What's the back button of Adobe PDF Reader after clicking a hyperlink whose target is on the same document?

Question

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?

score 126 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 10 '14 at 18:47

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).

score 35 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 25 '11 at 23:05

"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.

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 24 '15 at 11:30

5

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

answered Jun 24 '15 at 11:30

Omer

393

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 30 '12 at 07:24

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.

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 03 '21 at 21:02

3

Move back to previously opened topic

Windows: Alt+Left Arrow

Mac : Command+Left Arrow

Move forward to next topic

Windows: Alt+Right Arrow

Mac : Command+Right Arrow

These are all the Keyboard shortcuts that Adobe Acrobat supports.

edited Aug 03 '21 at 21:02

zx485

2,337

answered Aug 01 '21 at 16:33

shubhamgarg1

131

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 05 '20 at 14:36

2

For okular, the shortcut is Alt+ Shift+Left.
This can be configured as per user liking through

Settings >> Configure Shortcuts

edited Jun 05 '20 at 14:36

zx485

2,337

answered Aug 29 '18 at 05:54

Phcem

21

James Ashton · Answer 7 · 2022-07-07T02:48:24.533

See the other answers for keyboard shortcuts that work on desktops and laptops but these are not generally available on tablets. On iPad, none of the big-name PDF readers have a back button, including Apple, Adobe ond Foxit. Adobe's "Previous View" feature on Alt+Left is not available on its mobile versions.

PDF Reader Pro, including the free Lite Edition, has Android and iOS versions that do have a back button. It appears as a left arrow on the lower right corner of the screen immediately after a link has been followed. Touching the arrow returns to your previous view. Unfortunately it only works for one level so following two links consecutively gives you no quick way to go back to the original page.

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 26 '14 at 08:01

2

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)

answered Jul 26 '14 at 08:01

prashant

21

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered May 03 '16 at 14:38

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:

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

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 05 '20 at 14:37

0

For Foxit reader:

Mac: Option+Left
Windows: Alt+Left

edited Jun 05 '20 at 14:37

zx485

2,337

answered Jun 05 '20 at 14:13

Vijendra1125

9

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 17 '25 at 09:56

For the AutoHotkey users on Windows, here is my script for Adobe Acrobat and PDFgear. The script will bind Alt+Left to your mouse back and Alt+Right to the mouse forward button.

#HotIf WinActive("ahk_exe Acrobat.exe") or WinActive("ahk_exe pdfeditor.exe")
    XButton1::Send "!{Left}" ; Jump backward to previous link (Alt+Left)
    XButton2::Send "!{Right}" ; Jump forward again after jumping backward (Alt+Right)
#HotIf

To extend the script to your custom PDF reader, you can extend the OR-chain easily or replace my entries. Use the tool AutoHotkey Windows Spy to get the tool target name (third entry).

If your tool uses a different shortcut, or you want to bind them to different buttons or keys, take a look in the AutoHotkey Reference for Hotkeys and KeyList.

score -1 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 05 '24 at 05:47

-1

Well, currently, for previous visited page it is Alt + p. For the next page, it is Alt + n.

Source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1202218/how-to-go-back-to-last-page-viewed-in-document-viewer

answered Jan 05 '24 at 05:47

eddys

99
1

What's the back button of Adobe PDF Reader after clicking a hyperlink whose target is on the same document?

12 Answers12

For Foxit users,