WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: FW: Use of title attribute in links

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Jan 9, 2003 12:26AM

On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, Geoff Deering wrote:

> What is the best way (ways/methods) "to tell ALL users that the link will
> open in a new window."?

On a page in English, the words "(The following link will open in a new
window.)" would presumably do that.

The problem, in addition to this being potentially distracting (especially
when one tries to read the text without considering any links right now),
is that it isn't always true. It will be false when the link is followed
in a way that overrides whatever the author has done to make the link open
in a new window. For example, the browser may have a setting that forbids
opening new windows except on explicit user command.

I'm afraid there's no way to give the message so that it will seen or
heard only when it is true. This should make authors think twice before
they try to make links open in new windows.

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/


----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/