How to make discussion board open in new tab

[gibsonjb]

Is there a setting to get discussion boards to open in a new tab? I understand this is now the default for external links etc., but I can't find a way to force this for native (internal) Canvas links such as the discussion board.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@gibsonjb ...

I'm not sure if this is possible without messing with the HTML of the page.  Also, could you maybe give some background on why you would want discussion topics to open in a new tab?  Why not keep students in the same tab all the time?  The quickest way that you could do this now would be to right-click on discussion in your "Modules" or "Discussions" index pages, and then select "Open link in new tab" (this is what it is for me in the Edge browser...and it would be similar in Firefox and Chrome).  If your students needed to reference something on one tab while having the discussion topic open in another tab, I could see why this might be useful.  Do you think right-clicking would work for your needs?  Keep us posted here in the Community.  Thanks!

[gibsonjb]

Many thanks. My reason is that my students will need to be navigating constantly between three tabs worth of content, all from different links within a given Canvas module. The two external links open new tabs, but students will be keeping a journal within the discussion board (based on their interactions with the external sites), and if their sole Canvas tab is on the discussion board, they won't have access to the module/links they need. I realize that students could simply open up multiple Canvas tabs themselves, but having the discussion board open in a new tab by default would reduce confusion and errors (especially with a large class). Thanks again!