The Trick to Opening a Top Link Bar URL in a Separate Window

In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0) or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007), administrators can easily create a hyperlink in the top link bar by selecting Site Action, choosing Site Settings, clicking Top link bar, and entering a hyperlink (e.g., http://www.officesharepointpro.com). One SharePoint question I'm often asked is how to create a hyperlink that opens a separate Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) window.

There isn't an out-of-the-box solution for opening a link in another IE window. If you search the Internet, you'll find some solutions such as using Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to modify the hyperlink or creating a new custom site definition that provides an "Open in New Window" option. These solutions might not be suitable for administrators who don't have SharePoint Designer 2007 or an in-depth understanding of SharePoint custom site definitions.

After some thought, I realized that you can use a relatively simple browser technique to achieve the desired result. Generally, all browsers let you use JavaScript in the address bar. Thus, you can place the URL in JavaScript command that opens the specified link in a separate window.

For example, suppose you want to open the Office & SharePoint Pro website in a new browser. You'd select Site Action, choose Site Settings, and click Top link bar. Then you'd enter

javascript:window.open("http://www.officesharepointpro.com");void(0);

The Office & SharePoint Pro website will then open in a separate window while the SharePoint site remains open in the original window.

This technique works for both IE and Firefox. However, it might not work in all situations. For example, it won't work for SharePoint sites that have the MOSS publishing feature enabled because the top link bar is replaced with a navigation bar. The navigation bar doesn't let you to enter JavaScript commands. With that said, the navigation bar already has an option that lets you open a link in a new window, so this workaround isn't needed in that situation anyway.