Popup Windows: `open()` Parameters

Until now we've focused on the process of opening and closing the popup window. We'll now shift to the properties of the popup itself. All of the popup's properties are set in the open() command. We've used open() in every script in this tutorial.

Specifically, the properties of the popup are set in the third argument for open() which is a list of properties for the popup. Properties are set somewhat similar to the way HTML attributes are set: the name of the property followed by an equal sign followed by the value. Properties are separated by commas. Because of a widespread bug in MSIE, do not put any spaces in the list of properties. The entire list of properties goes inside quotes. So, for example, the following line of code sets width to 400, height to 200, and turns scrollbars on.

We'll begin with the width & height properties, which are always required except in full screen mode. All other properties are optional. Here's a list of popup properties.

width & height the dimensions of the popup

left & top the distance from the top and left side of the screen

toolbar if the popup should have a set of navigation buttons across the top

location if the popup should have a location bar where the URL is displayed

directories if the popup should have a row across the top with buttons to popular web sites

status if the popup should have a status bar across the bottom

menubar if the popup should have a menu

scrollbars if the popup should have scroll bars

resizable if users can resize the popup

dependent if the popup should close when its opener window closes

full screen how to open a full screen popup

channelmode MSIE's channel mode

Popup Windows: open() Parameters

Popup Windows: `open()` Parameters