HTML 101

HTML links work like this:

The browser reads the code in order. When it sees this:

<

it says, "hey, there's a special command coming up!

When it sees

<A

it says, "hey cool, we're starting some kind of link!"

<A HREF=

means "we're starting a link, and it's an HTML reference (hence HREF)"

<A HREF="http://url/"

means "...and the reference is to the URL in between the quotes.

<A HREF="http://url/">

The end ">" means "we're done telling you where you'll point to. Now everything after the ">" is what we want to "activate" on the page so that when a user clicks on it they'll be directed to the reference. What comes next can be a picture, text, whatever:

<A HREF="http://url/">Click here</A>

"</" is special. It means "stop doing" in HTMLese. In this case, </A> means "stop linking".

Most HTML "tags" (the codes in "<>" brackets) come in pairs. For example, to bold, you surround text in <B>bold word</B> tags.