Add target="_blank" in CSS

Html Problem Overview

I have external links in the top menu of my website.

I want to open these links in new tabs. I could achieve it using target=_blank in HTML. Is there a similar CSS property or anything else?

Html Solutions

Solution 1 - Html

As c69 mentioned there is no way to do it with pure CSS.

but you can use HTML instead:

use

<head>
    <base target="_blank">
</head>

in your HTML <head> tag for making all of page links which not include target attribute to be opened in a new blank window by default. otherwise you can set target attribute for each link like this:

    <a href="/yourlink.html" target="_blank">test-link</a>

and it will override

<head>
    <base target="_blank">
</head>

tag if it was defined previously.

Solution 2 - Html

Unfortunately, no. In 2013, there is no way to do it with pure CSS.

Update: thanks to showdev for linking to the obsolete spec of CSS3 Hyperlinks, and yes, no browser has implemented it. So the answer still stands valid.

Solution 3 - Html

There are a few ways CSS can 'target' navigation. This will style internal and external links using attribute styling, which could help signal visitors to what your links will do.

a[href="#"] { color: forestgreen; font-weight: normal; }
a[href="http"] { color: dodgerblue; font-weight: normal; }

You can also target the traditional inline HTML 'target=_blank'.

a[target=_blank] { font-weight: bold; }

Also :target selector to style navigation block and [element targets] 1.

nav { display: none; }
nav:target { display: block; }

CSS :target pseudo-class selector is supported - caniuse, w3schools, MDN.

a[href="http"] { target: new; target-name: new; target-new: tab; }

CSS/CSS3 'target-new' property etc, not supported by any major browsers, 2017 August, though it is part of the W3 spec since 2004 February.

W3Schools 'modal' construction, uses ':target' pseudo-class that could contain WP navigation. You can also add HTML rel="noreferrer and noopener beside target="_blank" to improve 'new tab' performance. CSS will not open links in tabs for now, but this page explains how to do that with jQuery (compatibility may depend for WP coders). MDN has a good review at Using the :target pseudo-class in selectors

Solution 4 - Html

Another way to use target="_blank" is:

onclick="this.target='_blank'"

Example:

<a href="http://www.url.com" onclick="this.target='_blank'">Your Text<a>

Solution 5 - Html

While waiting for the adoption of CSS3 targeting…

While waiting for the adoption of CSS3 targeting by the major browsers, one could run the following sed command once the (X)HTML has been created:

sed -i 's|href="http|target="_blank" href="http|g' index.html

It will add target="_blank" to all external hyperlinks. Variations are also possible.

EDIT

I use this at the end of the makefile which generates every web page on my site.

Solution 6 - Html

This is actually javascript but related/relevant because .querySelectorAll targets by CSS syntax:

var i_will_target_self = document.querySelectorAll("ul.menu li a#example")

this example uses css to target links in a menu with id = "example"

that creates a variable which is a collection of the elements we want to change, but we still have actually change them by setting the new target ("_blank"):

for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
i_will_target_self[i].target = "_blank";
}

That code assumes that there are 5 or less elements. That can be changed easily by changing the phrase "i < 5."

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Husnain Ali	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Html	Mojtaba Rezaeian	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Html	c69	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Html	mark stewart	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Html	Edison Q	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Html	Serge Stroobandt	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Html	John Vandivier	View Answer on Stackoverflow