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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Anchor text and how to make hyperlink open in new window or tab


This post is for those very new to HTML, but want their hyperlink to open in new window or tab. I have already published a short post How to make links open in new windows but apparently there are some who still have problems understanding: "I'm not very tech savvy and I tried your solution, the code you provided, with the website taking the place of the word "Description" correct?" so let's try to make the instructions and explanation clearer.

First, an explanation about anchor text (that is what I called DESCRIPTION above). That is some text in your post that you want highlighted (normally blue). For example, I want these text: Make active (clickable) links in post and comments to link to another of my post on hyperlinks. So I highlight those text by clicking and dragging the mouse over those text (see screen shot below):

screenshot highlighted text for anchor text

These text is know as the anchor text. After highlighting the anchor text, click on the "insert link" icon Blogger insert link icon and a pop-up will appear where you are asked for the URL of the webpage you want the anchor text to be linked to:



Type or copy-paste the URL of the webpage you want to be linked to, click OK and if you are in the EDIT HTML mode, you will see the highlighted text being replaced by the hyperlink tag as follows:

<a href="http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com/2006/09/how-to-make-links-open-in-new-windows.html">How to make links open in new windows</a>


Now if you want that hyperlink open in new window, all you have to do is to edit the hyperlink tag by adding target="_blank" as shown below:

<a href="http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com/2006/09/how-to-make-links-open-in-new-windows.html" target="_blank">How to make links open in new windows</a>


After this, I hope you now understand fully what is meant by hyperlink, anchor text and how to make hyperlink open in new window or tab.

40 comments:

luthien said...

gosh! this was what i've been trying to do for the past few days!! talk about cosmic alignment! now i have my answer :) thanks peter!!

Jaimie said...

Hello, I've found your blog very helpful so far. I'm trying to edit my blog so the post title is completely replaced by an image. Clicking the image would link to the single post entry, just as it would with a text post title.
I've seen this done on other blogs, but am unsure how to edit this when having expanded the widget templates.
I am wondering whether you have any idea how to do so?

Thanks, Jaimie

Vero said...

Hi, I know this comment is not related to the post...but I have tried to add you to my technorati favorites and it didn't work :-( I used the button on your site and I also add favorite url on my technorati site..nothing worked. But I will try it again....Your posts are very helpful!!

Peter @ Enviroman said...

This, All about graphic header, is an old post, but please read it first and if it doesn't satisfy you, comment again to remind me.

Andrew said...

You rock! This totally worked. Thank you for helping me out. It's cool that helpful people like you are available!

Peter @ Enviroman said...

For Vero,

If you are referring to the Technorati button just above my profile in the left sidebar, I just tested it and it worked OK. Please try again. And thank you for trying to add me as your Technorati favorite.

Vero said...

Hi...I tried again..I also found your profile on Technorati to click on button "Favorite it" that is usually below authority...but it wasn't there. I don't know. May be there is something wrong on my site. I will try to sort it out. ;-)

Vero said...

ok.....you are there..took a bit of clicking though..Honestly since I have started (2+ months ago) I have learned a lot...All kinds of problems, like the technorati one, are the best teachers :-)
Keep up!!

maue said...

I found your blog helpful to me , am newbies on blogging

النداوى said...

put i noticed that this is applicable to blog posts

and not for comments that in posts it opens in a new window contrary to comments.Am I wrong?

Peter @ Enviroman said...

النداوى

If you are trying to make links in comments open in new tab/window, unfortunately Blogger does not allow that.

This Mama Rocks said...

I love your website. I am always searching for ways to do differnt things w/ blogger and I can always find and easy and simple answer here! Love it!!

Peter @ Enviroman said...

Thanks for your kind words Mama

LeSan said...

Just wanted to say Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. It was so super easy. This was the first time I ever tried it and it was a piece of cake thanks to your simple instructions. :-)

more said...

a href="http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com/2006/09/how-to-make-links-open-in-new-windows.html">How to make links open in new

tom said...

hiii i enjoy this with my favorite cigar online

Helen Baggott said...

