Open links in New Browser window...

[mywaytoo]

Is it possible to open up links in a new browser window, so that clicking on the 'X' in the top right hand corner of IE to exit, will not exit you from the Nabble forum?

[GregChapman]

Hi Anne,

mywaytoo wrote

Is it possible to open up links in a new browser window, so that clicking on the 'X' in the top right hand corner of IE to exit, will not exit you from the Nabble forum?

But clicking the Close Window button will always close a window. How can it do anything else? I must be be misunderstanding your question!

In IE you can right-click a link and choose "Open in New Window" before you close down the original window. There's also an option "Close other tabs" might be what you want and there are all manner of related options under: TOOLS > OPTIONS > GENERAL > TABS > SETTINGS

Firefox has similar options plus you can also drag a tab from the window, and drop it on the desktop, when it opens a new window for the dropped tab. You could then close the original window.

In general isn't this down to your visitor knowing how to get the best out of their browser! (It's the same kind of thing as adding buttons to a web page to change font size, when all browsers have some form of text magnification or zooming built-in anyway. It's rather redundant!)

[mywaytoo]

Greg... I shall go throught things step by step... Please tell me at which point I lose you...

1. I am in my Nabble forum that is embedded in my website.
2. I click on an external link that opens up a window, let's say for example Napple Help.
3. The Nabble Help window opens up.
4. IE, even as I write this post, has a blue left-pointing arrow in the top left hand corner; and an 'X' on a red background on the top right hand corner.
5. If I click on the blue left-pointing arrow in the top left hand corner, then I can go to the previous page that was displayed in that window.
6. I may have browsed through several pages of this external website.
7. When I have finished browsing, I have a choice on how to exit this page...
      a. click on the blue left-pointing arrow in the top left hand corner
      b. click on the 'X' on a red background on the top right hand corner.
8. Clicking as on a. above, will page back one page at a time... I could be there for hours... but will eventually take me back to my website and my Nabble forum.
9. Clicking as on b. above, will close the external website AND my website and my Nabble forum.
10. I would like to keep visitors on my website and my Nabble forum as long as possible...

My website allows me to select whether to open a link in the current browser window or a new one. I would like to know if this option is available on Nabble.

I myself have so many times clicked on the 'X' of some other naive website accidently, and found that the place that I spent ages finding... has gone, forever! If this is not available on Nabble then I would like to suggest that it is included...

I would never leave such an important decision to a visitor... it is too important to me... whether a visitor leaves my website by accident or not...

Edited... I forgot perhaps the most important bit... If the link is opened in a new browser window, then the only option available will be the 'X'... to exit the link... and take the user back to my website and Nabble...

[GregChapman]

Hi Anne,

You'll see that I come at things from a rather different perspective than you and I do tend to express my views somewhat forcefully. Be prepared! :-)

mywaytoo wrote

Greg... I shall go throught things step by step... Please tell me at which point I lose you...

1. I am in my Nabble forum that is embedded in my website.
2. I click on an external link that opens up a window, let's say for example Napple Help.

You've lost me! I exaggerate slightly, but you do need to explain more. e.g.

1. Do you have the Nabble Change Appearance Option set "Open links in a new tab or window
Links inside posts will open in a different tab or window." (Modern browsers default to displaying in a new tab, rather than a new window, but some may change this option)
2. How have you clicked on the link? Modern browsers all operate with tabs and I always wheel-click links in order to open them in a new tab (It's the default setting for the wheel on almost all mouse drivers).
3. When you say "window" do you mean "tab" or are you using some other option to open a new window.

3. The Nabble Help window opens up.

4. Do you mean the Nabble Help page replaces the content in your current tab?

4. IE, even as I write this post, has a blue left-pointing arrow in the top left hand corner; and an 'X' on a red background on the top right hand corner.
5. If I click on the blue left-pointing arrow in the top left hand corner, then I can go to the previous page that was displayed in that window.

Ah! so I now know the answer to my question #1 (No - so you have chosen to change the default Nabble setting!) and #4 (Yes) and makes questions #2 and #3 redundant - but does demonstrate that you can go on making allowances for different users' software and mode of operation in almost countless ways. This has long been a problem with Microsoft's bloatware that only serves to make modern software almost impossible for a new user to learn because of its baffling array of options.

6. I may have browsed through several pages of this external website.
7. When I have finished browsing, I have a choice on how to exit this page...
      a. click on the blue left-pointing arrow in the top left hand corner
      b. click on the 'X' on a red background on the top right hand corner.
8. Clicking as on a. above, will page back one page at a time... I could be there for hours... but will eventually take me back to my website and my Nabble forum.
9. Clicking as on b. above, will close the external website AND my website and my Nabble forum.

None of these issues exist if you are using any modern browser. (IE6 - dead for the last five years - was the last of the mainstream browsers that used to force users to operate in this way, but no version more recent. It's time to update your software or learn how to use a modern browser effectively.)

10. I would like to keep visitors on my website and my Nabble forum as long as possible...

The W3C deprecated the code in HTML that allowed an author to force a link to open in a new with the release of HTML4 in 1997, virtually fifteen years ago and when Microsoft finally caught up in 2006, with the release of IE7, what you complain of has not been necessary. I doubt that the vast majority of your site's visitors are still using the browsing techniques that present the issue of which you complain.

My website allows me to select whether to open a link in the current browser window or a new one. I would like to know if this option is available on Nabble.

I'm not quite sure why you say your web site gives you this option. Windows-based browsers have offered that option since the earliest days. In other words, how one browses has almost always been in the hands of the visitor not the page author.

I myself have so many times clicked on the 'X' of some other naive website accidently, and found that the place that I spent ages finding... has gone, forever!

Solutions include:
# Use the tabs facility of your browser.
# Use a better browser (For example, Firefox has facilities to reopen a recently closed tab and even recently closed windows)
# Search the History facility of the browser.

If this is not available on Nabble then I would like to suggest that it is included...

I would never leave such an important decision to a visitor... it is too important to me... whether a visitor leaves my website by accident or not...

Edited... I forgot perhaps the most important bit... If the link is opened in a new browser window, then the only option available will be the 'X'... to exit the link... and take the user back to my website and Nabble...

I'd take the view that you are simply asking for web sites to make allowances for the short comings of a visitor's browser or their lack of knowledge about the best ways to use them. I am at one with the W3C when it comes to the evils of determining how links should open. This must be in the hands of the visitor. You forget that one of the underpinning tenents of the web is that is documents are platform independent and fully accessible on all platforms. This was a prime reason for deprecating links that opened in new windows, it played havoc for visually impaired visitors who couldn't keep track of windows that opened invisibly behind their currently maximised window.  

I'd prefer to see a solution that encourages users to use the best software for them and learn to take full advantage of that software. Adding facilities to a site that benefit only of one class of visitor can too easily cause detrimental side effects to others and sets you on a route to disaster.

Sorry! Rant over!

[mywaytoo]

I AM TOTALLY CONFUSED NOW.............     

I shall have to print out your reply and study it in the morning.

[mywaytoo]

I shall wait until Nabble's new template software is running...

For me this is a serious issue!

[mywaytoo]

I have found it... and it is sooooooo simple... but perhaps could be in a more appropriate section...

When you are logged in as Admin, and in the outermost Nabble layer, so that it will apply everywhere:
Select Options> Editor > Change Appearance > Then scroll down to Extra Features
Select 'Open links in a new tab or window'... Links inside posts will open in a different tab or window.

This is important so that visitors to your website will stay on your website when they close down websites that they have linked to...

SUGGESTION... Nabble... Why not make this the default setting?