Is there a way to create a link in Markdown that opens in a new window? If not, what syntax do you recommend to do this? I'll add it to the markdown compiler I use. I think it should be an option.
Best Answer
As far as the Markdown syntax is concerned, if you want to get that detailed, you'll just have to use HTML.
<a href="http://example.com/" target="_blank">Hello, world!</a>Most Markdown engines I've seen allow plain old HTML, just for situations like this where a generic text markup system just won't cut it. (The StackOverflow engine, for example.) They then run the entire output through an HTML whitelist filter, regardless, since even a Markdown-only document can easily contain XSS attacks. As such, if you or your users want to create _blank links, then they probably still can.
If that's a feature you're going to be using often, it might make sense to create your own syntax, but it's generally not a vital feature. If I want to launch that link in a new window, I'll ctrl-click it myself, thanks.
When working with markdown, you may wonder how to open a link in a new tab. It is important to follow SEO rules and guidelines to ensure the best user experience and search engine optimization. One way to achieve this is by using the HTML <a> tag and adding the target='_blank' attribute to open the link in a new tab.
For example, if you have a markdown link like [Link Text](https://example.com), you can modify it to <a href='https://example.com' target='_blank'>Link Text</a>. This will make the link open in a new tab when clicked.
By using the target='_blank' attribute, you ensure that users stay on your website while opening the linked page in a new tab. This can be helpful in providing a seamless browsing experience and reducing the chances of users getting lost or leaving your website altogether.
Remember to use this feature judiciously and prioritize user experience. Opening too many links in new tabs can be overwhelming for users, so it's best to reserve it for external links or when it's necessary for the context of your content.
Overall, using HTML tags within markdown allows you to have more control over the behavior of your links. Follow SEO guidelines and consider user experience when deciding to open links in new tabs.
Kramdown supports it. It's compatible with standard Markdown syntax, but has many extensions, too. You would use it like this:
[link](url){:target="_blank"}I don't think there is a markdown feature, although there may be other options available if you want to open links which point outside your own site automatically with JavaScript.
Array.from(document.links).filter(link => link.hostname != window.location.hostname).forEach(link => link.target = '_blank');jsFiddle.
If you're using jQuery:
$(document.links).filter(function() {return this.hostname != window.location.hostname;}).attr('target', '_blank');jsFiddle.
With Markdown v2.5.2, you can use this:
[link](URL){:target="_blank"}So, it isn't quite true that you cannot add link attributes to a Markdown URL. To add attributes, check with the underlying markdown parser being used and what their extensions are.
In particular, pandoc has an extension to enable link_attributes, which allow markup in the link. e.g.
[Hello, world!](http://example.com/){target="_blank"}- For those coming from R (e.g. using
rmarkdown,bookdown,blogdownand so on), this is the syntax you want. - For those not using R, you may need to enable the extension in the call to
pandocwith+link_attributes
Note: This is different than the kramdown parser's support, which is one the accepted answers above. In particular, note that kramdown differs from pandoc since it requires a colon -- : -- at the start of the curly brackets -- {}, e.g.
[link](http://example.com){:hreflang="de"}In particular:
# Pandoc{ attribute1="value1" attribute2="value2"}# Kramdown{: attribute1="value1" attribute2="value2"}^^ ColonOne global solution is to put <base target="_blank">into your page's <head> element. That effectively adds a default target to every anchor element. I use markdown to create content on my Wordpress-based web site, and my theme customizer will let me inject that code into the top of every page. If your theme doesn't do that, there's a plug-in
Not a direct answer, but may help some people ending up here.
If you are using GatsbyJS there is a plugin that automatically adds target="_blank" to external links in your markdown.
It's called gatsby-remark-external-links and is used like so:
yarn add gatsby-remark-external-links
plugins: [ {resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,options: {plugins: [{resolve: "gatsby-remark-external-links",options: {target: "_blank",rel: "noopener noreferrer"}}]}},It also takes care of the rel="noopener noreferrer".
Reference the docs if you need more options.
For ghost markdown use:
[Google](https://google.com" target="_blank)Found it here:https://cmatskas.com/open-external-links-in-a-new-window-ghost/
I'm using Grav CMS and this works perfectly:
Body/Content:Some text[1]
Body/Reference:[1]: http://somelink.com/?target=_blank
Just make sure that the target attribute is passed first, if there are additional attributes in the link, copy/paste them to the end of the reference URL.
Also work as direct link:[Go to this page](http://somelink.com/?target=_blank)
You can do this via native javascript code like so:
var pattern = /a href=/g;var sanitizedMarkDownText = rawMarkDownText.replace(pattern,"a target='_blank' href=");JSFiddle Code
In my project I'm doing this and it works fine:
[Link](https://example.org/ "title" target="_blank")Link
But not all parsers let you do that.
There's no easy way to do it, and like @alex has noted you'll need to use JavaScript. His answer is the best solution but in order to optimize it, you might want to filter only to the post-content links.
<script>var links = document.querySelectorAll( '.post-content a' ); for (var i = 0, length = links.length; i < length; i++) { if (links[i].hostname != window.location.hostname) {links[i].target = '_blank';}}</script>The code is compatible with IE8+ and you can add it to the bottom of your page. Note that you'll need to change the ".post-content a" to the class that you're using for your posts.
