PDF Viewer Internal Hyperlink Forward/Back buttons

Iron Contributor

Hi

 

I read a lot science papers as PDFs in Edge. They are full of hyperlinks referring either to other parts of the paper, or to external resources. It is now possible to open an external link in a new tab (which was not possible in the old Edge), so that's great.

 

However, beyond that, there is no ability go back from a followed internal hyperlink. E.g. I click on a link to a reference in the middle of a long paper, I get taken to the bibliography at the end of the same document, I now want to go back to where I was and I have to scroll back to find my place.  Old Edge also didn't have this feature.

 

Adobe's PDF Reader has separate back/forward buttons in addition to next/previous page buttons which allow one to follow the internal hyperlink history within the document. Something like this would be a great addition to the PDF reader. Maybe it would be enough to overload the browsers back/forward buttons here?

10 Replies

@wigster 

 

I can certainly see how that could be useful.  Keeping you from having to remember as much about where you in a document while still keeping the information content in mind.  I can pass this along to the product team.

 

Gabriel

really really hope to have this feature!
AFAIK, there is no web based pdf viewer that has this.

Is there any update about this issue after 2 years? MS have added several competitive features to edge, when I'm about jumping on this boat but there is no paddle available /facepalm.

 

hope to have this feature!

On a Mac, CMD+[ does the trick!@wigster 

For reading scientific papers, PDF navigation is absolutely 100% necessary due to the critical role of (cross-)referencing.
I like the integration with AI tools in Edge, but the lack PDF reading navigation is a complete show-stopper for me for using Edge as my main browser. Maybe if more users make noise about this, the feature will finally get implemented.
But until this feature is implemented, I will stick to Firefox, which actually does supports internal hyperlink forward/back button navigation.

At the end of 2023, the feature is not available. Still waiting for it, it is really helpful for cross-referencing.

I think it is a piece of cake for microsoft development team. But if you want to know more in details, Firefox built-in PDF viewer has this feature and people simply use (Alt+LeftArrow) for backwarding and (Alt+Rightarrow) for forwarding. But if we use those key combinations in Microsft Edge built-in PDF viewer, it goes back/forward to the page. 

Microsoft is sooo out of touch with the most obvious features in their "new" product offerings. Always amazing to watch what comes out of Redmond.
I'm a new user of Windows. I couldn't find a PDF viewer for Windows that allows navigation to previous hyperlink, e.g., Command+[ in MacOS Previews. I'm so frustrated.
Today I noticed that as a MSFT employee, Azure Information Protection Viewer is installed in my work laptop. AIPV supports such internal hyperlink back/forward - Alt + Back/Forward. As a bonus, AIPV can view certain tented (protected by MSFT) PDFs while other softwares cannot.