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Re: Links to anchor points in separate documents

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From: Paul Bohman
Date: May 18, 2004 2:33PM

Ben Lobo asked:


Does anyone know if there are any 'official' reasons not to link to named anchors points in separate documents?


My response:


As with many accessibility questions, this is largely a usability issue for which the real answer is "it depends."


In the case of some long technical documents, it would be cruel to NOT link to the anchors in the document if your intention is to reference a specific part of the document. Not providing a link would force the user to search for the information in the page.


In the case of short Web pages, linking to an anchor could very well result in more disorientation than is justifiable.


It makes sense to take the circumstances into account when deciding whether or not to link to an anchor on another page.


--
Paul Bohman
Project Coordinator
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Utah State University
www.usu.edu


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