----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick H. Lauke" <re...@splintered.co.uk>
To: <wsg@webstandardsgroup.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 11:54 AM
Subject: Re: [WSG] Expected behaviour of links to external websites
Can I just turn this around? To those on this discussion so adamant that
popping up a new window is a good thing...explain WHY! Is it the age-old
"but if I link out of my site, users won't know how to get back to my
site...I don't want to lose visitors" stance?
P
--
Patrick H. Lauke
Patrick:
I don't say having windows all over the place is something great per se, but
I do say that for most applications on a PC it is a <em>very</em> tidy and
very convenient way of handling masses of data which is related (like my
analogy of a web page in Dreamweaver or similar - I have my markup in one
window, my CSS in another, my file list in another frame and my output in a
browser etc etc etc.) Similarly, with mail, I sometimes want to compare
different mails so I need two (or more)open in their own windows, whilst my
'list' of mails is displayed in another frame as indeed are my contacts. And
so it goes on. So, to move to your specific point, it is needed sometimes to
have a separate window - as a pdf, for example. In these cases, the less PC
literate amongst us (who outnumber the literate by a great deal) have to be
catered for - I do this by making sure that if a new window is needed, they
know this because it tells them before they click.
We on this list are all clever little boys and girls who know about
right-clicking to select a new window or not, and indeed we probably all use
tabs anyway. I repeat that most people don't know any of this. Most people
don't even know what a back button is! Someone recently asked me a question
as they were having a problem. As I wasn't in front of her screen I asked
her what her browser was. I had an awful job getting her to understand what
I was asking, but eventually she explained : "I use my e". This was
subsequently clarified by the explanation that she meant the small blue
thing at the bottom of the screen. Let me add that this lady sits in front
of her PC, at work, using the internet 5 days a week, all day, and has done
for 10 years that I know of. Do you think she knows about the back-button?
right-click? tabs?
Come on!!! :-)
Bob
*******************************************************************
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org
*******************************************************************
