Use relative links (was: Offline Browsing)

Christoph Weber (weber@scripps.edu)
Tue, 30 Apr 1996 15:06:42 -0700

On Apr 30, 10:55pm, Dr Alan Mills wrote:
> Subject: Re: Offline Browsing
>
[snip]

> HOWEVER, Netscape (& other browsers) can be used to examine sets of files
> on your own machine using the File/OpenLocalFile options from the menu
> bar, WITHOUT installing a null-socket (which then has to be un-installed).
>
> If the hyperlinks within the set of pages have been written as relative
> references rather than absolute URLs then they will work fine since no
> external network reference is invoked. When you do want to go
> external, you can if you have a *real* winsock.dll in place.
>

Given that this course also deals with Web authoring, I'd like to encourage
everybody to USE RELATIVE LINKS within a set of related pages (excuse the
shouting). You can relocate the entire set without any pain, you can view it
anywhere, on-line or off-line and it is far easier to maintain if you do use
relative links. A relative link looks like this:
<A HREF="your_dir/your_doc.html">link_to_Your_doc</A>

> It's always good practice to read the URL on the browser's bottom status
> bar *before* clicking. It may influence your decision whether you want
> to go there.

Well said, Alan!

Thanks for raising this issue.

Christoph

-- 
|  Christoph Weber                  Sen. Research Associate
|  Dept.of Molecular Biology, MB2   619-554-7283 or -8754 (phone)
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