safari to open external links in new window

I like safari to open links in new tabs in general. I.e. when I do a search, I want results I click to open in new tabs in the same window. This allows to have multiple windows with multiple tabs and have them grouped by topic.

when I click on a link i an email, safari (on OS X) somehow (randomly?) chooses an open window and opens the link as a new tab in it. sometime it picks even a minimised window, although there are others visible on the same space.

to be clear: I want the new window when the action is triggered from external application (e.g. Mail, etc.). Within Safari I'd like to stick with the default behaviour.

I tried the Safari Settings -> Tabs -> Open new pages in tabs instead of windows setting (all of them), but this does not give the expected result. it is general for all. Also google did not know a satisfying answer, so I am asking here.

Any help is appreciated.

I've experienced the same thing, new windows instead of tabs opening when control clicking, and it has seemed totally random to me, too.

The Safari Extension 'Link Thing' (maybe 'LinkThing' -?) will, by default, open all links in a new tab without your having to hit control unless the page (e.g. DuckDuckGo) disables and overrides the user's browser preferences.

The following OSA script opens the URL given as parameter in a new window.

function Safari {
    # Will open a New Safari window with argument 1.
    osascript <<EOD
    tell application "Safari" to make new document with properties {URL:"$1"}
    return
EOD
}

Put the code into the file .profile in your home directory and run it with . ~/.profile.

I’ve found this solution in another thread here on Stack Exchange.