Page Content - HTML QuickStart Guide: The Simplified Beginner's Guide to HTML - page 62

Link Types
We are obviously not limited to creating internal links, or links to other web pages on our
own website. Alternatively, we can create external links that will point to pages or resources
on other websites.
To create an external link, we need to use an absolute URL, meaning we have to set the com-
plete address of the page including the protocol. For example, the following link will point
to the W3Schools page that explains the <a> element:
<a href=”http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_th.asp”>More information about HTML links</a>
A mailto link helps users send an email message. When a user clicks on a mailto link, the
web browser will open the default email program and begin creating a new email message.
To create a mailto link, we need to specify a value in the href attribute that starts with the
word “mailto,” followed by a colon (:) and our email address. For example,
<a href="mailto:[e-mail]">[e-mail] </a>
Notice that we used the email address as a label for this mailto link instead of something
vague like "Email Us." We did this because the mailto link doesn't always work for users
that have web-based email services like Gmail. Providing the actual address will help them
get the actual email contact information if they can't click on the link.
If we create a link to a file that the browser does not know how to handle (ex. a Word or
Excel file), the browser will either try to open a helper program to view the file or will try to
download it to the user's hard disk.