Re: Link text
- From: "André Gillibert" <tabkanDELETETHISnaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:11:16 +0200
D.M. Procida wrote:
"Amaya download" is ugly. It looks like "download" is a noun modified by
"Amaya". You'd never encounter a pair like that in normal English.
Nouns derived from verbs are created as their need becomes apparent. English evolves.
New verbs, derived from nouns, appear too. For example: "To Google".
Surely we're used to that in ordinary language? The sentence isn't:
Open download Amaya
but:
Open "Download Amaya"
Ok. I'm convinced.
"Download Amaya" is a title, like _Get Carter_ or _Raise the Titanic_:
Open "Raise the Titanic"
Save "Get Carter"
I'm not sure it's a title.
I would distinguish two types of links:
1) Inline hyperlinks.
Those links appear in the text flow of an article, and the text must still make sense when there's no way to see that there is an anchor.
Example resource:
http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/Introduction.html
"generate", "etiquette for each server", "structure" and "within a document" are all inline links.
I think that such links must be smoothly inserted inside the text flow so that, readers can ignore that they're links: e.g. use a stylesheet that doesn't show links in a different style than other text elements and print it on paper.
The few words composing the anchor text must make the link target relatively clear, in the context of the paragraph surrounding the anchor text.
Because out of context, the text link may be unclear, the TITLE attribute should be used to provide a complete title, readable out of context.
That doesn't really clarify whether inline links should be verb, nouns or other groups of words.
2) Standalone hyperlinks. They're in banners, menu bars, page link lists, and other contexts where it's clear that it's an hyperlink, even if there's no style to distinguish them with normal text, as these links aren't surrounded by normal text.
Example resource:
http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/Overview.html
"Introduction", "Etiquette for server administrators", etc., are standalone hyperlinks.
In my opinion, for standalone hyperlinks, the link text can perfectly be a title (long title or short contextual title). In that case, it's rarely needed to put a separate TITLE attribute (don't repeat yourself), unless the link text only make sense when surrounded by other links, deep inside lists of lists.
For example, for a table of contents of a book, cut into chapters with sections. Each chapter could contain an "Introduction" Section.
The link text would be "Introduction", but the TITLE attribute would contain the chapter name as well.
Often titles are nouns, but this is not required.
For example, the chapter of a novel can be a verb. There's nothing wrong with that.
3) "Get Amaya" sounds like an imperative form. When reading the contents
of a page, as a normal text, one might think that the page gives an
*order* from the computer.
But if it's flagged as being a *title* - which links are - then we parse
it appropriately.
For standalone links, I agree.
For inline links, I don't think it can be called "title", and, in my opinion, it must make sense, even when the link is not "flagged".
As I said, this let the issue of whether the link text can contain verbs, open. Not being a title doesn't imply being a noun.
Since the TITLE attribute can be used to provide a context-independent title, my argument about inline text links being shown out of context (e.g. in the list of all links of a page) is irrelevant as far as the Web developer cautiously provide TITLE attributes for every inline link for which the text link isn't a good title.
In my opinion, every important link should be provided with a title, either with the TITLE attribute, or with the link text.
The question is whether links are indeed titles. If they are, then I
don't see a problem any longer with "Get Amaya". If they are not, then
a) what are they, and b) there might be a problem.
I tried to answer to these questions.
I don't claim that my insight is perfect.
It's just a step to understanding links.
--
You can contact me at <tabkanDELETETHISnaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.
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- Re: Link text
- From: André Gillibert
- Re: Link text
- From: D.M. Procida
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