How do I make my attachments open in a new window or a tab?

How do I make my attachments open in a new window/tab?

You need to add a TARGET = "_blank" to the <a href> HTML tag.

The A element used in HTML denotes an anchor which is a hypertext link.
The HREF attribute specifies a hypertext link to another resource, such as an HTML document or a JPEG image.
The TARGET attribute is used with frames to specify the frame in which the link should be rendered. If no frame with such a name exists, the link is rendered in a new window unless overridden by the user. Special frame names begin with
an underscore. The frame used in this document is the _blank which renders the link in a new, unnamed window.

<Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html >

For example, by using the HTML code below, clicking on the link "a new window" will open the "newwindow.html" page in a new window:

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<A href="newwindow.html" _TARGET="_blank"_>a new window</A>

Open attachments listed for a Space

To open the attachments listed from the Browse Space->Attachments tab, in a new window, the ..\confluence\src\webapp\pages\listattachmentsforspace.vm file under your <Confluence-install> directory has to be modified. Below are the listed steps:

Locate the following block of code in the listattachmentsforspace.vm file:

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foreach ($attachment in $pagedAttachments)
                    <tr #alternateRowColors() id="attachment_$attachment.id">
                        <td width="1%" nowrap valign="top"><a name="$generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.content.realTitle)-attachment-$generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.fileName)">#parse ("/pages/includes/attachment_icon.vm")</a> <a href="$req.contextPath$attachment.downloadPathWithoutVersion"     >$attachment.fileName</a></td>
                        <td width="1%" nowrap valign="top">$attachment.niceFileSize</td>
                        <td width="1%" nowrap valign="top">#usernameLink($attachment.creatorName) #if ($attachment.creatorName!=$attachment.lastModifierName) ($action.getText('last.modified.by') #usernameLink($attachment.lastModifierName)) #end</td>
                        <td width="1%" nowrap valign="top">$dateFormatter.format($attachment.lastModificationDate)</td>
                        <td>#contentLink2 ($attachment.getContent() true false)</td>
                    </tr>
                #end

In the line below:

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<td width="1%" nowrap valign="top"><a name="$generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.content.realTitle)-attachment-$generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.fileName)">
#parse ("/pages/includes/attachment_icon.vm")</a> <a href="$req.contextPath$attachment.downloadPathWithoutVersion"     >$attachment.fileName</a></td>

add the parameter TARGET = "_blank" to the <a href> HTML tag, which will cause the URL specified in the href parameter to open in a new window or a new tag depending upon the option set in the browser. So the line above will be modified to:

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<td width="1%" nowrap valign="top"><a name="$generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.content.realTitle)-attachment-$generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.fileName)">
#parse ("/pages/includes/attachment_icon.vm")</a> <a href="$req.contextPath$attachment.downloadPathWithoutVersion"      TARGET = "_blank">$attachment.fileName</a></td>

Open attachments listed for a Page

To open the page attachments listed from the Page's Attachment(s) tab, in a new window, the ..\confluence\src\webapp\pages\viewattachments.vm file under your <Confluence-install> directory has to be modified. Below are the listed steps:

Locate the following block of code in the viewattachments.vm file:

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<td nowrap valign="top"><a name="$generalUtil.htmlEncode($generalUtil.urlEncode($page.title))-attachment-$generalUtil.htmlEncode($generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.fileName))">#parse ("/pages/includes/attachment_icon.vm")</a> <a href="$generalUtil.htmlEncode("     ${req.contextPath}${attachment.downloadPathWithoutVersion}")"TARGET = "_blank">$generalUtil.htmlEncode($attachment.fileName)</a></td>

In the line below:

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<a name="$generalUtil.htmlEncode($generalUtil.urlEncode($page.title))-attachment-$generalUtil.htmlEncode($generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.fileName))">
#parse ("/pages/includes/attachment_icon.vm")</a> <a href="$generalUtil.htmlEncode("     ${req.contextPath}${attachment.downloadPathWithoutVersion}")">$generalUtil.htmlEncode($attachment.fileName)</a>

add the parameter TARGET = "_blank" to the <a> HTML tag, which will cause the URL specified in the href parameter to open in a new window or a new tag depending upon the option set in the browser. So the line above will be modified to:

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<a name="$generalUtil.htmlEncode($generalUtil.urlEncode($page.title))-attachment-$generalUtil.htmlEncode($generalUtil.urlEncode($attachment.fileName))">
#parse ("/pages/includes/attachment_icon.vm")</a> <a href="$generalUtil.htmlEncode("     ${req.contextPath}${attachment.downloadPathWithoutVersion}")" TARGET = "_blank">$generalUtil.htmlEncode($attachment.fileName)</a>