Types of Hyperlink

Inline link
An inline link displays remote content without the need for embedding the content. The remote content may be accessed with or without the user selecting the link. For example, the image above is a document that can be viewed separately, but it is included into this page with an inline link.

An inline link may display a modified version of the content; for instance, instead of an image, a thumbnail, low resolution preview, cropped section, or magnified section may be shown. The full content will then usually be available on demand, as is the case with print publishing software – e.g. with an external link. This allows for smaller file sizes and quicker response to changes when the full linked content is not needed, as is the case when rearranging a page layout.

Anchor
An anchor hyperlink is a link bound to a portion of a document—generally text, though not necessarily. For instance, it may also be a hot area in an image (image map in HTML), a designated, often irregular part of an image. One way to define it is by a list of coordinates that indicate its boundaries. For example, a political map of Africa may have each country hyperlinked to further information about that country. A separate invisible hot area interface allows for swapping skins or labels within the linked hot areas without repetitive embedding of links in the various skin elements.

What Is Hyperlink

In computing, a hyperlink (or link) is a reference to a document that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks. A software system for viewing and creating hypertext is a hypertext system, and to create a hyperlink is to hyperlink (or simply to link). A user following hyperlinks is said to navigate or browse the hypertext.

A hyperlink has an anchor, which is the location within a document from which the hyperlink can be followed; the document containing a hyperlink is known as its source document. The target of a hyperlink is the document, or location within a document, to which the hyperlink leads. Users can activate and follow the link when its anchor is shown, usually by touching or clicking on the anchor with a pointing device. Following the link has the effect of displaying its target, often with its context.