org mode links: open in new tab

Question

I am generating a slideshow using org-reveal, and have links to other web-pages. During the presentaion (conducted from the browser), I would like clicking on these links to result in opening the link in a new browser tab.

I tried the docu, but couldn't find anything. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The below works for both html and reveal exports:

* External Links
=[[LINK][LINK NAME]]=
** Open link in the same tab
#+BEGIN_SRC text
Check out the org mode manual on [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Hyperlinks.html]
[Hyperlinks]].

/(Left clicking the link will open the link in the same tab.)/
#+END_SRC
Check out the org mode manual on [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Hyperlinks.html][Hyperlinks]].

/(Left clicking the link will open the link in the same tab.)/
** Open link in a new tab
#+BEGIN_SRC text
#+ATTR_HTML: :target _blank
Check out the org mode manual on [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Hyperlinks.html]
[Hyperlinks]] in a new tab.

/(Left clicking the link will open the link in a new tab.)/
#+END_SRC
#+ATTR_HTML: :target _blank
Check out the org mode manual on [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Hyperlinks.html][Hyperlinks]] in a new tab.

/(Left clicking the link will open the link in a new tab.)/

---

HTML Export

Answer 2

A little JavaScript will do.

Org file:

#+HTML_HEAD: <script type="text/javascript" src="post.js"></script>

I used the Bash shell keyword ~time~ to obtain time consumed by the
building process.  I added the option ~-rtlib=compiler-rt~ to
~LDFLAGS~, since Clang would complain ~undefined reference to
`__muloti4'~ without it (see [[clang-bug:16404][bug]]).  Clang 5.0 also provides a linker
called ~lld~ and claims that it is faster than the built-in linker.
As per [[using-lld][instruction]], I added ~-fuse-ld=lld~ to ~LDFLAGS~ as a third
group.

#+LINK: clang-bug https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=%s
#+LINK: using-lld https://lld.llvm.org/#using-lld

JavaScript file named "post.js":

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {
    const anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
    for (const anchor of anchors) {
        anchor.target = "_blank";
    }
});

Put the JavaScript file in the same folder as the exported HTML file. Then you are fine.

If you want to support older browsers, you can use the following code instead.

window.onload = function() {
    var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
    for (var i = 0; i < anchors.length; i++) {
        anchors[i].target = "_blank";
    }
};

In addition, you probably do not want to open an internal link (like this link) in a new tab. Then you can use the following code as I did on my own site.

window.onload = function() {
    var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
    for (var i = 0; i < anchors.length; i++) {
        var anchor = anchors[i];
        if (anchor.hostname !== window.location.hostname
            || anchor.pathname !== window.location.pathname) {
            anchor.target = "_blank";
        }
    }
};

Answer 3

For simply making target="_blank" the default target, you can put the following line to your Org file:

#+HTML_HEAD: <base target="_blank">

Answer 4

The Advanced-Export-Configuration guide mentions filter hooks for elements. Using this and a rule like "all links whose href starts with http" we can build a filter that adds the target attribute to matching links:

(defun my-org-export-add-target-blank-to-http-links (text backend info)
  "Add target=\"_blank\" to external links."
  (when (and
         (org-export-derived-backend-p backend 'html)
         (string-match "href=\"http[^\"]+" text)
         (not (string-match "target=\"" text)))
    (string-match "<a " text)
    (replace-match "<a target=\"_blank\" " nil nil text)))

(add-to-list 'org-export-filter-link-functions
             'my-org-export-add-target-blank-to-http-links)

If you don't want this as global behavior you can set it per-buffer with the BIND keyword:

#+BIND: org-export-filter-link-functions (my-org-export-add-target-blank-to-http-links)