Stop opening links in new tab in modern pages
Please stop opening links in a new tab by default in modern pages.
It is against standard web behaviour (https://www.w3.org/TR/2012/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20120103/G200), and is confusing to users when they end up with 10+ tabs open when navigating even the simplest site.
Make it optional by all means, it makes sense in a number of cases, just please not by default.
Cameron Monks
shared this idea
In modern pages, we open links within SharePoint in the same tab by default, and external links in a new tab. In the text web part, users can specify to open links in a new tab, but that isn’t the default behavior. Similarly, for navigation links, they follow the same rule (within SharePoint, same tab, external to SharePoint in a new tab). This is true of the modern web parts that support linking as well (hero, quick links, images, etc.) This is the pattern we’ve adopted for consistency.
After reviewing other areas of modern sites, like the site pages library, document libraries, lists, site contents, etc. we did find some different opening behaviors which we’ll review and resolve.
Can you help us understand if this pattern isn’t meeting your expectation, if we have some inconsistencies within modern pages we’ve missed, or if it’s the other areas of modern sites where we need to focus more attention?
332 comments
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Brenden
commented
This is also the case with document set links (in SharePoint 2019 on-prem) when you've configured a custom (modern) view to be displayed for that document set content type. Those links will always currently open in a new tab. From what I can determine, it's either because the doc set link is still rendered to "DocSetHome.aspx" in the layouts folder and redirecting from there to the custom view, or it's something to do directly with the DocSetHomePage class that sits behind that page.
It would be preferable for these links to open in the current tab as they are always to resources within the current site.
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rene
commented
It would be nice to have the option to check a box or click a slider to say open in new window as it is in Classic SharePoint.
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Steve McHargue
commented
I was showing someone how to go into Site Contents and edit the lists and libraries in the site. when i had gotten half way through, i had 24 tabs open in my browser. How does that meet anyones needs or expectations?
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Janice M Q S
commented
I still don't understand why Quick Links in Modern do not allow the option to "open link in new tab" like the text link option.
It should be optional in all places.
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Anonymous
commented
One possible solution could be:
Open in same tab 'single click'
Open in new tab 'double click' -
Swathi Jain
commented
We need the option to decide if we want to open the links in the new tab or same tab. At least give the option for the site authors to set it based on the requirement.
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Angela Liao
commented
Please implement this on the Site Contents Page! Clicking on a list or library from Site Contents opens a new tab by default. If you're working in a lot of lists and libraries you end up with dozens of tabs open. This is very frustrating. It would be much more usable if opening a list/library from Site Contents opens in the same window by default and you have the option of opening in a new tab when you right-click on it.
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Bojil
commented
Hi,
I have the same issue with modern site contents screen. It opens all libraries and list within a new window. Is this by design?
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Em
commented
Please fix this, it is making SharePoint unusable for our purposes. Drives our users to not use it at all.
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Jen
commented
When clicking on an item in a list web part on a page, the item opens in a new tab instead of the dialog even though the list is set to open items in the dialog. This is very annoying, please fix!
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Mia L
commented
Recently created a hub site and sub sites and in the top navigation where I added the sub sites, they open in a new tab. This is not what I want. How can I control this?
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Anonymous
commented
This just started happening to me in Chromium Edge a few days ago. I can't find an option in settings to control what happens when I click on a link. Until it's fixed, I'm switching my default browser to Chrome.
In general, I am disgusted with Chromium Edge's tendency to remove user control of the web experience.
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JM
commented
There should be an option to specify where to open the links.
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David
commented
Another weird example of SharePoint opening something in a new tab that I don't think should open in a new tab is when you are in Site Contents. Opening site contents from the settings gear icon DOES NOT open the site contents in a new tab. However, everything you open from site contents DOES open in a NEW TAB. Why? It is all on the same site.
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BB
commented
In the document library itself a document opens in the same tab (as it should). But when the library is added as a dcument library web part on a web page on the same site the document opens in a new tab.
This is very inefficient and annoying, especially when reading from a mobile device because the backward arrow will not take the user back to the web page where the document was opened.
I wonder if this is a bug or if there is a way of controlling this different behaviour.
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Tracy
commented
Links within the same site or site collection should open in the same tab by default. Navigating within the same site is not navigating to an external link.
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Anonymous
commented
Another good use case for allowing choosing whether the link opens in a new tab or same window is with Powerapps - I may send my Sharepoint user to a Powerapp. From Powerapps, I have the ability to return a user to a specific page when they are done with their interaction. If I am forced to open it in a new tab each time, then the webpart becomes useless.
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Jack Vinitsky
commented
I myself don't mind documents opening in a new tab particularly from the library web part, however the behavior is definitely inconsistent. For example with the Quick Links web part, if you set it to a a document in a doc library it opens in the same window in the SharePoint web viewer.
What I find annoying is if the user clicks on the X button to close the viewer they are taken to the Doc Library rather than back to SharePoint Page they came from. This is confusing when working with a Communication site as we generally don't want end users to to go to the underlying libraries. It would be great if we can use a URL that opens the file using the user's browser's viewer (particularly for PDFs) but the Quick Link web part keeps "rewriting the URL" and adding the web=1 argument to it.
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IT Joe
commented
The biggest violation of this might be when adding a webpart of a Sharepoint List in a Sharepoint page...when you click on a list item it opens that item in a new tab. How is this even default let alone possible. It makes the use of a Sharepoint page useless because users won't use it due to having many tabs open at the end of the day.
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Jen
commented
Please open sub-sites, pages, settings, etc. in the same page by default. It's very confusing for people to have multiple tabs open when all they did was navigate within the same site collection. The only time links should open a new tab is for a site in a different site collection or external links.
