Dave’s Rants

I picked up this great tip on MeFi. One of the best things about Firefox/Mozilla is the tabbed browsing but on annoying thing is if you want to click a link and have it open in the same tab as you’re currently using, if the website is using the target=”_blank” attribute the link will open in a new window.

I’ve often rambled on about the stupidity of the target=”_blank” attribute. If you’re new to the web, having a new window pop up is confusing to say the least, and if you’re an experienced user like me, you’ll open it in a new tab/window if you want. So now using this hack, new windows only open when I want them to, not when the website decides to use the target=”_blank” attribute.

Anyway so if you’re using Firefox (which you should be using already) you can use this hack to ensure that you’re in charge of where you’re windows open.

So open Mozilla User perferences file using your favourite text editor. For me this file is located at C:\Documents and Settings\David\Application Data\Phoenix\Profiles\default\9jugjmac.slt\prefs.js. If you can’t find your file just search your computer for “prefs.js”

Now scroll to the bottom of the file and add the following code.

// disable target="_blank" (open in same window): user_pref("browser.block.target_new_window", true);

Now save the file and relaunch your browser, now sites like Fark, work the way you want them to, not the way they want to work!

Update 21/02/2004 11:18:Sweet, thanks Neil. This extension is brilliant, not alone does it make it next to impossible to accidentally close all the tabs by confirming if you want to close the window, but it does a million and one other cool things too!

Update 06/07/2004 14:33:Since Firefox has gone to version 0.9, I’ve discovered a new extension that does all this for you. Check this out.