What is a URL?

When you create a hyperlink, its destination is encoded as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), such as http://example.microsoft.com/news.htm or file://ComputerName/SharedFolder/FileName.htm. A URL contains a web server or network location, path, and file name. A URL also identifies the protocol that will handle the file, such as HTTP, FTP, or FILE:

A hyperlink can be absolute or relative:

• An absolute URL contains the full address.
• A relative URL has one or more missing parts. The missing information is taken from the page that contains the URL. For example, if the protocol and domain are missing, the Web browser uses the protocol and domain of the current page.

  It is common for pages in a web to use relative URLs containing only a partial path and file name. If the files are moved to another server, any hyperlinks will continue to work as long as the relative positions of the pages remains unchanged. For example, a hyperlink on Products.htm points to a page in the same folder; if both pages are moved to the same folder on a different server, the URL in the hyperlink will still be correct.

When you create hyperlinks in FrontPage, you do not need to know the destination URL — you can simply browse to the page or file in a web, file system, or on the World Wide Web, and then FrontPage will provide the correct URL. When you create a hyperlink to a destination in the same web, FrontPage will create a relative URL. If you rename or move a file in a web, FrontPage will update all the URLs that point to the file. By generating relative URLs, FrontPage saves you time and ensures that your Web site will be portable.