PLEASE add a back-to-previous-view(s) button

Report · Apr 23, 2014

To Adobe:

Digital Editions has many favorable features but lacks a very important feature for non-fiction books: a back-to-previous-view(s) button. If a book has internal hyperlinks, say between sections, many/most ebook readers allow links to the linked-TO page but no way to easlily get back to the linked-FROM page.

For me, an author, implementing a second, reverse-direction link to go back to a page where the reader pressed the original link is either a pain or impossible, especially if the linked-to location is linked-to from multiple locations. (In such cases, how can a go-back link at the linked-TO page know which linked-FROM page to return to?) That's the case with my ebook, which is loaded with cross-references. I'm tearing my hair out (and don't have much left on my partially-bald head) trying to find a workaround, to no avail. A back-to-previous-view(s) button eliminates that problem completely.

For some reason, a high percentage of ebook readers seem to lack this kind of 'back' button. Why?

Unaware of the need? Are most e-reader developers thinking only 'novel' and 'straight narrative', with no internal links (except TOC), when they design an e-reader? Kindle got it; they've had hardware and software 'back buttons' for years. You guys got it for your Adobe Reader yet strangely neglected it in Adobe Digital Editions. Many other e-readers have the same issue.

Hard to implement? From my minimal programming background, it's hard to understand why a sophisticated programmer can't easily write a routine(s) to 1) know the reader's location in the book at any one time, 2) place that location in temporary memory and establish a pointer to it, 3) know when a reader goes to another location and memorize the second location, and 4) go back to the memorized previous location in response to a soft-key press. Surely Adobe has an abundance of sophisticated programmers.

Please put a back-to-previous-view(s) button in Digital Editions. (If you do, I'll list Digital Editions as one of the preferred apps to view my book.)

Thanks for your consideration.

Report · Jun 11, 2025

Yes, this is a very much needed feature! I created an account today to request this feature after clicking a link in a book that sent me 200 pages away, with no way to get back to the original page. This seems like a big design oversight. Adding back/forward buttons would make the software pleasant to use, instead of annoying to use.