Sometimes people are confused about the "return false" in an onClick handler. Essentially, the browser is asking your event handler code a true/false question: should I do what I normally do when this event occurs? For a hyperlink, the normal thing to do is to go to the given HREF location, so by returning false, you're saying "no, don't go there."

Here are some examples. The link describes how the code behaves, but feel free to "view source" to see the code.

this link does the normal thing (goes to Wellesley's home page) because the onClick handler returns true

this link doesn't go to Wellesley's home page because the onClick handler returns false, which cancels the click

this link goes to # (this same page) because the onClick handler returns true; you can see the change in your page history and location box

this link would go to # but the onClick handler returns false

this link goes to # (this same page) and the onClick handler returns true

this link goes to # (this same page) and the onClick handler returns false

this link opens the Wellesley home page in a new window, but doesn't return false.

this link also opens the Wellesley home page in a new window, but returns false, with the result that this page doesn't scroll or add an entry to the history.