Santa Cruz Public Libraries, California

Welcome to the Links Page

You have just jumped to another document. This ability to jump from one document to another is at the heart of the World Wide Web. Here's how it works:

The World Wide Web:

The World Wide Web consists of thousands of independently operated computers that can connect to each other. Stored on these computers are documents that are called hypertext documents. The document you are reading right now and the one you started with, "Jumping Around the World Wide Web using Lynx", are hypertext documents.

Hypertext and links:

As you can see a hypertext document looks like any other page of text with one exception-- some of the words are brighter than the rest of the text. Each of those bright words is called a "link" and is actually a connection to another document. By moving the highlight to one of the links and pressing the right arrow as you did, you told the computer to connect to another document. That's how you got here.

Moving around in a document:

The keys that you use to go up and down the screen are pretty simple. In fact, you have already used most of them:

• Moving Down the Document:
  • If you're reading this, you must have used the space bar to move down a whole screen of text. You can also use the "+" key.
  • Another way to move down the document is to press the down arrow. Pressing the down arrow moves you downward from link to link to the last link on the screen; at that point, if you press the down arrow once more you will move down to the next screen of text.
• Moving Back Up the Document
  • To move up a whole screen at a time, press "b" or "-".
  • To move up the text, you can also use the up arrow. The up arrow moves you up from one link to another on the screen. When you have reached the topmost link on the screen, pressing the up arrow once more will move you up one screen of text.

For practice, go back up one screen and then return here and continue reading. Press the "b" or the "-" key to go up one screen; then press the space bar or the "+" key to go down one screen.

Handy reminder:

The only key you need to remember is "b" -- for backing up a whole screen at a time within a document. The other keys you need to use to move around are always listed at the bottom of the screen.

Getting back to a previous document:

This is easy--just press the left arrow key; it will connect you to the previous document.

Now press the left arrow key to return to "Jumping around the World Wide Web using Lynx." Then go down the page and find the four asterisks and begin from there.

Text by Rechs Ann Pedersen; copyright 1995 Santa Cruz Public Libraries