how to make a URL link to open in new tab

[venkat]

Hi All,

I am new to Confluence and i am creating a new SPACE for my team.

I have a soft link "URL" and i am looking to open in new tab if any one click on it.

Please suggest.

Thank you in Advance.

[Paul Elia]

This is such a simple request but you are choosing to be stubborn, Atlassian. Confluence is such an outdated tool. You are lucky to have such market share, but it won't always remain this way. Multiuser simultaneous edit is not even possible, which really makes this a legacy too that I run into every now and then as a consultant, but never a tool I would champion. Best of luck in the 2020s.

[Derek Price]

Actually, simultaneous edit has been working for awhile.  At least a year or so?

[O O]

still not working.. yeah its because of my company otherwise I would use larksuite

[Mark Burgess]

Agreed! Well put Paul. 

[Mark Burgess]

Agreed. It's something that is available in most contemporary cloud applications as a simple option for new tab, new window, same context). 

[elias_fm]

Still not working in 2024...please help us out Confluence

[Matt Foreman]

Heyo, was searching for a way to a link in a new tab the hyperlink taking the user away from the Confluence site completely. Seems like something something very simple that should be included in the link settings UI.

I see this question was created in 2020. As I'm writing this, it is almost 2023. Is it now possible to do this?

[Maryam Rasti]

I have the Same problem , it is Christmas and still not solved.

[Matt Foreman]

Really wish Atlassian would do something about it. A lot of people are asking for this, it's clearly helpful and would add value for their users, and it's something that should be very easy for them to implement. Yet this thread was opened in 2020, so they seem to be ignoring it. :(

[Annelotte]

I've created this https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-75466 please vote for it if you also want to be able to set up links to open in a new tab (ticket for confluence cloud).

[Chris Kritzer]

As a workaround in CONFLUENCE, you can use the HTML macro

to embed an anchor tag with a target attribute in the following fashion:

<a href="https://www.google.com/" target="_blank">The Google</a>

I have verified this technique works, as I have a deep need for opening pages in a new tab.

[Derek Price]

For some reason, the HTML macro is missing from my Confluence Cloud installation.  I only see an HTML Comment macro when I search for "HTML".

[Monica]

There is a security vulnerability with simply tartget="_blank".

The fix is to add: 

rel="noopener noreferrer"

For further explanation read this page: How to Fix _blank Target Vulnerability | Perishable Press 

[Chris Kritzer]

Ooooo nice tip, Monica - thank you! 

[Mark Capistrant]

Adding the HTML macro is a Confluence Admin capability. It's off by default because of potential XSS vulnerabilities. 
https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/html-macro-38273085.html

[Jim]

This is still a thing? Please fix this Atlassian. This is basic UX for a linked doc. Every person on my team makes the mistake of clicking the link expecting it to open in a new tab. This is default behavior for document services like Google Drive, so it's an expected outcome.

Please fix this.

[Bronwyn Gagne]

I find it ridiculous that there isn't an editable option for links for "target="

I find it MORE ridiculous that Atlassian products (all of them - Jira included) seem to think that I want to open all links in the same window. WHY would I want to replace my JIRA ticket window with something associated with the ticket? JUST to have to return? WHY would I want to click into an external site from my Confluence documentation and LOSE my help page?

ATLASSIAN - make it make sense. Because it doesn't. Minimally let Confluence users decide which way they want a link to behave. It can't possibly be that difficult to code in.

[fanky10]

I cannot agree more on this ^

[Lars Fessler]

I am with Jim and many others on this topic. It is basic web experience. Authors should be able to click a checkbox within the Insert Link and Edit Link dialogs to tell Confluence that this link should be opened in a new tab/window. Wether it is new tab or window should depend on browser settings.

Every other CMS I know has this feature.

[Kevin Dekan]

Depending on the scenario, you can also use the macro "UI Button", which lets you decide whether to open a link in a new window. 

[Mark Sharaabi]

Nice!

[Victoria]

Hi @venkat, 

As per our documentation Links, Confluence doesn't provide an option to configure a link to open in a new window or tab. Users can choose to right click / CTRL+click the link if they want to open it in a particular way. 

A free option is to get Link Opener for Confluence plugin in Atlassian Marketplace. 

Hope this answer can help you! 

Kind Regards,
Victoria S. | Atlassian Support

[Frankie Valleras]

Hopefully Atlassian can do something about this as this is really very helpful to direct users from one page to another. It will really help us a lot.

[Gunnar Brinkmann]

I just proposed the plugin to our Confluence staff, I think it's ok to let a user decide wether or not he or she wants to open internal and/or external links in a new window.

[Juan Jose Vercellone]

Ctrl+Click does not work for this (at least in Confluence and JIRA), it seems like the shortcut was intentionally disabled because it should work by default but it doesn't.

[alexey_varavin]

I wonder why such a basic and simple functionality cannot be implemented for such a long time? Is there any particular reason for that?

Any accidental click and you are forced to reload Jira page again, which is slow because Jira app takes a lot of time to load. That's insane.

[Paula Hanna]

This seems like basic functionality especially from a documentation perspective. Is there any backlog item for this at Atlassian?

[Derek Price]

I like to make external links open in a new tab.  Letting the user decide would be great, if there was some contextual hint that a link was for an external site.

[Nick Brown]

This would be useful user-based setting, let users choose link behavior. 

[Rachel Richardson]

Interestingly enough, I believe Jira has this feature for external links (in the user profile settings) so I'm curious why Confluence doesn't. 

We were able to create a custom user macro using the script that Atlassian provides here (https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-force-links-to-open-in-a-new-window-213518072.html) that works on a page-by-page basis, which is helpful for space admins to control within the context of their spaces (instead of across all of Confluence)

While it helps, it doesn't solve the per-user use case entirely.

There's also some additional links to marketplace apps on the feature request here - https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-11194

[Shane Hadden]

Hey Atlassian, We need an option to set individual links to open in a new tab/window in Confluence Cloud please!

[Derek Price]

Again, just give us a context hint so that I know that I should right-click and select "Open in New Tab", like you see nearly everywhere else, a subtle:

[Matt Foreman]

Heyo, was searching for a way to a link in a new tab vs it taking the user away from the Confluence site completely. Seems like something something very simple that should be included in the link settings UI. Is it possible to do this?

[Mark B Wager]

I wish Atlassian used it's own tools. I think if they did, they'd fix all these problems.

Case in point, if I click Derek's image (above) it nicely opens in a popup window.  Nice!  I wish MY Confluence would allow this without having to pay $$$$ for ANOTHER marketplace app.  I'm just getting so tired of telling my users "No, sorry, Confluence can't do that anymore. I know... I know... I'm so sorry."

Maybe I'm missing the HOW. Atlassian, HOW do we do this?

Thanks,

Mark