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Going back to previous spot

Town of Chevy Chase
Registered: Mar 31 2011
Posts: 3

I am desperately trying to enable to user to go back to the point of the document where they clicked that sent them to a different page. I have a 100 page pdf linked from my website and the pdf has internal links to send the user to definitions in the glossary. But as far as I can tell, I can't get the user directly back to the place they clicked the original link. I want to set it up almost how an internet browser works that when the user hits "Back" it returns them to their previous point. Any help would be amazing.
Thank you.

My Product Information:
Acrobat Standard 9.0, Windows
gkaiseril
Online
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
The users can use the "View => Go To => Previous View" or you can add a bookmark or navigation button to run a JavaScript to execute the menu item 'GoBack' or use the 'app.goBack()' method.

George Kaiser

Town of Chevy Chase
Registered: Mar 31 2011
Posts: 3
This looks great. Can you expand a bit on how to run a JavaScript or using the 'app.goBack()' meathod? How does one go about setting that up? Many, many thanks.
gkaiseril
Online
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
Some tutorials that might help:

Using Bookmarks for Navigating Documents by Ted Padova
So where does JavaScript live in Acrobat? by Thom ParkerOnce you add bookmark, right click on the bookmark and select the "Properties". Click on the "Actions" tab, and select the "Run a JavaScript" option. When the JavaScript editor opens, enter:

app.goBack();

and click "Ok".

George Kaiser

Basicbrother
Registered: Apr 1 2011
Posts: 3
I have created a basic pdf document with links to other pages -

file attachments. Main (parent) document and first link works fine. I have links from within the linked

attachment to other attachments. I can move forward and back in acrobat between all documents, but when I tested it on another computer with only reader, once the first linked attachment is opened, it will not "go back" to the original document. I just need the end reader to be able to move (with the arrows) back to the parent document. I know this has to be simple, but I cannot get it to work. Help section only talks about links to attachments and not to attachments from an attachment. Tired of looking all over the internet for solution.

Any help. Thanks.

gkaiseril
Online
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
The app.goBack() method only works within a PDF not between PDFs due to security concerns. You could try the 'execMenuItem()' for the Go to Previous Document. But this method has security restrictions and requires using the tested function.

George Kaiser

Basicbrother
Registered: Apr 1 2011
Posts: 3
Using acrobat 9.4 version. It does not have "go to previous document" in the execute menu item. In the alternative, is there a way to have file attachments that are hidden from end reader and not have the attachment tab?
Thanks.. everything so simple seems to be so difficult to do - especially for new users like me. I know what I want to do - but can't make it do it and the help is not detailed enough.
Thanks again for any and all help.

try67
Expert
Registered: Oct 30 2008
Posts: 2398
No, that's not possible.
You might want to consider something like a portfolio instead of file attachments.

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