Question

I decided to stop using _blank and start using _new to avoid slapping users with new windows as much as possible and instead have one single ‘new window’ and have all the links that open in a new window open in that window that’s already opened, that’s what _new is for.

I’ve been looking around the web and Stackoverflow but no one really addresses the value _new in the attribute target= in HTML5.

There’s this forum but there’s no comment about the _new value: Html Target Attribute not supported.

In W3Schools there’s no mention of the _new value in the table they have there: http://www.w3schools.com/html5/tag_a.asp

So my question is: Does anyone know if using target="_new" is valid/correct in HTML5?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I think _new never really existed.

The behavior you give to _new actually works with any other valid name:
If a window with the chosen name do exists, it is used, instead if it doesn’t exists, is created.

“name” clarification:

If you open a new tab/window with an arbitrary target, like target='mywindow', you have “named” that new window (as “mywindow” in this case).

Then, following again a link with the same target, the browser re-uses the same window if still exists, otherwise opens a new one.