As a general rule, whenever possible, I try to set my off-site links to open in a new browser window.
This may be pure hubris on my part, but I figure that people will want to return back from whence they came after they finish their tangential exploration.
And since one link can lead to other links, I don't want them to have to click the back button until their index finger goes numb to get back to my page.
By opening another page, when they are finished wandering, all they have to do is click once on the "x" to close the new window and they're back.
I think all sites should set their off-site links to open in a new browser window. It is easy to do, especially in M-T. One hack to set M-T to always cause a new browser window to be opened when the URL button is used on the entry template can be found in this thread.
I guess the ideal would be to provide a preferences option on your site where you would allow the user to choose their preferred functionality, but that's more work than I'm willing to entertain at this time.
In the mean time, I'll continue to set my off-site links to generate a new browser window, and hope that other sites do the same.
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Posted by David at September 30, 2002 01:29 PM
I used to have my links open in new windows until people bitched that they didn't like that. So, you can't win no matter what you do. :) One can always RIGHT click on links and choose "open in new window".
Posted by: Tess on September 30, 2002 04:07 PMSadly, how right you are Tess. My guess is that even if I did go to the trouble of allowing people to choose a preference, people would somehow complain about that!
Posted by: David on September 30, 2002 04:25 PMI use the system where links to other parts of my site are opened natively, and links to other servers are opened in a new instance. To me (and hopefully most people) this is the best way of organizing my desktop clutter and keeping things straight.
Posted by: Dennis on September 30, 2002 09:07 PMIt took until today, right here, to discover that I can right click on a link to open it in a new window! Yep, it's right there and I've never even noticed it. Sheesh....
Posted by: Raye on October 1, 2002 08:14 AMC'est trouis bien. Nice, i mean. Thanks!
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