| • Review • Open a Hyperlink in a New Window • | |
A hyperlink is a direct connection from the current location of the cursor to another location. Most familiar to web site visitors is the hyperlink that takes them to another place on the web. For example, when you use a search engine it presents you with a list of hyperlinks to a variety of web sites that might have the information you are looking for. Such a link is called an absolute hyperlink. The absolute hyperlink goes out to a file external to the current web site. |
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Because the link goes out to a file external to the current web site, visitors must use the BACK button on the web browser to return to the original site. If visitors spend much time browsing deeply into the second site or venture even farther out on the web to yet another site, they may not be able to return to your site. |
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You can solve this problem and ensure your visitors an easy return to your site by writing the hyperlink code in such a way as to open an entirely new browser window to accommodate the linked site. In that way when your visitors leave the second site by closing the second browser window, they will find themselves back at your site. |
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Recall the procedure to create an absolute hyperlink in Mozilla Composer:
Alternately, click on Insert, Link from the Main Menu. |
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The Link Properties dialog box will appear. Once you type the URL in the Link Location text box, the Advanced Edit button will become available. |
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| Open a Hyperlink in a New Window | |
Click on the Advanced Edit button. The Advanced Property Editor will appear. By default it will display the HTML Attributes tab. |
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Click on the Attribute drop down box in the lower left corner of the Advanced Edit Properties dialog box. Choose target. By default the Value will display as _blank. Click on OK |
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By using the value of " _blank" you are telling the browser to open the web page in a new browser window. Example: Visit my home page. If you click on the hyperlink above, a new browser window containing my home page will open. When you close that browser page, you will find yourself back at this page. |
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If you have more than one hyperlink on a page and you want to open more than one new window, give each new window a distinctive name. Just be sure to preface the name with the underline (_). Example: Visit my home page. Then visit my course: English 123, Writing for the World Wide Web. When you click on the first link, the one to my home page, a new browser window will open. Minimize that window, then come back to this page and click on the second link, the one to my course page. A third browser window will open with my course page. |
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In the above example, I used _home as the target value in the first link and _web as the target value in the second link. |
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In general, you should open hyperlinks in new browser windows only when you send your visitors away from your own web site. |
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| • Overview • Create Absolute Links • Create Relative Links • Create Mailto Links • Create Internal Links • Open a Link in a New Window • | |
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