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Jump Back and Forth in a PDF in Adobe Reader

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Have you ever clicked a link to another page in a PDF, only to have to scroll for forever to find the page you started at when you were done? If you’re using Adobe Reader, there’s no back or forward button in the toolbar, so without digging there’s no way to just go back. You could click View > Go To > Previous View, but that’s way too much trouble.

Adobe Reader's View, Go To menu with Previous View (Alt+Left Arrow) highlighted

You might notice that the Go To menu shows you keyboard shortcuts for going back and forward: Alt+Left Arrow or Alt+Right Arrow, respectively. Or, you can just add the Previous and Next buttons to the toolbar. To do this, right-click the toolbar and select More Tools.

Adobe Reader toolbar right-click menu with More Tools highlighted

Scroll down to Page Navigation Toolbar, and check the Previous and Next button’s boxes to select them.

Adobe Reader's More Tools dialog with Page Navigation Toolbar's Previous View option being checked

When you’ve made your selections, click Ok to close the dialog. Now you’ll see new Back and Forward buttons in your toolbar.

Adobe Reader toolbar with new Back button highlighted, showing a tooltip to return to the previous page view

So let’s see how this works. Here I’m looking at the index for Digging into WordPress, and I clicked a link to jump to that page in the PDF.

Table of contents page from Digging into WordPress with the cursor over a link

Nice. Now I’ve seen what I needed, and want to go back to the Table of Contents. A click Back click, and I’m back where I started.

Adobe Reader toolbar with the Previous View back button highlighted after jumping to another page

Once again, this isn’t an amazing, breakthrough feature, but it is a small thing that can make Adobe Reader a little nicer. As I find myself spending more time using my netbook as an eBook reader, these are the kinds of things that can make study, research, and more easier and simpler.

Do you have any Adobe Reader tips that are often overlooked? Feel free to let us know in the comments!