Hyperlinks within Forms - Force Link to Open in Separate Tab

Steve G · 01/05/23

Hi Smartsheet Community!

I'm wondering if there's a way to force hyperlinks within Forms to open in a separate browser tab, rather than the link opening within the same tab as the Form. I suspect how the link opens may be dependent on browser settings, but I'm curious whether there's a way to force the link to open in a new browser tab.

I'd love to know if there's a way that I can tweak the hyperlink behavior. Thanks for any help or insight you may have! 😀

sharkasits · 01/06/23

If you add &target=_blank or ?&target=_blank (if there isn't already a ? in the URL) to the end of the link it will force it to open a new tab.

Example: To open this page you would use

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/99302/hyperlinks-within-forms-force-link-to-open-in-separate-tab#latest?&target=_blank

JessicaDraper · 05/12/23

Hi all,

I think there may have been a Smartsheet update -- same thing happened to me where I had ?&target=_blank appended to URLs within help text to force open new tabs and recently they started to open in the same page again (a very frustrating issue for our users). After messing around a bit, I discovered that simply making any change to the help text where the link is (e.g. as basic as adding and deleting a space) and saving, new tabs started working again, and even works now without the ?&target=_blank in the URL. This works by default on new questions with help text links. After "editing" all my preexisting help text that include links, new tabs are now all working well again. Hopefully this is helpful!

Genevieve P. · 02/09/24

Hi all,

Hopping in here to let you know there's been an update to the way hyperlinks work in forms!

It won't happen automatically for your current links, you'll need to update them. Here's more information:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/117213/new-form-hyperlinks-now-open-in-a-new-browser-tab

Cheers,

Genevieve

sharkasits · 01/06/23

If you add &target=_blank or ?&target=_blank (if there isn't already a ? in the URL) to the end of the link it will force it to open a new tab.

Example: To open this page you would use

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/99302/hyperlinks-within-forms-force-link-to-open-in-separate-tab#latest?&target=_blank

Steve G · 01/06/23

@sharkasits - That worked! Thank you so much!

pgeorguson · 03/29/23

@Steve G @sharkasits has this solution continued to work for you? It appeared to work for me, but when I shared the form the hyperlinks opened in the same tab for the end user. And now they are doing it for me as well. It seemed to work then reverted? Frustrating for sure...

sharkasits · 03/30/23

@pgeorguson It's still working for me. That's a browser supported attribute that I believe all major browsers use. Are you using something other than a major browser?

Kyle Chipman · 05/03/23

For the folks in this thread, an enhancement request was created to establish this functionality by default - feel free to upvote via the link below:

"Send user to link" in form submission to open in a new tab/window — Smartsheet Community

Melinda Roy · 05/09/23

Hi all - there's a similar thread going here: https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/374030

When I reached out to Smartsheet about this back in November, they indicated the default behavior is for the link to open in a new tab/window. Something is causing the "target=_blank" blank to drop off the HTML in the links. This is happening with most, but not all of the forms I've created. Also, like others have said, the links initially open in a new tab, but 1-2 days later they start opening in the same window as the form regardless of how you create the link. I've tested this in Edge and Chrome and get the same results. My co-worker can also reproduce the same behaviors in both browsers. I reached out to my Firm's IT team to see if there was a system-wide browser setting that's overriding the HTML. They think it's a bug with Smartsheet. I find it odd that on some of my forms, the links still open in a new tab, so I don't think it's a browser setting.

JessicaDraper · 05/12/23

Hi all,

I think there may have been a Smartsheet update -- same thing happened to me where I had ?&target=_blank appended to URLs within help text to force open new tabs and recently they started to open in the same page again (a very frustrating issue for our users). After messing around a bit, I discovered that simply making any change to the help text where the link is (e.g. as basic as adding and deleting a space) and saving, new tabs started working again, and even works now without the ?&target=_blank in the URL. This works by default on new questions with help text links. After "editing" all my preexisting help text that include links, new tabs are now all working well again. Hopefully this is helpful!

Steve G · 05/12/23

Thanks so much for the tip, @JessicaDraper ! I just tested out your suggestion and it worked! 😀

Nick Burrus · 11/13/23

Thank you for the tip!

This should really be an option in the form by default.

Genevieve P. · 02/09/24

Hi all,

Hopping in here to let you know there's been an update to the way hyperlinks work in forms!

It won't happen automatically for your current links, you'll need to update them. Here's more information:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/117213/new-form-hyperlinks-now-open-in-a-new-browser-tab

Cheers,

Genevieve

Hyperlinks within Forms - Force Link to Open in Separate Tab

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