What is Hypertext?
Hypertext is text that provides a link to other text, which can be located on another web page, on the same page, or within a document. The prefix “hyper” means that the text has additional information other than what appears to the reader. To create hypertext special formatting code is added in the text that connects the hypertext to a new document when you click or tap on the hypertext. Hypertext is also referred to by the term “hypertext link,” since all hypertext includes a link to another location.
Using hypertext
Your most common encounter with hypertext probably is when viewing a web page on your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Some words and phrases appear in a different color, are underlined, and usually blue. The color helps you recognize the hypertext as distinct from the plain text, and the underline appears when you haven't yet visited the link. After you visit a linked location from hypertext, the underline disappears because your web browser keeps track of what locations you've visited.
Images and photos can include hypertext links, but they don't appear any different ones without the hypertext. They are said to include hypertext links since they aren't text.
Hypertext can be just one word, set of words, a sentence, a complete paragraph, image, photo, or included in a video. Hypertext allows the content creator to provide easy to use connections to other locations that the reader or viewer might find useful or interesting.
How hypertext is created
Hypertext is created when an author adds specific types of text characters to a web page or document. These characters are part of a formatting language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML includes many features for formatting and laying out a document, but what's important for now is the hypertext link. By placing these formatting characters before and after the word or phrase that the author wants to make into hypertext, but the codes don't appear to the reader.
Software applications, like a web browser, are capable of understanding the HTML that creates the hypertext. As a result, any document with hypertext has to be read using a software application that can understand and interpret the hypertext markup that created the link. The web browsing software you use on your computer, and smartphone can do this since all web pages are created using the HTML formatting language.
When a web page displays hypertext in blue, the formatting code that made it “hyper” tells the software application (your web browser) to change the color of the text to let you know that it's hypertext. The formatting characters also include the necessary address of the page the link opens, but the link doesn't appear on the page.
Hypertext isn't just for web pages
I said earlier that hypertext line to another document, but that location isn't always a web page. Since all that's needed to use hypertext is a software application that can understand it, you might have guessed that hypertext can be used in documents other than web pages. And you're right.
Hypertext is used in eBooks, Microsoft Word, and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. For example, a Kindle or other type of eBook uses hypertext to link from the table of contents to the corresponding page. Word documents can include links to other locations in the document or even web pages outside of the document. Here are more examples of ways hypertext can be used.
Apple's iBook Author and Adobe Acrobat software allow authors to create documents with links that can help readers quickly reference information and include information that's updated automatically from a web page. With hypertext, the page becomes more dynamic and can connect to sources of information where an author doesn't have to depend on a printed page or downloaded file for all of the information available to the reader.
The downside of hypertext
Since hypertext can be used to open a different location, such as a web page on the Internet, scammers can and do use hypertext to take unsuspecting users to websites that mimic the look and appearance of a legitimate one to collect personal and financial information. This type of scam is most often used to fool someone into providing a credit card or other banking information.
The scam typically arrives by email with the logo and name of the financial institution with a message that says something about needing to verify some financial data for security reasons. The email includes a hypertext link to a web page that uses graphics that make it appear as though the user is on the correct web page. An effective way to avoid scams using hypertext is first to understand that the web page can be located anywhere on the Internet. If you're unsure about the page, type in the web page address into your browser or call the financial institution. It also helps to know that financial institutions don't ask for account information via emails.
To my way of thinking
Hypertext is a technology that has made browsing web pages and reading documents more enriching because authors can include links to additional locations. You don't have to click or tap on the hypertext, but if you're interested, it's good to know that something more awaits you.
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