WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Reason For Links Opening In New Window

for

From: Susan R. Grossman
Date: Jan 5, 2007 8:50AM

target="blank" is no longer supported in the xhtml spec, but there are
reasons to occasionally use accessible pop-up windows. Besides the reasons
already stated, for many government sites (and some large corporate), it's
policy to force links that go to an outside web page (not in the current
domain) to open in a pop-up window with a message about "leaving the site"
and "no responsibility for content" with a link to click on to continue
knowingly to the outside site.

Susan

On 1/5/07, Sandra Clark < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Just an FYI, in xHTML 1.x the target attribute in a link is deprecated.
> I've had some success with a Javascript solution that I reference
> http://www.shayna.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.display_entry&;id=153. It
> also degrades gracefully when Javascript is disabled.
>
> I stay away from popups, but I've found that when building applications
> (not
> web sites) that having popups or new windows for items such as pick lists
> sometimes is much preferable than opening the links in the same window.
>
>
> Sandra Clark
> =============================> http://www.shayna.com
> Training in Cascading Style Sheets and Accessibility
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of ben morrison
> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 7:12 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Reason For Links Opening In New Window
>
> On 1/5/07, Kallie Swanepoel < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> > Hi All
> >
> > Are there any special reason why one should want to have a link
> > opening in a new window, using the
> >
> > Target="blank"
> >
> > attribute?
> >
> > That is:
> >
> > Opening the new page, and minimizing the previous one.
>
> Hi Kallie,
>
> Its good practice/polite to start a new conversation/email, anyway in
> answer
> to your question there isn't a special reason to open a new window and in
> fact is bad practice.
>
> If a user wants to open the link in a new window they have the choice to
> do
> so. It breaks the back button for users that aren't aware that a new
> window
> has opened.
>
> If you *must* use target="blank" then its best to advise the user.
>
> <a href="newSite.html" target="_blank">go to this site (will open in a new
> window)</a>
>
> Generally i would avoid it unless the client specifically requests it,
> then
> use a technique similar to the above.
>
> regards, ben.
>