LuCaspeRobin + Thomas ;-)

Lately I've been in a heated debate with colleagues at work on why they shouldn't use the target attribute anymore and how they should and could work around this "problem". Ever since there was a Strict doctype the target attribute was deprecated (yes, also in HTML 4.01 Strict!). Personally I've never wanted to use this attribute because you remove the ability of the end-user of a webapp or the visitor to your own website to choose how he or she wants to open a (new) window. Therefore I've always opted to let my more than able visitors to choose for themselves. If they want to return there's always the back-button or the history in the browser. Or they just use Ctrl + mouseclick to open a new window (or a tab)themselves. But for some time now there's an unobtrusive script around that can help those who don't know how to or who have to open links in a new window.

Roger Johansson at 456Bereastreet has developed a piece of magic Javascript that gives everyone the possibility to have links that open in a new window AND have a page that validates. There are other solutions around as well, but I kinda like this one due to its simplicity and its adherence to standards. So if you ever wanted to know how to or if you have to, get the script here!

Posted by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk | top