A Simple Link

Like audio, downloadable video files (AVI, MPEG, Windows Media, and QuickTime) can be linked to HTML documents using the standard anchor (a) element:

    <a href="video.mov">Check out the video (1.3MB)</a>

When the user clicks on the link, the browser looks at the file type (as defined in the filename suffix) and launches an external player application or uses a plug-in to play the movie right in the browser window. Which player it uses depends on the file format and how that user has the browser configured, so it is out of the control of the web page designer.

When linking to media, it is good form to provide an indication of the file size so users with slower connections can make the decision whether to click.

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