ldebrouwer

LDB External Links turns all your links with target=”_blank” into rel=”external” and uses Javascript to open them in a new window or tab.

LDB External Links

LDB External Links turns all your links with target="_blank" into rel="external" and uses Javascript to open them in a new window  …

jstar198

You know how <code>target="_blank"</code> is invalid in XHTML strict? Well, this plugin uses a Javascript hack to get around this. The code was originally taken from this thread I came across: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/11165.htm
For posts/pages, the plugin will automatically captures any <code>target="_blank"</code>‘s inserted by the WP editor and modifies them to keep the page XHTML Strict valid. Then some small Javascript is inserted into each page which re-inserts <code>target="_blank"</code> so that the functionality is restored after your page has been validated!
For non-post/page content (eg templates/widgets), simply give your outbound links a class name of <code>external</code>, and the rest will be done automatically while keeping your page XHTML valid.
<h3>To Do</h3>
Future things I plan to add:
<ul>
<li>Integration into WP edit page to allow use of plugin without manually editing HTML.</li>
</ul>

External Linker

Allows you to get around using target="_blank" by converting all your outbound links using Javascript.

LDB External Links vs External Linker