Recommended sites

Home>HTML Reference>HTML Tags>HTML a tag

HTML a tag

Note: If you don't know what a tag is and/or how you must use it we recommend you to read our HTML tags and attributes tutorial that you can find in our HTML tutorials section.

Table of contents

Description
Attributes
Events
Examples

Description

The HTML a tag defines an anchor and may be used to establish a link to other document, as a bookmark on a page, or as both of them.

When used to set a bookmark you must define an id or name (use "id" for Strict XHTML or both "id" and "name" with the same value for compatibility) to be able to point to it in other instances. The id must be unique and follow the rules described for the "name" attribute. If no "href" attribute is defined, the visual aspect of text is not changed.

Example:

Code	View
<a id="bookmark" name="bookmark">First bookmark named as "bookmark". We'll refer to it in other examples.</a>	First bookmark named as "bookmark". We'll refer to it in other examples.

When the HTML a tag is used to link to other page the "href" attribute is defined and describes the location of the referred resource. The links are usually rendered in a special way by browsers using text decorations, as color and/or underline.

Example:

Code	View
<a href="http://www.roi.com.au/">Search engine optimization</a><br /> <a href="comment.html">The HTML comment tag</a>	Search engine optimization The HTML comment tag

And finally, the HTML a tag may be used for both purposes. While referring to another document, this anchor will set a bookmark on this page.

Code	View
<a id="doctypelink" href="doctype.html">The HTML !DOCTYPE tag</a>	The HTML !DOCTYPE tag

Attributes

id (name)

The "id" attribute assigns an identifier to the associated element. This identifier must be unique in the document and can be used to refer to that element.

Example:

Code begin This is the first paragraph named as paragraph1. To dynamically change its properties use this identifier.Code end

class (cdata)

The "class" attribute assigns a class name (or a list of class names separated by spaces) to the container element. It's used with style sheets and tells the browser the class to which the element is associated with. A class gives visual attributes to elements.

Example:

Code begin This article is based on the book "Wind in the trees" by Jhon L. Brooks

This article is based on the book "Wind in the trees" by Jhon L. Brooks... and is more important than the one before.Code end

style (style)

Defines a visual style of this element. Is a better practice to define styles attributes in external style sheets grouping them in classes. Attributes in the "style" parameter must preserve this order "name : value" and be separated by a semi-colon.

If you're writing XHTML code it's recommended not to use this attribute and try style sheet classes (with the "class" attribute).

Example:

Code begin This is a paragraph with a defined style
And this is another text without style.Code end

title (text)

Indicates a title for the element. Used to give a short description about the element that is usually shown as a "tool tip" when the user put the mouse pointer over the element.

Example:

Code	View
<a title="HTMLQuick.com" href="http://www.htmlquick.com">HTML code</a>	HTML code

charset (charset)

Specifies the character encoding of the target URL. Refer to the type definition and the reference for character encoding for more information.

Example:

Code begin <a charset="utf-8" href="http://www.htmlquick.com">HTML code</a>Code end

href (uri)

Specifies the destination resource for the element. Commonly used to refer to pages in the same domain name or external pages.

Example:

Code	View
Link to page on this site: <a href="http://www.htmlquick.com/tutorials/links.html">Links in HTML tutorial</a><br /> Link to external site: <a href="http://www.w3.org">World Wide Web Consortium</a>	Link to page on this site: Links in HTML tutorial Link to external site: World Wide Web Consortium

hreflang (langcode)

Defines the destination resources' language. This attribute may only be used when the "href" attribute is present.

Example:

Code begin <a hreflang="en" href="english-version.html">English version</a>Code end

type (content-type)

Tells the browser the content type of the resource named in "href" attribute.

Example:

Code begin <a href="logo.gif" type="image/gif">Check out our logo</a> 
<a href="article.html" type="text/html">Read the article</a>Code end

rel (link-types)

Describes de relationship from the current document to the destination resource. In other words defines the meaning of the referred resource for the actual document.

Example:

Code begin <a rel="prev" href="article1.html">Read previous article</a>
<a rel="next" href="article3.html">Read next article</a>
<a rel="copyright" href="copyright.html">Article copyrights</a>

<a rel="alternate" href="english-version.html" hreflang="en">English version</a>Code end

rev (link-types)

Stablish a relationship from the resource pointed by the "href" attribute to the current document. In other words, establishes what represents the actual document for the referred resource.

Example:

Code begin List of articles:
<a rev="index" href="article1.html">Article 1</a>
<a rev="index" href="article2.html">Article 2</a>
...Code end

shape

Specifies the form of a shape used to define an area. Values are case-insensitive and may be one of these:

default: Specifies the entire region.
rect: Define a rectangular region.
circle: Define a circular region.
poly: Define a polygonal region.

coords

Defines the coordinates and position of a shape. It's used together with the "shape" attribute, and the coordinates depend of the "shape" value:

rect: left-x, top-y, right-x, bottom-y.
circle: center-x, center-y, radius. If the radius is measured in percentage, its calculated as that percentage of the smaller size of the associated object.
poly: x1, y1, x2, y2, ..., xN, yN. This defines a closed polygon. If you define an open polygon, the browser should close it by adding a segment from the first point to the last one.

Coordinates are relative to the top-left corner of the associated object. Each coordinate is of length type and are separated by commas.

target (frame-target)

Specifies the name of the frame where the destination document should be loaded. Refer to the frame-target type definition for further information.

Code begin Open in a new window: <a href="http://www.w3c.org" target="_blank">WWW Consortium</a>
Open in a frame named "content" (frame must be present in the actual frameset): <a href="http://www.w3c.org" target="content">WWW Consortium</a>Code end

tabindex (number)

Specifies the position of this element in the tabbing order. The tabbing order defines the sequence with all the elements than can receive the focus. Users can navigate this sequence via keyboard (usually with the "tab" key).

accesskey (character)

Stablish a relationship between this element and a character key, allowing the user to activate it with that key (usually when used together with the "alt" key). The activation result depends on the actual element's nature. For links, this action automatically follows the link, and other elements simply get the focus.

name (name)

Defines a unique name for the element so it can be located later. It's used to set bookmarks on a page. It's recommended to use the "id" attribute instead because of its compatibility with XHTML code.

Events

onfocus
onblur
onclick
ondblclick
onmousedown
onmouseup
onmouseover
onmousemove
onmouseout
onkeypress
onkeydown
onkeyup

See complete list and information about events in HTML

Examples

In the description, an a tag was defined as a bookmark with the id "bookmark":

Code	View
To go to that bookmark at the first example for this tag, click here: <a href="#bookmark">HTML a tag example</a>	To go to that bookmark at the first example for this tag, click here: HTML a tag example

Bypass W3C declarations