"Back" buttons

You know, on phones, browsers, tablets and such. They always point to the left, because that’s backwards in the Western world. But surely Arabs must be annoyed with that? If you install IE in Arabic are the back and forward buttons the other way round? Logically they ought to be.

They could turn the phone upside down.

Do iPhones have them yet?

You’ve blown my mind…is the ‘play’ button the other way around on arabic devices too?

Did all their cassette recorders run backwards too?

Can I just add that as a left hander I’m huffing and puffing and getting all offended about this too.

Can I just add that as a left hander I’m huffing and puffing and getting all offended about this too.

No you can’t, you weirdo.

Would Arabic pages run right > left also, or just the script?

I’ve wondered this before now but about Japanese. Their books have spines on the right hand edge (or at least, the Manga books in Waterstones all do). Arabic hadn’t occurred to me.

Why don’t iPads and phones have a back button? Some pages you get stuck on and you have to go back to the home page and start all over again. Stupid.

Not sure if this is a piss take or not but …

https://www.quora.com/Are-the-back-and-forward-buttons-switched-in-web-browsers-for-languages-that-read-right-to-left

Can somebody who hasn’t got 2 million tabs open try it out?

Would Arabic pages run right > left also, or just the script?

we’ve just been asked if we can do an RTL version of our app. – it appears that it may need to be for ‘proper’ RTL but that people are used to reading the text RTL whilst retaining a LTR page format.

But surely Arabs must be annoyed with that?

Its hard to imagine arabs getting annoyed about anything.

Do iPhones have them yet?

Sort of – when you are led from one app to another (e.g. following a link in Facebook to Safari or Messenger) then you automatically get a little link in the top left of the screen that says “<- Back to {Original App}”

You can also swipe right to left and left to right on many apps to go forward or backwards i.e. safari.

Why don’t iPads and phones have a back button?

erm, they do. See screen shot above. It’s the blue chevron bottom left. You can also use one finger to swipe left to right onto the screen and that takes you back to the previous page.

Why don’t iPads and phones have a back button? Some pages you get stuck on and you have to go back to the home page and start all over again. Stupid.

You don’t need to go back to the Home page. You can just use the App Switcher (double-tap Home button – previous app is automatically selected).

On the iPad you can also just use a four finger swipe to flick between apps (plus of course on newer iPads you have Slide-Over and Split View to use multiple apps at the same time).

Rubber_Buccaneer – Member

You’ve blown my mind…is the ‘play’ button the other way around on arabic devices too?

Sister lives in Bahrain and she has an Arabic keyboard on her LT, left is back on hers, but I suspect she set it up as UK English…

actually more like US English, she speaks pure Cali Teen English these days…. bloody kids.

Why don’t iPads and phones have a back button?

They do.

Drac: they are both back buttons.

The one at the bottom is “Back a page” and only appears in Safari (or apps copying the Safari style), the one at the top is “Back to previous app” and is put there by the OS.

I know.

I just got stuck on Facebook with no way out. Tried double home button and it worked.
I’d still like a back button though.

Never mind iOS back buttons, where’s the STW back button, I’m all the way down here at the bottom of the page & I want to go back to overview but it’s miles away up the top.

I can skip to top & hit the button or I can just swipe back. Neither are satisfactory!.

Back buttons you say? How quaint.
Don’t need them thanks, I just swipe… 🙂

Why don’t iPads and phones have a back button?

They do. But if you’re using them you’re doing it wrong. See above. 🙂

Would Arabic pages run right > left also, or just the script?
I’ve wondered this before now but about Japanese. Their books have spines on the right hand edge (or at least, the Manga books in Waterstones all do). Arabic hadn’t occurred to me.

Hebrew books are spine-to-the-right, with pages running right to left. I would guess that Arabic is exactly the same.

Never mind iOS back buttons, where’s the STW back button, I’m all the way down here at the bottom of the page & I want to go back to overview but it’s miles away up the top.

I can skip to top & hit the button or I can just swipe back. Neither are satisfactory!.
If you’re in iOS then all you do is tap the time at the top, which brings up the list of open pages, then tap it again which will take you straight to the top of the page.
Simples.

If you’re in iOS then all you do is tap the time at the top, which brings up the list of open pages, then tap it again which will take you straight to the top of the page.
Simples.

Simples? Just tap something completely unrelated to what you want to do, spin round 3 times then say Beetlejooce and it opens the home page. What’s wrong with sensible navigation that works for everyone?

Apple, innit?

The disciples love it because it marks them out from the herd, the little tricks, the secret ways to do things; it makes them feel special. That’s why they put up with iTunes.

If you’re in iOS then all you do is tap the time at the top, which brings up the list of open pages, then tap it again which will take you straight to the top of the page.
Simples.
Simples? Just tap something completely unrelated to what you want to do, spin round 3 times then say Beetlejooce and it opens the home page. What’s wrong with sensible navigation that works for everyone?

But you DON”T NEED to do ANY of that to go back (Or forwards) a page. Just swipe. It’s ridiculously simple to grasp. I don’t think I ever use the back buttons on my iPhone, iPad or iMac. I find at work on a windows PC it seems very slow and clumpy to have to move a pointer and click a button. Sorry…….

I find at work on a windows PC it seems very slow and clumpy to have to move a pointer and click a button. Sorry…….

Why not just use alt+left arrow? Or if it’s a touch sensitive screen tap the back button?

That’s why they put up with iTunes.

Can’t remember the last time I used iTunes. I only ever fire it up when I want to take a backup of the phone (because I don’t fully trust cloud backups).

Simples? Just tap something completely unrelated to what you want to do

Tapping at the top of the page makes it jump-scroll to the top of the page. Seems pretty intuitive to me.

(No idea why Count gets a list of open pages when he does that?)

I’ve got an iPhone and an android tablet and I never use the back button on the tablet. Swiping for the win.

Or just press backspace…?

(No idea why Count gets a list of open pages when he does that?)

Because when I’m scrolling down the page, or putting a comment into the reply box, the list of open tabs along the top disappears, but when you tap the clock at that point it causes the tab headers to reappear, then you tap a second time to go back to the top of the page.
I’m amazed at the number of people who seemed to completely miss the point of what I posted, and the original question that I was replying to, by going on about a lack, or not of a back button.
It helps to read the sodding question being asked, and the reply to it, before going off half-cocked!

Syrian colleague of mine has a dual-boot setup for english and arabic but I’m pretty sure in the arabic versions the forward/back are the same, the left/right progression of icons definitely is… Then again he’s also using standard english versions so it’d probably be mind-breakingly awful to have them different even if he wanted it

(incidentally, watching people type in arabic is really cool, the letters change shape as you type)