Thank you for creating this - very helpful!

Sandy Montgomery said...

Can you tell me how to make photos open up to the larger image in a separate window?

Thanks!

Sandra

Peter @ Enviroman said...

Just look for <a href="...." and add the attribute target="_blank" anywhere before the matching closing tag > or to make explanation, target="_blank">

Peter @ Enviroman said...

Sandy or Sandra,

Sandy, check this out first - Testing Blogger image upload to open in new window and leave a comment again.

SouthPaw Brown said...

Just wondering if there is a way to permantly make this available for all links on your blog? I would love it for every link, photo and such that I put up opens in a new tab, window. Thank you very much in advance. You guys are life savers.

Peter @ Enviroman said...

I don't think making every link open in new window is a good idea. For example, for me, those that link to the same blog don't open in new window.

Penumbra said...

OK, I hate to admit to being this tech challenged. But I was. Relevant term being WAS. You gave clear clean answers that helped me even though my link was to an outside URL and the HTML did not look exactly like example. The demo was clear enough to figure out my issue. THANKS

Mari's Cakes said...

I get the adding a link part, but when I add the target part, and click on check link I keep getting a page not found error. What am I doing wrong?

Mari's Cakes said...

Peter never mind the previous comment...I finally got. Thanks for your help.

Mariel Rittenhouse Goodson said...

So helpful, thank you!

Wallbert said...

Thanks for posting this. I'm brand new to blogging, and these sorts of tips really help a lot.

Much appreciated!

Lynn Marie Cherry said...

Thank you! I just went to a blogging workshop and they recommended opening links in a new window. Thanks for showing me HOW to do it!

Idadi said...

Thank you! This is very useful for newbies who like to play wth HTML, like myself:)

Carolyn said...

Hi, Peter, thank you for sharing. I know the target="_blank" trick to have a link in my blog.booksonfirst.com open in a new window, but tried using it today without success. After I published the post, I viewed the post and tried clicking on the anchored text which went straight to the linked website, replacing the blogpost in the same window. Has anything changed since August 2009 (with the new editor, perhaps?) or do I need to wait a little while after publishing for that feature to kick in?

Peter @ Enviroman said...

Changed? Unlikely. Send me the actual HTML hyperlink code and I will check what is wrong.

MAN MADE SOLE said...

CAN'T BELIEVE I DID IT! yessss! thanks for the dummy walk thru!

Glenwood MOPS said...

Dang it! I can not get this to work. I know it is probably just something I am not doing right. I have been trying for two days and it keeps not working.

What I really want is to have all links in my (blogger) blog open in new windows. We don't have a lot of links that we include but several people have asked if we can make it so things open in a new window.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your help!

amberloo22@aol.com

Peter @ Enviroman said...

This post is for making a specific link open in new tab/window. What do you mean by "all links" open in new Window? If I guess correctly what you want, then that have to be done via editing the template.

quazipseudo said...

I am trying to make an anchor link to a wiget, using the html formula above, with no luck.

On this Blog

http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/

I want to make this text

>> Blog Archive<

into a link that goes to this wiget

"widget BlogArchive" id="BlogArchive1"
h2 Blog Archive /h2

Thanks

Peter @ Enviroman said...

Are you trying to do that in the template editor?

quazipseudo said...

so far, no. i know very little about html. i have been trying to make a link like any other, inserting it into a List wiget or a Link List wiget.

Peter @ Enviroman said...

If you add the link via a Link List gadget, I believe it will not open in new window (I myself always use a HTML/Javascript gadget to make my own link list) and if you want to change that you probably have to edit the template.

Georg Feuerstein said...

Thanks for posting this. I am wondering where to place target="_blank" if the code is href (it goes to an amazon astore link).

Peter @ Enviroman said...

Usually at the end but it should still work at other places