GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 424833
evince back or previous actions are confusing
Last modified: 2011-02-16 10:12:48 UTC
The bug has been opened on https://launchpad.net/bugs/99258 "Binary package hint: evince the last two release of evince implanted a new feature Back button to jump you to last visit,1-its not clear its there 2-and when you add it beside a previous! you will see how it will come confuse. if it will come one with one button,like this # i think this simple more then actor... def back_button if jump ==true previous_page = page_before_jump else previous_page = previous_page end end ..."
I would like to fix this if it is not already being worked on. Given approval I can have this done at a day or two notice (depending on my schedule). If I hear nothing in a couple of days I will post some diffs with a fix and see what happens.
Etteyafed, can you please explain more precisely what are you going to implement, it's not quite clear actually
Yes sorry it is a bit unclear. I was thinking of adding a button to go to previous page or changing the current button's behavior so that it will act like the back button in a web browser. I would do this by declaring a list object to keep track of the last |n| pages visited (the current button does track jumps as you know) and adding a new button (or changing the current button) connected to the function that changes the page. Forgive me if I am being a bit general still but I think the picture is a bit more clear. I am just now looking at the source so I don't exactly have any code yet, but this is a very simple feature to implement and it should only take me a few minutes once I start.
I think the main problem is that this button has been named wrongly 'back'. In my opinion it should be named 'history button' or something like that. I think we shouldn't use an arrow too.
Yes there may be a naming issue. There is a button that loads ([current page - 1] I would call this a back button in the context of a doc viewer actually), and I think it would be nice to have a previous page button as well. The problem really is how to implement the previous page feature. Do I/we/you replace the 'back' button's functionality or make a new button and if a new one then how to eliminate confusion with 'back'. Maybe a drop list with arrow for 'previous' (arrow having the expected prev page functionality). Really identifier renaming in the code is not at all necessary, just the tool-tips and text. On a related note the Go>Previous Page menu item also needs to be changed. I realize that there likely are more pressing bugs in this program and am planning on getting to this bit myself soon enough.
Here is a mockup of what I proposed some time ago: http://carlosgc.linups.org/files/ev-history.png
Any news on this? The original attempts sound a bit convoluted, but I could really use two (history) back and forward buttons (as in a web browser -- thus i'd suggest choosing a left and a right arrow), in addition to the already existing next and previous (page) buttons. Right now, following a link within a pdf is tedious as I have to remember the page number of the link location if i want to return -- this holds especially for mathematical papers with lots of references to earlier derived formulas etc.
I totally agree with Bernhard, I could really use a "back in history" button when navigating in big pds with hyperlinks
The web browser model is a good one. Specifically: A button called "Back" with a left arrow icon that goes to the last visited page, a button called "Forward" with a right arrow icon that goes to the next visited page (assuming the current page was visited via the Back button), and a button called "History" with a down arrow icon (or possibly attached as a drop-down on the Back button) that shows the list of visited pages with the ability to jump to any one of them. When a new page is visited with a hyperlink, the list of visited pages is truncated so that the current page is at the end of the list, then the new page is added to the end of the list, and the current page is set to the end of the list. The Back and Forward buttons move the current page pointer along this list, and the History button displays the list from the current page backwards (the History could show the whole list too, or there could be another symmetric drop-down on the Forward button). Any news on whether this has been / will be implemented? I'd be happy to do it but would have to go through the whole process of checking out the evince source etc... (I'm at the moment just a user)
Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported into our bug tracking system, but please feel free to report any further bugs you find. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 169903 ***