Ajar Productions

You may have noticed that sometimes you can use a browser's back button to return to a previously viewed page and sometimes you can't. How a document is exported affects whether or not the browser's back button can be used or if you need an alternative to get back to a previously viewed page in your document.

Using the Browser's Back Button

When you export your InDesign layout as HTML5 with in5 (either by going to in5 > Export HTML5 with in5... or to in5 > Easy Export Wizard... and clicking the Advanced button), in the Basic section of the Export HTML5 with in5 dialog are some different Output options. 

When Output is set to Multi-page Web, then in5 exports a separate HTML file for each page of your document. Each page becomes a numbered HTML file* (e.g. 0001.html or 0002.html). Because each page is a separate file, using the Browser's back button will return to the previously viewed page.

• How to Export One HTML File Per Page

Making a Go To Previous View Button

Not all in5 page formats support Multi-page Web, including Flipbooks and the scrolling page formats. These types of page formats require all of the pages to be in a single HTML file (index.html) in order to display the required number of pages from the document at the same time and perform the desired transition between pages as anticipated. 

Web is the Output setting that creates a single HTML file that contains all of a document's pages.

Other in5 page formats can also have their Output set to Web to contain all of a document's pages within a single HTML file.

When a multi-page document is exported as a single HTML file and a user advances through the pages, clicking the browser's back button will not return the user to the previously viewed page. Instead, the browser loads whatever web content was previously viewed and cached.

In order to go back to a previously viewed page of an in5-exported document in which the Output was set to Web, you can create a button and add the Go To Previous View action (Window > Interactive > Buttons and Forms). Go To Previous View navigates to the last page viewed in your document.

If you'd like to learn more about creating buttons, please see:

• Adding Interactivity with Buttons

*We recommend that you do not rename numbered HTML files from Multi-page Web output, otherwise the links to assets (including images, CSS, and JavaScript) that make your page appear and function as you've designed can be broken.