Well, not always.
Throughout the years that I've been writing these columns I have always assumed
that when anyone who might be reading them followed links that brought them off-site,
they would know that the Back button would be their best bet to return
to the column - if they wanted to do so. But, being almost solely textual, any
given Boidem page looks pretty much like any other page, and when I link from
one column to another, that can cause a bit of confusion. It's not always obvious
to the reader that he or she has been transported into a previous column. On occasions
such as this, the Back button was, once again, the right path to take to
return to the central column being read, but could I really be sure that my readers
noticed that they'd somehow ended up in a different (and, for obvious reasons,
previous) column?
A long standing Javascript solution to this sort of problem
exists, but I don't use it. I tend to think that (can I admit to this?) that it
doesn't create enough structure precisely where structure is needed. Because links
within the text of a page can lead us anywhere, it's important to know that navigational
links below that text will bring us somewhere specific, and the history.back
link only brings us to where we came from, not as a specific place, but as anywhere
that we previously were. However, though I readily admit that I don't find this
solution fitting for the Boidem, in non-Boidem settings,
I've found that making use of it is desirable (and sometimes even called for).
Go to: No
need to click for an example, or
Go to: Dr.
Hierarchy and Mr. Associative