LINK - relationships with other documents
Purpose
To specify relationships with other documents, i.e.
links between documents.
. Currently this
element is not very useful, since few browsers or other programs
make use of it.
LINK elements could
(and perhaps some day will)
be used for very important things such as
- for toolbars or menus for navigation in a web of documents
(interlinked with LINK elements), thus allowing e.g.
different "guided tours" for different users
- to control how collections of
HTML files are rendered into printed documents
or converted into a single document for some other purpose.
- for using style sheets
Typical rendering
The LINK elements do not directly affect the rendering of the document
itself. They might have some effect on the presentation
of information about the document, e.g. on the browser window
elsewhere than in the display of the document itself.
Moreover, if a LINK element is used to specify
a style sheet, the effect on rendering
can be very important.
Basic syntax
<LINK REL=relation HREF=URL>
or
<LINK REV=relation HREF=URL>
Possible attributes
attribute name | possible values | meaning
|
HREF
| URL
| URL for linked resource
|
REL
| string
| type of "forward" link
|
REV
| string
| type of "reverse" link
|
TITLE
| string
| advisory title string for the linked resource
|
A link from document A to
document B with REV=relation
expresses the same relationship as a link
from B to A with REL=relation.
Allowed context
The head element, in which
any number of LINK elements may appear.
Contents
None.
Examples
A link element which specifies a style sheet
to be used:
<LINK REL=STYLESHEET HREF="basic.css">
A simple LINK element providing authorship information:
<LINK REV=MADE HREF="mailto:jkorpela@cs.tut.fi">
Some LINK elements which might appear in a large document divided
into separate but interlinked HTML files:
<LINK REL=CONTENTS HREF="toc.html">
<LINK REL=PREV HREF="doc31.html">
<LINK REL=NEXT HREF="doc33.html">
Notes
See the
general description of links, especially
notes on REL and REV values.
A LINK element with
REV=MADE
is sometimes used to identify
the document author, either the author's email address with a mailto
URL (as in the example above),
or a link to the author's home page.
Although only a few programs
(most notably Lynx)
make any use of such information, it can be
useful to include it, since it also works as a comment-like note
to a person reading the HTML source.
Notice that the information is not shown to the reader of
the document (unless he specifically requests to see the HTML
code, of course), so you should additionally provide such
information using
the ADDRESS element, for example.
Date of last update:
2010-12-16.