ok, firstly, an outline.

I create coursware, and the coursware i'm crearing now is HTML, JS etc, etc. It works via MSIE, and is fullscreen, so it does not appear to the client that it is infact MSIE.

Ok, so here's the challenge.

There are paragraphs that build up (in layers) via show/hide function, at the ned of a build-up, it navigates to the next screen that works in precisely the same way.

What I need to know is, If I press the "Back" button from the second screen, it navigates, obviously to the 1st screen, BUT now, I need ALL the layers to be visible when I navigate back.

Any Suggestions?

Have an "onload" function. The script would look at the document's referrer. If the documents are named in a logical way, for example "page1", "page2", then you can do a substr on the name, get the number, and tell which direction you came from.

If you're running fullscreen, then what back button are you pressing? If you have built your own navigation buttons, then you can handle this with a querystring variable.

Have built my own navigational buttons.

Well, there you go. Have the back button append a querystring variable, and have all your "onload" scripts check for the presence of that variable, and act accordingly.

don't forget that the user can just use the backspace button on the keyboard

I tend not to worry too much about these issues. If a user uses shortcuts around my navigation, I assume they know what they are doing, and what results they'll get. If there are any complaints, I simply demonstrate that the issue has been addressed in the site's navigational elements. Done.

I also realize that most users quickly tire of "sexy interface effects", and while I pass no judgment on fading/layers or gendv's courseware system, it's not an effect I'd use, personally. If an effect is getting in the way of usablity, then do away with the effect.

Unfortunately navigation is not up to me, I was told to figure out/find out how to do it for the clients... And as it happens the clients we are doing it for or not the brightest peanuts in the packet.