Opens new tab when clicking on bookmark

[Stajlerboy]

Hi.

I have noticed that when I click on a bookmark the browser opens it in a new tab.

I dont like that I would like the bookmark to open in the tab that's currently active when I click a bookmark.

Any way to change this??

[kluelos]

Yes, there is.

You probably need to spend some time just going through the options menu. This and many, many other behaviors, can be controlled by selections in the options menu.

If you don't understand exactly what something means, then try it both ways, and it will usually become obvious what's meant.

[Stajlerboy]

Great. But I cant find it. Can you please tell me how to do change it?

[kluelos]

The creator of the web page can set the behavior of the link so that it opens in a new window. It has become normal to do this for a links that goes to another web site -- emphasizing that it IS another web site and not part of this one.

That's so that you can jump out of the current page to read the link, then come back and keep reading where you left off. Under the Options -> Tabs menu, you can elect to have the link open in a new tab instead of a new window. This is very disorienting to some people, especially as it's not the behavior they are used to and it looks radically different, though it really is not.

You can uncheck that box and go back to having it open the new window. Notice that when you do that, the new window opens on top of the existing window, and you get another item on your task bar. This is often mistaken for opening in the existing window, particularly if you don't keep an eye on your task bar.

The behavior is controlled by the page creator via script, and you can't really override it to force it to open in the current window, not short of disabling it altogether -- which sorta defeats the purpose.

You should however, look at the particular web site in question because this might be a settable personal preference on that site -- to have it open links in a new window, or to have them open in the same window.

If it really annoys you, one way to work around it is to check the "when I open a new tab, switch to it immediately" option. You might experiment with that, and see if it doesn't mostly solve your problem or at least turn it into something you can live with.

[Stajlerboy]

Thank you for your help.

I will try different things.

[Echo]

If I'm reading this correctly, there is no way to get the bookmark to open in the *same* window or tab as the current page, as Firefox does? I have been through the settings more than once and there's nothing there.

If nothing can be done, well - I'll give CometBird a little more time (I *just* set it as my default browser because Firefox is so buggy) to see if this annoying feature continues to drive me crazy or I get used to it. I really do not understand why we couldn't have been given an option to open bookmarks in the current tab.

[kluelos]

Nobody said anything about bookmarks until your comment.

Bookmarks open in the current window by default. If I left-click I can choose to have them open in a new tab or a new window, but by default it's going to be the currently-selected window and tab (if applicable), replacing the content.

We were talking about hyperlinks on the page being viewed, which are scripted to open in a new window. You can override THAT behaviour to make them open in new tabs instead of new windows. But this is a completely different thing than bookmarks.