PDFs Okay To Open in New Windows
I was pleased to read Jacob Nielsen's latest Alertbox article which recommends opening new windows for PDF and other non-web documents. This is something I've been a proponent of for a long time.
To summarize:
When using PC-native file formats such as PDF or spreadsheets, users feel like they're interacting with a PC application. Because users are no longer browsing a website, they shouldn't be given a browser UI.
In my opinion he is right on the money with this recommendation. Although many web designers seem to think that opening PDFs in new windows is irritating, my experience of watching users work with PDFs is that they will, more times than not, close down the browser window when they've finished reading the PDF.
It may be an annoyance to an advanced web user, but if so, there are many things you can do to avoid this. Try the PDF download Firefox extension for one.
Nielsen goes into a lot more detail about why he is going against his previous usability guidelines of not opening links in new windows. He makes an interesting point about removing the browser chrome from the new window - this is something that I hadn't thought of before, but seems to be a good idea.
Now that target="_blank" is deprecated (I understand the reasoning, but that was a pretty handy feature), the best way to open a link in a new window is to use JavaScript to cause the link to open in a new window and apply class="external" to tag these links as being external.
Posted on: August 30, 2005 | 2 Comments
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2 Comments Posted
I agree, PDFs are a pain to view on the web, and perhaps it's better to launch them in a new window. However, I would propose that people who want to put PDF-like documents on the web consider using Flashpaper. I realize the drawback is that Google indexes PDF but not SWF (maybe they should start), but for overall usability I think Flashpaper works a whole lot better.
For one, it doesn't have to launch Adobe Reader for Windows users, which for some reason is very system-intensive for what it does. Flash, on the other hand, is already working in a browser with the player installed. One might make the arguement "What about browsers without Flash plugin?" to which I would say "What about computers without Adobe Reader?"
Personally, I'd rather have a document that loads quickly, supports better font-embedding, and doesn't nearly crash your browser by launching an unnecessary Adobe product. Please note, I hold XHTML + CSS layouts in far higher regard than all-flash sites, and that this refers specifically to the displaying of printable document formats via websites. PDFs as separate downloads or email attachments, are just fine in my book.
I guess I came across kinda strong, but PDFs have long been a pet-peeve of mine. :)
1. Posted by Nathan Smith on September 01, 2005
Nathan, that's an interesting point and I have to admit that I haven't really looked at Flashpaper other than giving it a cursory once-over when it came out.
If it was easy to use and fairly cheap to buy, I could definitely be interested in it, although I would have a problem with it if search engines couldn't index documents presented using it.
I hate PDFs too; however, if I got my team to turn every PDF we had to put online into a web page, we would be doing nothing else. Sometimes you have to make compromises.
2. Posted by Christian Watson on September 02, 2005