What he's talking about

Post #55,558 by drewk 10/8/02 6:52:45 PM Reply	What he's talking about At my current browser width, I can fit about eight or nine tabs across the top before they start disappearing off the right. There is a small UI widget to indicate you can scroll to the "hidden" tabs, but it's not entirely obvious if you don't go looking for it. If I already have my 9 tabs open, a tenth one won't seem to do anything as I don't see the tab and may not notice the new widet. Personally I default to opening links in the same window I'm in. If I want it in another tab or in a new window I right-click it. In cases where I do that it doesn't matter whether you've targetted the link or not. In cases where I just click it, I'm not terribly bothered by the new window if it appears. (Now that I'm using a tabbed browser, that is.) But for people with other defaults, I can understand it conflicting with their preferred settings. === Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #55,561 by imric 10/8/02 6:59:25 PM Reply	So - you don't mind targets? 'K.. I'm curious, though - do you see why I do it? Imric's Tips for Living Paranoia Is a Survival Trait Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised... Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
Post #55,584 by drewk 10/8/02 7:40:18 PM Reply	Sure, I see why With modern browsers [cough not IE-anything] you can configure this however you want, and override this choice on a per-link basis. But if you are using IEx and the link is targetted you have no choice. There a a few fora I go to where the standard is links within the site open in the same window, outside links open a new window. I'm sure part of this is the old wisdom about how not to lose viewers, but I can also see the two advantages (when it is used responsibly): clear differentiation between internal and external links; and not having to click back through a long chain to get back to where you started. The second issue is IMO outweighed by the fact that far too many poeople don't use them responsibly. I've been to sites where every single link spawned a new window. And no, it wasn't porn, it was just poor design. (I could see the "base" link at the top of each page right above the "generator = FrontPage" metatag.) Which leaves differentiation of internal and external links. IMO people who can't already identify this through any of the multiple other UI hints won't get the difference anyway. So (man this is getting longer than I intended) while I'm not particularly annoyed with them when they are done right (and you've done them "right") I wouldn't put targets in myself, even if it didn't take any extra effort. It's like popups: the utility seems to be outweighed by the potential for abuse. Oh, take all that with [link\|http://www.saltbook.com/saltyages/yan.html\|this] or [link\|http://www.shirtcountry.com/inc/pdetail?v=1&pid=1245\|this], depending on your mood. === Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #55,569 by ben_tilly 10/8/02 7:11:47 PM Reply	What he said And what prompted me to make my request was doing exactly that. While navigating several pages in parallel I clicked in to IWETHEY, clicked on a link, tabbed elsewhere, came back, went, "Huh, thought I clicked" and did it again, went away, came back and said, "I know that I clicked...oh." Hence the word "stupid" in my "stupid request" title. :-) Cheers, Ben "Career politicians are inherently untrustworthy; if it spends its life buzzing around the outhouse, it\ufffds probably a fly." - [link\|http://www.nationalinterest.org/issues/58/Mead.html\|Walter Mead]

Welcome to IWETHEY!