The Friendliest Link Targets in the Neighborhood

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").

R.I.P. Mr. Rogers
So long, neighbor.

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Creative thinker. Passionate about free and open Web.