# Xhtml External links

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/xhtml-external-links/240996>\
**Category:** web dev\
**Created:** [October 9, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/xhtml-external-links/240996 "2007-10-09T09:44:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![prc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@prc](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/prc)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/xhtml-external-links/240996/1 "2007-10-09T09:44:18Z")

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My situation is external links in a custom forum im developing.  
Im wanting them to open in a new window and preferably wanting a strict compliant site thus I cannot use the target attribute.

I having to decide on what to use:

[FONT=Courier New]… rel=“external”\>[COLOR=Blue]External Link (rel=“whatever” with javascript to add in target="\_blank")[/COLOR]\</a\>  
… rel=“nofollow”\>[COLOR=Blue](rel=“nofollow” opens in new window anyway?)[/COLOR]\</a\>  
… target="\_blank"\>[COLOR=Blue](target, new window - cant be used in strict)[/COLOR]\</a\>  
… \>[COLOR=Blue](Just use Normal Link?)[/COLOR]\</a\>[/FONT]

What do you feel would be satisfactory for a forum?  
Does “nofollow” open a new page on all browsers - should it be used?

Any advice would be helpful!

Cheers.