Link Options in NRCE should not modify link to create new browser tab for local links

[JimC]

When the Link Options popup balloon in NRCE is used to edit a link to a local Canvas page or resource, the edited link will now include an option to use a new browser tab when clicking the edited link. This action might be OK for links external to Canvas, but it can quickly fill up the browser with tabs if these modified links are used for navigation among local pages. It would be much better to have a checkbox option to open in a new browser tab or not (like the current ability to suppress the preview option when clicking on a link to a PDF file).

There are two ways to avoid having a new browser tab opened: (1) make any edits to the link text directly in the editor pane, or (2) switch to the HTML view and delete the two property-value pairs in the link that cause this behavior.

I am a university engineering professor, and I often try to insert links directly to other pages in a course site, for example to navigate through videos in lectures in a week, so that the student doesn't have to go back through the Module to other pages within the module or to pages in another module. I do not allow direct student access to pages or files for security purposes.

[Stef_retired]

@JimC 

Thanks for sharing this idea. When creating a new link to an internal resource using the New RCE, I was not able to replicate this behavior in my testing. Here are the steps I took:

• Launched a page, entered Edit mode
• Clicked on the Link icon in the ribbon
• Selected Course Links
• Selected from the menu to insert a link (to a page, or to an assignment, i.e. an internal link)
• Clicked Save

When I clicked on the link to the page/assignment, it opened in the same browser tab, which sounds like the behavior you're hoping to see.

Could you help clarify the idea by providing details of the workflow? We'll keep this idea in Moderating status in the meantime.

Thanks!