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Posted by Curtis on 12/23/05 06:10
Jose <teacherjh@aol.nojunk.com> wrote in message
news:b3Jqf.4211$rq3.2482@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com...
> What do you folks think of the target="_blank" attribute?
>
> On the one hand, people should have the choice as to
whether or not to
> open a new window, and this defeats that choice (usually
invisibly). A
> new window can disorient people, defeat the back button,
and use
> (perhaps scarce) system resources. OTOH many (probably
most) people
> don't know how to open a link in a new window when they
want to, and
> it's a real pain to have to go "back back back" (waiting
for each "back"
> site to load) in order to get back to where you were.
>
> On my site I have used it (I believe) judiciously, mainly
opening new
> windows into "foreign" sites and using the default (use
the same window)
> for most in-site links. On a site I used to work on, I
gave a little
> lesson on "trick clicking" at the top of the page, and
left all links as
> default.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Jose
I may not be typical, but if someone held a gun to my head
and demanded a single choice, I'd opt for new windows.
When I'm doing research online, I usually have 6 or 8
browser instances open, and I'm often dragging links onto
page B and C so I can keep A open. 56K modems reload back
pages pretty slowly sometimes, and I think it's those
increasingly lengthy reloads which have motivated this
practice.
That said, on our websites we use some discretion.
Discussing an article opens a new window, so the article and
the forum each have their own page. Going from one article
to another, though, we usually just keep things on the same
page.
I haven't thought about it much, but if I had to make rules,
they might be that 1) on pages that have a lot of links, 2)
pages whose content encourages comparison, and 3) articles
whose continuity would be broken by following a link might
all do well to open new windows.
--
Curtis
Visit We the Thinking
www.wethethinking.com
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