Bill Robertson's Blog

Internet Explorer and the Backspace key

I just lost 20 minutes worth of work because of a problem I've had with IE for the longest time.  I fully understand that some people use the backspace key as the back button when navigating the Internet, but I have never wanted to use it that way.  I've hit the backspace many, many, many times, but never, ever, ever wanted it to go "back".

I was filling out my Time card for last week (yes it was Due on Monday) and was half way through with it.  I clicked inside the hour box to change one of my tasks and hit backspace.  You can save me the lecture on only use delete; I use them both interchangeably.  I must not have clicked inside the textbox because when I hit backspace my browser flashed and it went back to the previous page.

I clicked forward, strange the forwardspace key doesn't move forward...oh wait, that moves you down the page.  That is another great and usable feature.  Scoff!  When the page reloaded from me hitting forward, all of my changes were lost.  I'm sure the web developers could do something to keep my changes when the page reloaded, but damn...I'm the dolt that left the page.

Please oh please IE team, enable as an option to TURN OFF the backspace as a back button bug feature with IE.  There is already a keyboard shortcut for moving back.  alt->[left arrow].  At least that one makes sense because the inverse operation alt->[right arrow] moves forward and not down the page...

[Update: Thanks for Bob's constructive criticism, I actually had to look at the keyboard to see what key my mental memory was pressing.]

Posted: Nov 29 2006, 03:57 PM by Bill Robertson | with 19 comment(s)
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Comments

trung said:

YEah, these stupid smarty developers are stupid and stupid enug to put up a function like that for the backspace button. I lost all of my precious data for my report and F .. that Backspace. I DO HAVE A MOUSE !!!!!!!!!!! SUC.. ERS give me some ways to turn off this annoying thing.

# October 21, 2007 3:34 AM

bob smith said:

It's ALT + Arrow, idiot.  And yes, the backspace as "go back" is friggin' stupid.

# June 26, 2008 7:50 AM

Bill Robertson said:

Thank you bob smith for your insightful and polite correction.  I have changed it in the body of the post.

# June 26, 2008 11:16 AM

Brian said:

Just like we would say "but you can use Alt+arrow," people with the opposite preference might say "but you can use Shift+Backspace."

This might help:

www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys

I haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising.  Brain is starting to buzz with the possibilities.

# July 30, 2008 5:58 PM

Brian said:

Funny, this was posted over 2 years ago, and Microsoft has yet to fix it. How stupid is it to use the backspace key to navigate the damn browser when we have a MOUSE, KEYBOARD, ON-SCREEN BUTTONS, and usually a back and forward on the form itself, depending on the developer.

I can't tell you how many times I've lost 2, 5, 10, 20 minutes worth of composition while posting something, or even making a purchase, and the F*****g backspace key, which is an editing key like DEL, INS, etc... takes me back a page.

That would be analogous to a typewriter shredding your page when you want to erase a mis-key.

Somehow I managed to type this without the backspace key doing it to me - maybe the owner has backspace capture code to prevent it, maybe I'm lucky today. Maybe I should play the lottery too.

I'm constantly using notepad as a scratch pad to paste my work just in case that dreaded key turns into a time machine, wasting minutes of my life at a time, chopping away at my existence.

20 years ago, the Internet and www was structured so differently, it didn't matter, but now with people doing more and more with their browsers, PLEASE FIX IT. Sometimes you're so stupid, Microsoft.

# December 20, 2008 5:00 PM

J said:

Well, thank god there's other browsers out there. I switched to firefox because of IE's backspace issue. Sick of doing work online, and pressing the backspace to erase the text, only to lose all my work and go back a page.

# January 20, 2009 10:42 AM

MPF said:

i hate the backspace key

# April 17, 2009 4:16 PM

ATM said:

I think it is great, if I am doing 20 mins of work I just type it in a word doc and copy and paste it.

Makes my internet navigation much smoother.

# April 17, 2009 4:21 PM

AMI said:

I agree with ATM. I also discovered whilst researching this issue a very interesting phenomenon linked to this backspace key nuisance. According to the New England Institute of Higher Research Fellows three out of five persons who found this backspace key frustrating, were in fact to uneducated to properly recognize the benefits achievable by this miraculous little button.

# April 17, 2009 4:32 PM

AMI said:

Also, Bill, I love what your doing here

# April 17, 2009 4:36 PM

MPF said:

Hey ATM, what is that you think you are a bank machine or something???? Get a life

AMI, you sound like a pompous prick!!!!

If you don't agree with me DON'T POST

# April 17, 2009 4:57 PM

ATM said:

MPF,

In regards to your backspace delema, I suggest hitting Alt+Clt+Del and restart your life.

# April 17, 2009 5:02 PM

AVP said:

Ahh, internet comments are the best aren't they? When folks feel they can jump on someones blog, which they put their time into updating and what not, and rant and rave at one another as if it's doing anything more than degrading themselves.

Perhaps the first one or two comments turn out to be somewhat useful, then as they add up the conversation (which really should only be for comments related to the story) falls to the depths of childish namecalling.

Yes I see the irony in my comment.

I would also like to say that I truly dislike the un-changeable backspace "functionality" which Microsoft feels we should use despite our preferences.

Good Day

# April 23, 2009 1:17 PM

anon said:

yeah that backspace bugs the poop out of me.

# July 26, 2009 4:40 PM

Jason said:

I found this blog when searching for a solution to a problem I frequently encounter. That problem is the backspace key. I do have to say it seems foolish to allow a key that is used for editing text the power to erradicate all of the text it is being used to perfect. It seems even worse when there are already several ways to navigate the web like clicking the on-screen buttons or using keyboard shortcuts like alt + arrow (which, by the way, makes a lot of sense...forward and backward arrows with a required modefier like the alt key to avoid accidental activation of this sometimes maddening functionality). I would really like to find a way to deactivate this glaring mistake. I've lost enough of my time to it and I do think it's high time for a solution. There is no way in the year 2009 that we should not have that option. We have walked on the moon and have people living in a space station, yet we can't fix the backspace key. Man....if I was employed by microsoft, I would be mortified to be a part of the company that ever thought it was a good idea in the first place. What a joke.
# August 6, 2009 4:33 PM

Eric said:

I am expressing my hatred here too. How easily the mouse moves out of a textbox on my blackberry and I hit backspace to lose my work. Grrrrrrrrr.

# October 29, 2009 2:23 AM

Preston said:

This happened again today. It happens all the time. Worst shortcut ever and it really is why I use firefox (which is not supported for my co's vpn, grrr). Just let me disable the darn thing as this is clearly a recurring problem for so many.  Textbook example of what is wrong with MS.

# December 16, 2009 3:07 AM

Phil said:

The worst thing about the backspace key is that everybody suffers from it, but only a few realise that it was pressing that (damned) key that caused their screen to loose everything and go back a page.

Most people think it was a computer glitch.

Hasn't anbody come up with a fix yet?

# February 17, 2010 11:59 AM

dc88 said:

i too came across this after losing alot of text which was to be sent via email. it drives me mad. Is the only solution to change browser??????

# March 26, 2010 1:31 PM