Making a textual "Next Page" arrow

[Michael Wilcox]

Is there a particular character or entity which will make a suitable "Next
Page" arrow? I was thinking the > character (with < for Previous) but I
thought this might be rendered funny with aural browsers. I would use an
image with alt="next page" but I thought it would be redundant with the text
right next to it.

 

[Sid Ismail]

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 21:45:08 GMT, "Michael Wilcox"

: Is there a particular character or entity which will make a suitable "Next
: Page" arrow? I was thinking the > character (with < for Previous) but I
: thought this might be rendered funny with aural browsers. I would use an
: image with alt="next page" but I thought it would be redundant with the text
: right next to it.


A right arrow means "next" left = previous and up means referrer page.

Nice arrow images can be sought on the www, or built.

Sid

 

[Toby A Inkster]

Is there a particular character or entity which will make a suitable "Next
Page" arrow?

Single arrow: &rarr;
Double arrows: &rArr;
Another arrow-like entity: &there4;

Those are all the *named* right-arrow-like entities in HTML 4.01, but
there are plenty of other characters in the Unicode specification that you
may use using the Ӓ or ካ syntax.

The full list of Unicode characters is here:
http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/NamesList.txt

Beware! Huge list! Rarr!

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Is there a particular character or entity which will make a
suitable "Next Page" arrow?

There are several arrow characters in Unicode. Support in fonts vary,
and the simple arrow → and the double arrow ⇒ is probably
more widely supported than other right-pointing arrows. But even they
aren't universally supported.

I was thinking the > character (with <
for Previous) but I thought this might be rendered funny with aural
browsers.

It is probably rendered as "greater than". That's how many people will
interpret it when they see it, maybe until they learn that it is also
used for other purposes on Web pages.

I would use an image with alt="next page" but I thought
it would be redundant with the text right next to it.

An image with an adequate alt text is probably the best bet, if you
wish to use such an arrow. What the alt text should be depends on the
circumstances. If it is followed by the words "next page", then surely
alt="" is adequate. If it is followed by a more descriptive textual
link, normally a name for the document referred to, then
alt="Next page: " is adequate (both for aural browsers and for
text-only browsing).