Back button of Adobe PDF Reader after clicking a hyperlink whose target is on the same document

69

22

PDF documents have hyperlinks to the contents on the same document (analogous to "#section" hrefs for an HTML document). Where's the back button to go back to the page I was on (where I clicked the hyperlink).

Let's say I'm on the index of a PDF tutorial, page 4, and I click on Chapter 2's hyperlink in the index that takes me to page 38. Now, if I want to go back to page 4 again, which button or shortcut should I use?

Srikanth

Posted 2009-08-14T13:05:57.267

Reputation: 3 769

Answers

94

I have always had luck using the combination Alt and the left arrow, much the same as in IE, Firefox, or any other browser. I found this out on accident when I was in a PDF document in a browser and found it worked in the standalone program as well.

On the Mac, the equivalent in Adobe Reader is command-left arrow. In Preview (the default PDF reader on Macs), the equivalent is command-[ (open square bracket).

Joshua Nurczyk

Posted 2009-08-14T13:05:57.267

Reputation: 2 316

1not work on Acrobat reader in Chrome browser. – Chan Kim – 2015-10-22T08:27:24.183

nice, works fine in win pdf – Vitaliy Terziev – 2016-03-26T13:36:05.203

Okular has this as well. Default shortcut is alt+shift+left, but you can change it to alt+left – jat255 – 2016-06-25T14:59:59.130

Doesn't work for evince :( – levesque – 2010-07-15T20:22:36.413

In Preview, you can also add navigation buttons to the toolbar. – julien_c – 2019-07-31T15:36:27.973

1works in the windows reader 9, thanks – robi – 2013-01-01T09:03:57.783

2Works for FoxIt Reader 6.1 – Jess Riedel – 2013-11-20T08:03:03.320

27

"Back" and "Forward" buttons can also be added to the toolbar in Adobe Reader. If you right-click on the tool bar, under "more tools," "page navigation toolbar," they are referred to as "previous view" and "next view."

Or alternatively: Click on the VIEW drop down menu , then Click PAGE NAVIGATION then click PREVIOUS VIEW. A backward arrow will then appear in the toolbar at the top. Repeat for NEXT VIEW to add a forward arrow.

niells

Posted 2009-08-14T13:05:57.267

Reputation: 271

3These aren't really "back" and "forward" buttons as you would expect from a browser. If you hit pagedown 100 times, the "back" button will take you back through each one of those 100 locations. – Neil – 2011-07-02T16:47:02.690

3

In Evince you can use the Back Button functionality to achieve what you desire.

The Back Button is not visible by default, but you can make it visible by the following steps.

  • Right-Click on ToolBar
  • Selct Toolbar, from the Context Menu.
  • In the Window that appears, Drag and Drop the Back Buttton to your Toolbar.

Note:
The Back functionality is not similar to what you get in a browser. When you press Back, it gives a list of all the links you had visited in that Document and you can select from the list.

Hashken

Posted 2009-08-14T13:05:57.267

Reputation: 475

3

For Foxit users,

As stated in the other answers you can use [alt + left arrow] as a shortcut.

If you want see this on the menu

  • Open Foxit
  • Go View tab
  • You can see on top left corner of the windows, previous view-next view

osman

Posted 2009-08-14T13:05:57.267

Reputation: 375

Perfect saved me! It works on the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader Version . – GOXR3PLUS – 2018-01-17T15:15:15.827

1

Its already mentioned in adobe acrobat go to view->page navigation->previous view (hot keys alt+left arrow) go to view->page navigation->next view (hot keys alt+fwd arrow)

prashant

Posted 2009-08-14T13:05:57.267

Reputation: 11

0

Another option is to set the links to a new window, then you just have to close the file to display the previous.

To do this:

  1. Open the link Properties sheet.
  2. Click the Actions tab.
  3. Click the Edit button.
  4. Change the Target Document, Open In property to New Window.
  5. Click OK twice.

Denae

Posted 2009-08-14T13:05:57.267

Reputation: 1

0

For okular, the shortcut is Alt+ Shift + Left
This can be configured as per user liking through Settings >> Configure Shortcuts

Phcem

Posted 2009-08-14T13:05:57.267

Reputation: 1

1What is okular? – confetti – 2018-08-29T06:12:35.453

1More than a reader
This is a default PDF reader in KDE.
– Phcem – 2018-08-29T15:38:43.320