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Browsing back only returns to top of page

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PhilAll

MIS
Jun 18, 2003
3
GB
When browsing with IE:

If I use a hyperlink which is down near the bottom of a long web page and then use the browser back button the browser returns to the same location in that page. Very convenient :).

However, doing the same thing from a PDF file (viewed in a browser) always returns to the top of the page. Very incovenient :-(.

Does anyone know how to get this to work (or a work around)?

Thanks a lot
Phil
 
I think you have to close the Reader (X on top right)- it opens automatically when opening a PDF from a webpage, so you have to close it to return to the webpage (presumably where you want to go).
 
Thanks for the reply

No I'm not browsing from a web page I'm browsing from a PDF file displaying within the browser.

I have a long PDF file (call it PDF1) which contains hyperlinks to other PDF files and web pages. If I'm (say) half way down this PDF1 file and I click on a hyperlink within the text it takes me to the new page (as it should). If, however, I then click on the back button of the browser (to get back to PDF1) PDF1 opens but only at the top of the file rather than returning to the location in the file where the hyperlink is.

This behaviour is not like linking from a web page where, if you do the same thing as above but from a web page (say WEBPAGE1), the back button returns you to the same location in WEBPAGE1.

Phil
 
You need to use Acrobat Reader's Back button, rather than your web browser's back button. You're actually viewing it using Acrobat Reader within a web browser, rather than using a web browswer, so the web browser's back button will take you back to the previous HTML page/place on an HTML page, not the previous PDF page/place on PDF page.
 
Thanks for the reply Tasha

Unfortunately that doen't work either. In the case that I mention above there is no back button in the Acrobat Reader.

The situation is this
1. I have a hyperlink on an HTML page which links to a PDF file.
2. Clicking this opens up the PDF file in the browser window. As you would expect.
3. In this PDF file are hyperlinks to other documents (both HTML and PDF). When I click one of these links the target opens up in the browser window.
4. If the target page is an HTML file the page opens in the browser window and, obviously, there is not "Acrobat" back buttton anyway. Clicking the browser back button just returns you to the TOP of the PDF file (as mentioned in previous posts).
5. If the target page is a PDF file the page opens in the browser. However the Acrobat back button is not active. The back button within Acrobat only works if the you are viewing the files only within Acrobat Reader. Not if the Acrobat "helper" is open within the Web browser.

However, this situation does not seem to be restricted to PDF files. I have discovered that this seems to be the case for Word documents opened in the browser window using a helper program. Maybe it applies to all helper programs when the file you are viewing is opened within the browser. It seems the browser is unable to communicate a "back to where you were" command to a helper program.

Unless anyone knows different...

Phil
 
Oh I see. No, you're right: the browser cannot communicate a "back to where you were" command to a helper program, only to itself. (Obivously it works differently if you're viewing the PDF externally to the web browser, but that might not be relevant to your purposes.)
 
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