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Papers can include clickable-link formatting with in-text citations. It's convenient to click a link to check the citation, however, it's disruptive to have to manually scroll back up to continue reading.

Is there an easier way to resume reading after checking a citation? Alternatively, is there a less disruptive method for checking a citation?

Nat
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Hang
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about how to use a PDF viewer, not specific to academia. – Nate Eldredge Jan 08 '18 at 20:53
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    Many PDF viewers provide a "back" feature. If you want to know how to do this with the software you are using, ask on a forum dedicated to that software (or maybe superuser.com). If yours doesn't support it and you want to find one that does, there is Software Recommendations SE. In either case you should carefully read the site's help and posting guidelines first. – Nate Eldredge Jan 08 '18 at 20:55
  • Can you right-click and open in another tab? – Acccumulation Jan 08 '18 at 23:24
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    You can open same PDF in different tabs/windows. In one tab, you keep location pointer to the References section. In another tab, you keep location pointer at whichever page you are currently reading. – user13107 Jan 09 '18 at 02:49
  • With Acrobat, you can split the screen. I'll often keep the references section in the bottom part of the screen. – Theodore Norvell Jan 09 '18 at 04:47
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    @NateEldredge Name one academic though that doesn't benefit from knowing this – sgf Jan 09 '18 at 08:48
  • If you are reading the PDF in a browser, simply open the link in a new tab? – Polygnome Jan 09 '18 at 09:51
  • @sgf Academics also benefit from knowing how to fill out their taxes, so perhaps taxes-related questions should be allowed on academia.SE? –  Jan 09 '18 at 10:33
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    @NajibIdrissi If they're answerable, practical, reasonably scoped, and pertain to an issue consistently and almost exclusively encountered by academics (because who else clicks bibliographic links anyways), why not? – sgf Jan 09 '18 at 11:22
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    @sgf Uh... Do you sincerely believe that academics are the only people who click links in PDF?! On what planet are you living? –  Jan 09 '18 at 11:26
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    @NajibIdrissi Often enough that it is a problem, and not links to a chapter header from which it is trivial to jump back? – sgf Jan 09 '18 at 11:33
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    @NateEldredge If this question is going to be considered off-topic here, can we migrate it to a SE where it isn't? This tip is so useful, and as far as I can tell, hard to find, that it would be a shame to delete it entirely. – sgf Jan 09 '18 at 12:06
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    I agree with @NateEldredge that this is boat programming. – Stephan Kolassa Jan 09 '18 at 12:31
  • @StephanKolassa Do all programmers buy boats? Do all academics check bibliography in pdfs? – sgf Jan 09 '18 at 13:30
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    @sgf: the question is essentially how to navigate in PDF readers. Tacking "for academics" at the end doesn't change that. This is completely analogous to how taking "what is the best boat?" does not become a programming-related question by tacking "for programmers" at the end. – Stephan Kolassa Jan 09 '18 at 13:42
  • @StephanKolassa How should I deal with discouragement as a graduate student Worked for the best question on this site. Why? Because graduate students tend to get discouraged, even though getting discouraged is not a specifically academic activity. But your analogy fails anyways: This question is not "What is the best way to navigate PDF readers for academics", it's "How do you do this specific thing on PDF readers that academics need to do a lot." Programers don't need to boat. – sgf Jan 09 '18 at 13:49
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    @sgf Programmers also need to buy comfortable chairs, do you think that "What's the best chair around these days?" would be a good question for SO? But wait, I spend most of my days sitting down too, so maybe I can ask what's the best chair for academics, perhaps? One with integrated arXiv support! // IMO, superuser.com is the site for this question. –  Jan 09 '18 at 16:03
  • @NajibIdrissi "What's the best chair around" is a highly subjective answer. On the topic of boat-programming questions on academia, there is a meta-question with only one answer: Just because an issue is also an issue outside of academia doesn't make it off-topic here. – sgf Jan 09 '18 at 20:41

3 Answers3

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If you're using Adobe Acrobat Reader (which I suspect you are), you can press alt + left to jump back to where you were before clicking the link. I find it amazingly useful.

sgf
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    Thank you! Do you know how to do similar thing for Google chrome? – Hang Jan 08 '18 at 21:12
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    @Hang yes - literally alt+left to go back to the previous page. 90% of the time Chrome will go back to where you were on the previous page. It sometimes doesn't work with bad SPAs. – Anemoia Jan 09 '18 at 01:56
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    @1006a three button is left, right, and scroll. Are you talking about 5-button, which has the forward and back buttons by the thumb? –  Jan 09 '18 at 06:51
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    @AytAyt Yes, sorry, I guess I don't know what order they add buttons—I always just get the one with the most buttons. – 1006a Jan 09 '18 at 08:07
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    If you have a 5 button mouse, you can use the thumb buttons to move back and forth. (I purchase my own mouse for work, just to have this feature.) – 1006a Jan 09 '18 at 08:08
  • Thanks for the tip! it works in Sumatra as well :) – Especially Lime Jan 09 '18 at 11:53
  • @Snake: What's a SPA? – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 09 '18 at 17:20
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit single page applications. Applications that load content after a page load. – Anemoia Jan 09 '18 at 17:25
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If using Preview on MacOS, you can use Command + [ to go back.

CephBirk
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In a web browser, you can right-click and select "Open link in new tab" or whatever the specific option is for your browser. Then you can click through the tabs rather than scroll through the article.

NeutronStar
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