Can anyone give me an ELI5 (explain like I'm 5) answer on the topic of paths i.e relative, root-relative and absolute?

Hey Richard!

To start off simply with Absolute links, they ALWAYS refer to a Domain name of a website (website address), including "http://www.________________"

Root Relative paths ALWAYS assume you're starting at the root level when declaring a path and start with a "/", which means your current position in the directory doesn't matter at all when trying to go somewhere else or reference something from somewhere else in your directory (images, etc), because you'll always go to the very beginning, and draw a path all the way to wherever you want. The drawback is that this relies on a server to process.

Relative paths rely on knowing where you are in the directory when trying to reference information from a different spot. If I'm in the index file and trying to use an image called "hello_richard.jpg" from a folder called "img" it would look like this: <img src="img/hello_richard.jpg">

BUT

Say for example, I'm editing an "about_us.html" page in a folder called "inner_pages" that sits on the same level as the index file and "img" folder, then I need to come down a level and go into the image folder.

To come out of the folder you're in and go down a level, you use "../"

So the tag would look like this: <img src="../img/hello_richard.jpg">

Here's a really useful link I found that gives great visuals (I apologize for my inability to use visuals here but hope that this makes at least SOME sense for you)

http://www.webdevbydoing.com/absolute-relative-and-root-relative-file-paths/

^^Example of an absolute path ;) ^^

This is also a very well worded and casual page that explains them: https://www.coffeecup.com/help/articles/absolute-vs-relative-pathslinks/

Let me know if I can explain anything in better detail!

Best of luck man! It seems daunting until you get that first little spark, then it will make sense, I promise

-Jake