As seen here: http://blog.hubii.com/target-_blank-for-links-on-ghost/
If someone is looking for a global rmarkdown (pandoc) solution.
Using Pandoc Lua Filter
You could write your own Pandoc Lua Filter which adds target="_blank" to all links:
- Write a Pandoc Lua Filter, name it for example
links.lua
function Link(element)if string.sub(element.target, 1, 1) ~= "#"thenelement.attributes.target = "_blank"endreturn elementend- Then update your
_output.yml
bookdown::gitbook:pandoc_args:- --lua-filter=links.luaInject <base target="_blank"> in Header
An alternative solution would be to inject <base target="_blank"> in the HTML head section using the includes option:
- Create a new HTML file, name it for example
links.html
<base target="_blank">- Then update your
_output.yml
bookdown::gitbook:includes:in_header: links.htmlNote: This solution may also open new tabs for hash (#) pointers/URLs. I have not tested this solution with such URLs.
In Laravel I solved it this way:
$post->text= Str::replace('<a ', '<a target="_blank"', $post->text);Not works for a specific link. Edit all links in the Markdown text. (In my case it's fine)
If you work with MkDocs, you might be interested in the Open in a new tab - plugin
This plugin adds JS to open outgoing links and PDFs in a new tab.
Install the plugin using pip from PyPI:
pip3 install mkdocs-open-in-new-tabJust add the plugin:
plugins:- search- open-in-new-tabMore about the plugin.
I ran into this problem when trying to implement markdown using PHP.
Since the user generated links created with markdown need to open in a new tab but site links need to stay in tab I changed markdown to only generate links that open in a new tab. So not all links on the page link out, just the ones that use markdown.
In markdown I changed all the link output to be <a target='_blank' href="..."> which was easy enough using find/replace.
I do not agree that it's a better user experience to stay within one browser tab. If you want people to stay on your site, or come back to finish reading that article, send them off in a new tab.
Building on @davidmorrow's answer, throw this javascript into your site and turn just external links into links with target=_blank:
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">// Creating custom :external selector$.expr[':'].external = function(obj){return !obj.href.match(/^mailto\:/)&& (obj.hostname != location.hostname);};$(function(){// Add 'external' CSS class to all external links$('a:external').addClass('external');// turn target into target=_blank for elements w external class$(".external").attr('target','_blank');})</script>You can add any attributes using {[attr]="[prop]"}
For example [Google] (http://www.google.com){target="_blank"}
For completed alex answered (Dec 13 '10)
A more smart injection target could be done with this code :
/** For all links in the current page...*/$(document.links).filter(function() {/** ...keep them without `target` already setted...*/return !this.target;}).filter(function() {/** ...and keep them are not on current domain...*/return this.hostname !== window.location.hostname ||/** ...or are not a web file (.pdf, .jpg, .png, .js, .mp4, etc.).*//\.(?!html?|php3?|aspx?)([a-z]{0,3}|[a-zt]{0,4})$/.test(this.pathname);/** For all link kept, add the `target="_blank"` attribute. */}).attr('target', '_blank');You could change the regexp exceptions with adding more extension in (?!html?|php3?|aspx?) group construct (understand this regexp here: https://regex101.com/r/sE6gT9/3).
and for a without jQuery version, check code below:
var links = document.links;for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {if (!links[i].target) {if (links[i].hostname !== window.location.hostname || /\.(?!html?)([a-z]{0,3}|[a-zt]{0,4})$/.test(links[i].pathname)) {links[i].target = '_blank';} }}Automated for external links only, using GNU sed & make
If one would like to do this systematically for all external links, CSS is no option. However, one could run the following sed command once the (X)HTML has been created from Markdown:
sed -i 's|href="http|target="_blank" href="http|g' index.htmlThis can be further automated by adding above sed command to a makefile. For details, see GNU make or see how I have done that on my website.
If you just want to do this in a specific link, just use the inline attribute list syntax as others have answered, or just use HTML.
If you want to do this in all generated <a> tags, depends on your Markdown compiler, maybe you need an extension of it.
I am doing this for my blog these days, which is generated by pelican, which use Python-Markdown. And I found an extension for Python-Markdown Phuker/markdown_link_attr_modifier, it works well. Note that an old extension called newtab seems not work in Python-Markdown 3.x.
For React + Markdown environment:
I created a reusable component:
export type TargetBlankLinkProps = {label?: string;href?: string;};export const TargetBlankLink = ({label = "",href = "",}: TargetBlankLinkProps) => (<a href={href} target="__blank">{label}</a>);And I use it wherever I need a link that open in a new window.
For "markdown-to-jsx" with MUI v5
This seem to work for me:
import Markdown from 'markdown-to-jsx';...
const MarkdownLink = ({ children, ...props }) => (<Link {...props}>{children}</Link>);...
<Markdownoptions={{forceBlock: true,overrides: {a: {component: MarkdownLink,props: {target: '_blank',},},},}}>{description}</Markdown>This works for me: [Page Link](your url here "(target|_blank)")