When I press the down arrow I can scroll the pdf document down. After I have scrolled down a few pages and I press the left or the right arrow key to skip a page, the program takes me right back where I started scrolling down. Is there a way that I can use all four cursor keys of the keyboard to navigate a pdf document without this annoying jumping back behaviour when I use different cursor keys?
MacBook Pro (M1, 2020)
Well, I had tried it before, and it seemed to work all right, but now I see the same thing as you do.
What I can offer, and what I usually do, is the alternative to scroll with two fingers in the trackpad. It is actually faster, too.
If, as I am used to do (and maybe I had done before), I scroll with two fingers instead of down arrow, and then I click the left or right arrow, it does take me to the expected page.
It seems that somehow when using the up or down arrow, the selected position on the document does not change, and Preview still considers it around the starting position, and when using two finger scroll it behaves differently.
I also tried TeXShop and Skim, to compare (they both use the same PDFKit system software to handle PDF files).
Skim does not do anything with either left or right arrows.
TeXShop does behave as you expect, and unlike Preview.
(however, scrolling using the down arrow is nerve rackingly slow; no way I'd use that over two-finger scrolling in TeXShop!).
Thanks. I use the trackpad, too. But switching between trackpad and (left-right) cursor is not optimal. I can also click with the trackpad or the mouse into the pdf, that will update my cursor position and I can use the left/right cursor from my current position in the pdf.
Can you elaborate a bit on this?
In my mac, the left and right move to the top of the previous or next page. I don't see any subsequent jumping.
For example, if I start in page 1 and use the down arrow until, say, you are in the middle of page 4, then press the left arrow I will end up at the top of page 3. Are you saying that in your case you'd be back at page 1?
I open a pdf in Preview, say, at page 5 and I hold down the down arrow key on my keyboard until I reach page 10. Then I press the right arrow key to get to page 11, but Preview sets me back to page 5.
Cursor Keys when navigating the pdf Preview program - document jumps back
