"Back to top" links

Do you still use them?

[Reflection]

Just wondering what people's thoughts are on the use of "back to top" links on pages which are rather long, an FAQ for instance. In the age of mouse wheels and less 'scroll phobia', do you think they are redundant?

If you have anchor links which take you down to a section on the same page, should you always have "back to top" links?

Thoughts?

[pageoneresults]

If you have anchor links which take you down to a section on the same page, should you always have "back to top" links?

I would consider this best practice in usability. It is so much easier to navigate in this manner. Any time I design an FAQ, there will always be a Back to Top or Back to Previous link.

They are actually referred to as Named Anchors.

Since I design mostly in XHTML, I have to go this route...

12.2.3 Anchors with the id attribute [w3.org]

Using the id attribute, I can anchor anything without having to use the <a name=""></a> bit.

FrontPage users will be familiar with the term bookmarks as that is how they are referred to in the WYSIWYG interface. Ctrl + G to insert a bookmark in FrontPage.

[pageoneresults]

In addition to the above, I also use a handly little piece of javascript to take the user back to previous.

<a href="javascript:history.back()">Back to previous</a>

With the above method, I don't have to worry about using named anchors as the browser will put the user right back where they clicked from.

[mrnoisy]

I always put a ^Top [webmasterworld.com] link at the bottom of any page that's two screens long or more as a courtesy to my visitors. They don't have to use it!

[SuzyUK]

Yes..

FI.. in most browsers you do not actually have to have an explicit "top" anchor (either id or name) as they will take you back to the top of the page without one ;) and I'd say it's worthwhile especially for those small screens

and yes especially for FAQ sections, I've lost count of the amount of times I don't even realise I haven't moved off the same page when clicking from top of page to bookmark/anchor so it is perhaps just courtesy to put that back to top link? but as always it depends on the surfer.. the back button will/should still do it :)

Suzy