (# followed by text) refers to a location in the current page. href may be omitted to indicate a placeholder link, such as a reference to the current page in a menu.

Optionally the rel element may be specified to provide semantic meaning to the link target.

Internationalization topics related to the a element:

• Indicating the language of a link destination

Clicking and focus

Whether clicking on an anchor causes it to (by default) become focused varies by browser and OS.

Does clicking on an anchor give it the focus?

Does tapping on an anchor give it the focus?

Related specifications

HTML 5.1

W3C Working Draft

HTML 5

W3C Recommendation

HTML 4.01

W3C Recommendation

Attributions

• Mozilla Developer Network : Article

• Microsoft Developer Network: [Windows Internet Explorer API reference Article]