Opening a new tab to read a PDF file

Question

I am probably missing something simple here, however i will ask anyway. I have made a link to open up a PDF file, however it opens up in the current tab rather than a new one. W

Answer 1

As everyone else has pointed out, this can work:

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But what nobody has pointed out is that it's not guaranteed to work.

There is no way to force a user's browser to open a PDF file in a new tab. Depending on the user's browser settings, even with target="_blank" the browser may react the following ways:

1. Ask for action
2. Open it in Adobe Acrobat
3. Simply download the file directly to their computer

Take a look at Firefox's settings, for example:

Chrome has a similar setting:

If the user has chosen to "Save File" in their browsers settings when encountering a PDF, there is no way you can override it.