[WEB4LIB] Does this help the user? (was FW: window.open)

[Walt Howe]

At 04:02 AM 15-09-99 -0700, kmbunday wrote about opening links in a new page:

>From a usability standpoint, why would you want to do this? That is,
>what advantage is there to the user to have the link the user follows
>open as a separate page?
>
>Or is there some advantage to the administrator of a public library
>Web page in doing this?
>
>I'm asking this as a newbie (to this issue) question, because in my
>own Web design I've always figured the user would expect an external
>link to open a page that replaces the page the user views--and I am
>disconcerted in my own Web browsing when that doesn't happen.

The obvious reason to force a new page is to make it easy to return to the
original page. I use JavaScripted link when I provide a link from a
technical word to its definition in training or help materials. The
definition pops up in a small window. When someone needs to look up an
unfamiliar term in a document, presumably they want to return to the
document after checking the definition and continue reading.





Walt Howe
walthowe at delphi.com
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