Quickstart (require 'back-button) (back-button-mode 1) press the plus sign in the toolbar to create a mark press the arrows in the toolbar to navigate marks or use C-x C-Space as usual, then try C-x C- to reverse the operation Explanation Back-button provides an alternative method for navigation by analogy with the "back" button in a web browser. Every Emacs command which pushes the mark leaves behind an invisible record of the location of the point at that moment. Back-button moves the point back and forth over all the positions where some command pushed the mark. This is essentially a replacement for `pop-global-mark', and the default keybindings (when the minor mode is activated) override that command. The differences with `pop-global-mark' are: - Visual index showing how far you have traveled in the mark ring. - Easy way to move both forward and backward in the ring. - Pushes a mark on the first of a series of invocations, so you can always return to where you issued the command. - Skips duplicate positions, so that the interactive command always moves the point if possible. Commands and keybindings are also included to give identical semantics for navigating the local (per-buffer) `mark-ring'. This consistency in navigation comes at the cost of pushing the mark twice, so experienced Emacs users may prefer to unbind these commands and/or set `back-button-never-push-mark' in customize. To use back-button, place the back-button.el library somewhere Emacs can find it, and add the following to your ~/.emacs file: (require 'back-button) (back-button-mode 1) Default key bindings: C-x C- go back in `global-mark-ring', respects prefix arg C-x C- go back in `global-mark-ring' C-x C- go forward in `global-mark-ring' C-x go back in (buffer-local) `mark-ring', respects prefix arg C-x go back in (buffer-local) `mark-ring' C-x go forward in (buffer-local) `mark-ring' When the smartrep package is installed, the C-x prefix need not be used for consecutive back-button commands. When the visible-mark package is installed, marks will be made visible in the current buffer during navigation. See Also M-x customize-group RET back-button RET M-x customize-group RET editing-basics RET M-x customize-group RET visible-mark RET M-x customize-group RET nav-flash RET Notes This library depends upon other commands pushing the mark to provide useful waypoints for navigation. This is a common convention, but not universal. The function `back-button-push-mark-local-and-global' may be useful to call from Lisp. It is a replacement for `push-mark' which unconditionally pushes onto the global mark ring, functionality which is not possible using vanilla `push-mark'. Theoretically, `back-button-push-mark-local-and-global' could cause issues with Lisp code which depends on the convention that `global-mark-ring' not contain consecutive marks in the same buffer. However, no such issues have been observed. Compatibility and Requirements GNU Emacs version 24.4-devel : yes, at the time of writing GNU Emacs version 24.3 : yes GNU Emacs version 23.3 : yes GNU Emacs version 22.2 : yes, with some limitations GNU Emacs version 21.x and lower : unknown Uses if present: smartrep.el, nav-flash.el, visible-mark.el Bugs Pressing the toolbar back-button can navigate to a different buffer with a different toolbar (and no back-button). Toolbar button disabling is not dependable. Logic is left in place but unused. Toolbar shift-click does not work in Cocoa Emacs. Toolbar shift-click is not consistent with keyboard bindings (control for global ring, unmodified for local ring) Displaying the index in a popup requires unreleased popup-volatile.el TODO better toolbar icons bug in visible-mark bug when mark is on last char of line integrated delete-mark could remove smartrep and implement mini-mode that includes extra commands such as delete-mark and perhaps digits for visible marks Used to remember thumb between series, so long as no mark was pushed, now that does not work b/c these functions themselves push the mark -- make that an option? Maybe the right way is to keep it out-of-band. this is a crude but general way to force a navigation command to push the mark: (defvar push-mark-before-goto-char nil) (defadvice goto-char (before push-mark-first activate) (when push-mark-before-goto-char (back-button-push-mark-local-and-global nil t))) ;; example use (defun ido-imenu-push-mark () (interactive) (let ((push-mark-before-goto-char t)) (ido-imenu))) A better way would be: using a pre-command-hook, track series of related navigation commands (defined by a property placed on each command). Push a global mark for the first of a related series, don't push for subsequent. There is already a property placed on some navigation commands which might be sufficient - or is that only scroll commands? There is a package AutoMark which purports to do this, but it doesn't do the hard part of classifying all commands. ; License Simplified BSD License: Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. This software is provided by Roland Walker "AS IS" and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall Roland Walker or contributors be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage. The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing official policies, either expressed or implied, of Roland Walker.