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Posted by Jake on 12/31/05 03:44
In message <b3Jqf.4211$rq3.2482@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com>, Jose
<teacherjh@aol.nojunk.com> writes
>What do you folks think of the target="_blank" attribute?
>
It's fine -- other than the fact that you can't use it and still
validate your HTML as 'STRICT'.
Still, that may not be an issue for you. If it is, then you'll need to
use javascript to provide the functionality.
>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.
Sure. It's a major problem for people with less than 15 minutes exposure
to the Web.
If it really was an issue, then browser manufacturers would provide a
setting to override the spawning of a new window -- forcing the target
to be the existing window.
>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.
>
Possibly.
>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.
Fine. That's what I'd do; seems to be quite a common practice.
(It often annoys me when I take a link to another site only to find that
the page's author has been too lazy to open a new window for me.)
> 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?
Just warn your users that links to eternal sites open in a new browser
window.
I notice that a number of authors are now starting to append an icon to
a link that opens in a new window, with both 'alt' and 'title' text on
the <img> informing the user of the fact.
>
>Jose
--
Jake (jake@gododdin.demon.co.uk -- just a 'spam trap' mail address)
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