Named Windows & Targetted Anchors

In Netscape Navigator 2.0, some document windows have names associated with them. Any anchor in any window can target to that name, which means that the anchor will open in the named window instead of in the window where the anchor was clicked on.

Here's how it works.

Simple Example #1

Try clicking on it.

Since you didn't have a window named "thisisatest", the anchor target caused a new window to be created. Leave this new window open for a minute. Let's try a second anchor.

Simple Example #2

Trying clicking on it.

Now you have a window with that name, and this new anchor goes to that window. Well, that's pretty useful.

Default Targets

BASE

This assigns a default TARGET to all links, which you can override on a per link basis just by supplying a different TARGET for that link.

Naming a Document

A window gets a name when it is first created, just as we created the "thisisatest" a moment ago. You can also give names Frames and use that name to make links in one frame control the content of another. Take a look at the information on frames for more information on this.

Allowed Names

You can use any name for a window that is alphanumeric. All other names are ignored, except for these special names:

TARGET="_blank": This will cause the link to always be loaded in a new blank window, which is not named.
TARGET="_self": This will cause the link to always load in the same window that the link appeared in. This is useful for overriding a global BASE target.
TARGET="_parent": This will cause the link to load in the FRAMESET parent of this document. This acts like _self in a document that has no parent.
TARGET="_top": This makes the link load in the absolute top FRAME of the window. If the document is already at the top, it's the same as _self.