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