I have a link on my site that takes one to a manufacturer’s website, but once there the back arrow does not bring you back to my page. How do I insure that happens?
What I have is:
<center><a href=“http://www.whitesdetectors.com”><img src=“images/Trade.jpg” border=“0” height=“100” width=“200” align=“center”></a></center>
You can use the ‘target’ attribute in your anchor tag. Like this:
<a href="http://www.whitesdetectors.com" target="_parent"><img src="images/Trade.jpg" border="0" height="100" width="200" align="center"></a>
I would actually do this:
<center><a href="http://www.whitesdetectors.com" target="_blank"><img src="images/Trade.jpg" border="0" height="100" width="200" align="center"></a></center>
That target=“_blank” in there will make the link open in a seperate window so your site will stay open, thus keeping visitors at your site.
But then there is no “Back” button. And I know that naive users are very confused by the lack of a BACK button.
Of course, it is really a matter of preference which value to use in the ‘target’ attribute.
You could always get “really fancy” and display the Manufacturer’s site in a FRAME with a “RETURN” message at the top - outside the frame. But that would be so 80’s!
Not just naive users. You need to remember accessibility issues, too. W3C recommendations:
10.1 Until user agents allow users to turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user. [Priority 2]
For example, in HTML, avoid using a frame whose target is a new window.
I am sorry I see nothing different when I do this…? Guess I don’t understand.
Okay, why does the top one work but the bottom doesn’t?
<center>
<a href=“http://whiteselectronics.com/vx3.html”><img src=“images/vx3.gif” alt=“Introducing The Spectra VX3!” width=“700” height=“117”/></a>
</center>
<center><a href=“http://www.whitesdetectors.com” target=“_blank”><img src=“images/Trade.jpg” border=“0” height=“100” width=“200” align=“center”></a></center>
Well in the second one you have target=" blank". There is a space before blank, and it should read “_blank”, not " blank" :).
Sorry can’t see that?
I’m relaly sorry, due to a forum upgrade, some characters are cut off in posts, though I’m guessing your browser doesn’t have that happen. It wasn’t until I highlighted the section I was talking about, and copy pasted into my own Notepad document, I was able to see the _. Sorry.
I was just jumping in to help on that since I thought it was something simple like that. I’ll leave this to the gurus ;).
Never any need to apologize to this old fart. You guys have helped time after time, and can not thank you enough. I appreciate you even taking the time to respond. I did eventurally figure out my problem. Thank you all again for being so great.
Glad you sorted it, Barnum! Of the two examples you had above, the first is better (in terms of accessibility etc.) because when someone clicks that link, the new page opens in the same window. People can then click the back button if they want to return to your site.
In the example that includes target=“_blank”, your page stays as is, but a new browser window opens on top of it displaying the destination page. In this case, the back button does nothing, and that can confuse people. To get back to your site, they have to close the current web page to see your site again. That’s why use of target=“_blank” is discouraged now.
And old teacher once told me to use target=“_blank” if I wanted people to stay on my site and not to navigate away - that might be a reason to use it.
~TehYoyo
That’s thinking about you, not your visitors. Read posts 4, 5 and 12 for why not to use it.
Oh, no. I got the accessibility thing. Was just noting why one might consider using it.
~TehYoyo
But you still haven’t grasped the issues. Suppose a designer doesn’t care two hoots for accessibility and uses target=“_blank” because he or she “wanted people to stay on my site and not to navigate away”. (How arrogant.) Somebody clicks the link, which takes them away from that site by opening a new window. Suppose they do want to return to the site - there’s no back button, so the designer’s just made it harder for them to return and shot himself in the foot. (And also risked alienating visitors who dislike having to close multiple windows they didn’t ask for in the first place.)
I don’t know how to say that I get that point w/out repeating myself. I do get the accessibility/annoyance issue.
~TehYoyo
OK - sorry. In that case I just don’t understand why you’d mention it in the first place if you understand why it’s a bad idea. (:
It was just theoretical. I don’t think I said I’d recommend it…is that how you saw it?
~TehYoyo
It’s how I saw it (as well). No point mentioning stuff that isn’t really usable.