Table of Contents

URL: https://www.progressiverobot.com/html-target-attribute-anchor-tags/

The <^>target<^> attribute inside anchor tags (<^><a><^>) tells the browser where the linked document should be loaded. It's optional, and defaults to <^>_self<^> when no value is provided. It can take a browsing context name/keyword (e.g.: tab, window), or one of the following 4 keywords.

The concept of a <^>browsing context<^> was introduced with HTML5 and it refers to a window, tab or frame inside a page.

  • <^>_self<^>: The default value. Loads the document in the same browsing context.
  • <^>_blank<^>: The most commonly used value. Loads the document in a new browsing context (window or tab).
  • <^>_parent<^>: Loads the document in the parent browsing context/frame if there's one, or the same browsing context if there's no parent.
  • <^>_top<^>: Loads the document in the topmost browsing context/frame if there's one, or the same browsing context if there's no parent.