The Friendliest Link Targets in the Neighborhood
Posted on June 20, 2007 in Structure by Jeff Starr
![[ Image: Fred Rogers with Shoe ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/mister-rogers.jpg "R.I.P. Mister Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003)")
The target attribute for anchor elements (<a>) specifies the location in which the referenced document should load. For example, to open a link in a new window, we would use a target value of _blank. Although this is a commonly employed technique, the target attribute has been deprecated by the W3C and is not valid (X)HTML. Regardless, the target element remains a useful tool for practicing designers and developers. Here, we present the attribute values for the target element:
Attribute values for the target element
- _blank
- [ Syntax:
target="_blank"]
— instructs the user-agent to load the target document in a new window. - _replace
- [ Syntax:
target="_replace"]
— instructs the user-agent to load the target document in a new window. - _self
- [ Syntax:
target="_self"]
— instructs the user-agent to load the target document in the current frame or window. - null value
- [ Syntax:
target=""]
— instructs the user-agent to load the target document in the current frame or window. - (no target specified)
- [ Syntax: (no target specified) ]
— instructs the user-agent to load the target document in the current frame or window. - _parent
- [ Syntax:
target="_parent"]
— instructs the user-agent to load the target document as the parental, or topmost, frameset or window. - _top
- [ Syntax:
target="_top"]
— instructs the user-agent to load the target document in the topmost window or frameset. - custom
- [ Syntax:
target="custom"]
— instructs the user-agent to load the target document in the frame identified as "custom" (i.e.,id="custom").