Showing Hyperlink Cues with CSS (Ask the CSS Guy)
This tutorial demonstrates how to use CSS attribute selectors to automatically display contextual icons next to hyperlinks based on their destination—such as PDF files, external sites, or mailto links—without requiring additional HTML classes or markup. The technique uses selectors like `a[href$='.pdf']` (ends with), `a[href^='mailto:']` (starts with), and `a[class~='popup']` (contains word) to target links and add background images with padding, and was supported in IE7, Firefox, and Safari at the time of writing.