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Subject:RE: new vs current browser From:"Glenn Maxey" <glenn -dot- maxey -at- voyanttech -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 16 Apr 2001 14:20:28 -0600
Standards for the web? Ha!
My personal preference is for PDF links to go to a new browser window.
My reasoning is that PDF has its own navigation and its own rules. When
people open a PDF from a link, they can menu around and bore down in that
file. The navigation is not browser navigation.
If the PDF link opens in the same Window, the "back" button does not "back
out" PDF commands. Instead, it takes you to a non-PDF topic (e.g., HTML
page). This is rather unfriendly. If it was a mistake, the user has to
re-open the PDF topic and bore down to where they were again. Also, if
you've implemented framesets, the browser session opens in one of those
frames, which might be too small or cumbersome to view without re-sizing
your Browser to something friendly for PDF but unfriendly to HTML (to which
they'll ultimately return).
On the other hand, if the PDF link opens in a new Window, the "back" button
has no such negative side-effects. It doesn't do anything in that new
session. It has further advantages in that the user can size the new browser
session with embedded Acrobat Reader to better meet their needs and not
affect the display of HTML topics. They can also compare the PDF information
with the HTML information because they are split out in two Windows. (This
is useful for me, because I single-source and offer information in both HTML
and PDF [intended for print].)
The second session calls further attention to the fact that the Acrobat
Reader navigation is not the Browser navigation. The second session doesn't
mess up frameset implementations.
Glenn Maxey
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
Tel. +1 303.223.5164
Fax. +1 303.223.5275
glenn -dot- maxey -at- voyanttech -dot- com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-techwr-l-58477 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
> [mailto:bounce-techwr-l-58477 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of
> karenneeb -at- hotmail -dot- com
> Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 12:48 PM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: PDF: new vs current browser
>
>
> Is there a standard as to whether a PDF link should open in the same
> browser window or a new browser window?
>
> I know I have my own personal preference, but others in my group have the
> opposite preference. In an informal test of many sites on the
> web, I can?t
> determine that one method has prevalence over the other.
>
> Have any studies been conducted? What is your personal
> preference, and for
> what reason(s)?
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