RE: javascript and URLs

Lisa Seeman wrote:
> I think that there is consensus that opening a new window is not, ever, a
good thing. 

I can't join in that consensus. There are situations in which many users
would prefer to have two windows side-by-side. The traditional Help files
shipped with Windows and Windows applications are an example. Users like
being able to see a Help topic and the application at the same time.

An analogy in the Web world is the separate Help window that is used with
many MSN sites, such as Hotmail. When the Help link is clicked, a narrow
Help window is opened to the right of the main window, which is usually
resized.

There is, of course, a Pri 2 checkpoint (10.1) which advises against opening
new windows, and I can understand that new windows can cause confusion when
people can't see the screen and aren't notified of what is happening.
However, as people increasingly use the Web for work they used to do in
traditional applications, there may well be greater need for separate
windows such as Help.

Dick Brown
Microsoft

-----Original Message-----
From: Lisa Seeman [mailto:seeman@netvision.net.il] 
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 10:39 PM
To: Robert Neff; wai-gl
Subject: Re: javascript and URLs

I think that there is consensus that opening a new window is not, ever, a
good thing. It confuses navigation. (Imagine a non sited person who is moved
without her knowledge to a pop up window and then tries the back button -
disorienting the user.)
Lisa
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Neff <robneff@home.com>
To: wai-gl <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Date: Saturday, March 03, 2001 9:45 PM
Subject: javascript and URLs


>wendy, have we considered javascript opening URLs in new new windows (that
>are not pop-ups) as a techniques or other?  was just thinking about the
>number of web sites includeing news sites that do this.  you click on the
>URL link and it opens another browser window.  what if javascript is turned
>off? or do we need no script here?
>
>comments?
>
>

Received on Monday, 5 March 2001 13:52:40 UTC