Since the questioner wouldn’t have been able to ask this question if
no hyperlinks worked for his setup, and since the question
specifically mentioned "a" hyperlink, I will begin with the
presumption that he or she is wondering about a particular specific
link or a number of links at a specific Web site but the first
possibility listed also applies if he or she can’t activate any
hyperlink and is online using another computer.
There are several possibilities.
1 There is something wrong with the browser software and you need to
update or re-install IE.
2 The “hyperlink” really isn’t a hyperlink, it merely appears to be
one because some text is formatted in the same way that hyperlinks on
that site are formatted (for example, underlined). Some Web page
creation utilities, such as the site builder used in Homestead (
hhttp://www.homestead.com ) allow you to build such links before you
create the referenced page. If the referenced page doesn’t yet exist,
you can’t activate the hyperlink.
3 The link may be dead due to the page being removed or something may
be wrong in the HTML code on that page. For example, to function
properly a link must have precisely correct syntax and the reference
element must exist exactly as described. There are different kinds of
hyperlinks. The most basic simply links you to another URL, but when
the link refers to another page within the same site, the complete
address of the page or page element isn’t written out in full, it is
assumed that the page or location identification code is to be
appended to the main Web site address. This is an obvious place to
look for a coding error. (See below for an explanation of how you can
view the source code.)
If the page you are trying to link to has been removed, you’re not
necessarily out of luck. Go to ( http://www.archive.org ) and key in
the Web site’s URL. If this was a fixed page, as opposed to one
generated dynamically from some database search, the chances are that
one or more earlier versions of the page exists and that you can
simply click on the same link from one of those pages. This is
normally the easiest way to find the information you seek.
Another problem which may occur if your hyperlink is actually another
URL is that the DNS, or Domain Name Server (the database which matches
textual Web addresses such as (www.google.com) with their actual
numeric address on the Internet), may be missing that address or have
a garbled version. New databases are uploaded periodically and
mistakes do occasionally happen.
If this is your own Web page where the hyperlinks don’t work properly
then you can use one of the many HTML syntax checkers available to see
if there are any coding errors.
I have occasionally found bad links on Web pages when doing research.
Often I am able to find the problem by looking at the actual HTML
code. In your case you simply open the page with the offending link(s)
and click on View, Source. You can use the search function (CTRL-F)
to look for the word(s) in the link, then examine the actual code. I
often find that inactive links have some minor error in the link
coding such as leaving out the period before COM or inserting a space
into the URL. If this is the case, simply copy the code into your
browser’s Address line and make the obvious correction, then hit enter
and the link should work.
Since you didn’t specify the location or type of link you are having
trouble with, perhaps it would help you to look at the basic HTML
specification.
The WWW consortium HTML specification page:
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_5.html
Search Strategy:
Google search terms used:
Html hyperlink code
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=html+hyperlink+code
I hope this provides the help you need. Based on your very general
question I have provided a number of possibilities. If you provide
the address of the bad link or more information, along with a note
about your level of computer expertise, I can probably provide a more
specific answer. In an attempt to keep this explanation accessible by
most readers I have made some assumptions and generalizations about
hypertext and HTML rather than try to give precise details when the
question was so general. |
Request for Answer Clarification by
marv-ga
on
21 Jul 2002 11:44 PDT
Thank you for your extensive answer. Nothing happens when I click on
a hyperlink but I am usually successful when I copy and paste it into
the address bar, then press Go.
I have tried many suggested fixes, including re-installing IE, without
success. As best I can determine, this is a registry problem and have
gotten information from Microsoft Support on how to correct it. They
warn me, however, that the least error in the process could louse up
(excuse the jargon) the computer and that I should back up the
registry before proceeding. I have ordered the hardware to do this
and will post the results I get. Again, let me thank you.
...Marvin...
|
Clarification of Answer by
siliconsamurai-ga
on
22 Jul 2002 18:35 PDT
Hi, I see this is more a comment than a request for clarification and
if you were satisfied I would appreciate it if you could take a few
seconds to post whatever rating you feel is appropriate.
But I am curious about what you mean by ordering "hardware".
You don't need any hardware to make a copy of the registry, it's just
a software file.
Would you like more information reguarding this?
I am somewhat hesitant about getting into instructing anyone on making
alterations to the registry because it is so complex and so easy to
damage and because I don't know which version of Windows you have
installed.
You can view and edit the registry using regedit.exe. Run this from
the DOS prompt and the registry should pop up automatically. There
are options to import and export the registry as files. Please don't
run regedit before you have backed up any critical files.
If you meant you were getting hardware to backup your data then, by
all means, do so anyway.
Now for the good news. Despite the very reasonable warnings about
backing everything up and the dangers of fooling with the registry,
you can often re-install Windows without deleting any of your existing
files. Please don't attempt this without making a backup of your
important files, but I have often re-installed an operating system and
recovered all files. On the other hand, sometimes I have not been able
to install the OS although I was able to recover the data files, so
there's no guarantee.
Then there's the fact that you can probably revert to an earlier
version of the registry if you encounter problems. This will be done a
bit differently in various Windows versions but you should be able to
find instructions by looking in "help and support" and searching on
"registry."
I won't detail this further because if you don't know how to do this
then you probably should seek professional help to fix the registry.
But what happens is this, you do a warm reboot and, when you encounter
a problem you can select a boot option "Last known Good
Configuration."
You still need to make a copy of the existing registry to a floppy so
an expert can restore your system if necessary.
Good luck.
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