Where the audience has a mixed knowledge of the subject you are addressing, it is often desirable to hyperlink explanations. Effective uses of hyperlinks include graphics, tables, surveys, and indexes. Care should be taken in separating and emphasizing content within a page. The use of italics for more than a few words is strongly discouraged because italics are much more difficult to read than normal fonts. Italics should not be used to mark an entire paragraph.
Boldface is a better choice for emphasis as it is easier to read than italics.
The blink attribute should never be used for text as it severely limits readability of the text. When possible, do not allow a hyperlink to wrap from one line to the next. The reader may find it difficult to distinguish whether it is in fact one hyperlink or two. The DoD warning statement is another example where line length and wrap can be controlled to improve readability. Long documents published on a single Web page, such as a newsletter, should contain a table of contents near the top of the document.