JavaScript Snippets: Back Button

Creating a back button for your pages and projects requires very little plain JavaScript. The code is lightweight (more lightweight than achieving the same effect using jQuery), and easy to add anywhere on a page, in case you want to give your users the option to go back to the previous page without using the browser’s back button. All you have to do is include the simple JavaScript code inline in your HTML. Adding the code to any of your projects will take mere minutes, which isn’t bad for such a cool and useful functionality.

The Code

If you want your back button to be an actual button, you can use code similar to the snippet below:

<FORM>
<INPUT TYPE="Button" VALUE="Back" onClick="history.go(-1)">
</FORM>

Make sure the words you want to appear on the back button are the “value,” in the example above, you can see that we just used the word “Back.” This functionality can also be achieved by using a text link to trigger the back event. For that, use the code in the example below:

<a href="javascript:history.back(1)">Back</a>

Again, make sure the text you want to use for the link is placed between the opening and closing <a> tags. We just used the word “Back.”