That kind of linking is great when you want to link together pages in your site. But what if you want to link to something outside your site? Let's add another link to Beth's page.

    <HTML>
    <HEAD>
    <TITLE>My Framz Page</TITLE>
    </HEAD>
    <BODY>
    Beth
    <P>You have to visit my friend <A HREF="shannon.html" TARGET="WINDOW-1">Shannon</A>
    <P>And of course you have to visit Joe at
    <A HREF="http://junior.apk.net/~jbarta/" TARGET="WINDOW-1">Professional Web Design</A>
    </BODY>
    </HTML>

VIEW IT

As you can see, this causes someone elses page to load into your window.

How can you make an outside link load into the full browser window? Easy, change the `TARGET` to `_top`. (Note that was in lower case... very important.)

    <HTML>
    <HEAD>
    <TITLE>My Framz Page</TITLE>
    </HEAD>
    <BODY>
    Beth
    <P>You have to visit my friend <A HREF="shannon.html" TARGET="WINDOW-1">Shannon</A>
    <P>And of course you have to visit Joe at
    <A HREF="http://junior.apk.net/~jbarta/" TARGET="_top">Professional Web Design</A>
    </BODY>
    </HTML>

VIEW IT

Always use this method when linking to an outside page. Believe me, your viewers will appreciate it!

`_top` is one of 4 so-called 'magic targets'. They are `_top`, `_blank`, `_self` and `_parent`. These are the only targets that can begin with something other than an alpha-numeric character. In addition, any target beginning with an underscore_ that is not one of the 'magic targets' may behave unpredictably.

What exactly do those 4 magic targets do?

`_top` opens a link in the full browser window.
`_blank` opens a link in a new browser window.
`_self` opens a link in the same browser window or frame. (Same as doing nothing)
`_parent` opens a link in the immediate frameset parent.

It is commonly thought that `_new` will open a link in a new window. With most browsers it will. So will `_tom`, `_dick` or `_harry`. For that matter so will `bonnie` and `clyde`. Any `TARGET` that is not defined somewhere will simply result in a new window opening up (usually).

Once again, remember, when using one of the four magic targets, `_top`, `_blank`, `_self` or `_parent`, make sure they are lower case. UPPER case won't be understood and the end result will probably be the link opening in a new window.

<< BACK NEXT >>