Using Safari on iPhones

Safari is the Web browser developed by Apple and installed on all iOS devices and Mac OS computers. Browsing the Web is one of the primary activities you'll be doing with your iPhone and iPad. I'll go over some of the mobile version of Safari features for the iPhone and iPad to improve your browsing experience. So let's see how you can make the most of your Web browsing using Safari on an iPhone or iPad.

Your First Use of Safari

When you first open and use Safari on your iOS device, you'll see Safari's view of Favorite bookmarks. A bookmark is a way of marking a website or webpage, so it's easy to find again. When you first start using Safari, the bookmarks shown are called the Favorites, and Apple has already set up some websites for you in Safari as Favorites.

A Tip for Using Safari:

As you use Safari to open and view webpages, Safari opens a new “tab” each time you open a new website. When you switch from Safari to another app, then return to Safari, Safari will return you to the last webpage you were viewing and saves other webpages as tabs.

Unlike a desktop computer, there isn't a “home” screen for Safari, just the last screen you were looking at when you used it. If you understand this concept, it will make using Safari much easier to know if you're coming from a desktop computer and used to seeing a Home page open every time you open up your browser software.

Search and Address Field

At the top, your Safari screen is the Search/Address field. All iOS devices come set to use Google for searching the Web when you type in any entry in this field, so there's no need to open up Google's webpage to search.

It's combined because it displays either your search text as you enter it or the address of the webpage you are viewing or entering. There's only one place to type them, not two separate text fields. Using Search

As you type in the search field, Google's suggestions appear below the Search/Address field, and if you want to use one of them, you can tap on the item, and your search will start right away. If you don't select one of the suggestions, tap the go key, then Safari displays your search results on the screen. Safari remembers your text entry in the Search field and will show your text the next time you tap in search.

If you want to do a different search, tap in the search field, then edit your search. Or tap the X icon at the far right of the search field to erase all the text, then enter your new search term. Searching On a Web Page

Search for text on a webpage.

Ever need to look for something specific on a webpage but can't find it? Safari can make your life easier by searching the currently displayed webpage.

Tap in the Search/Address field
Clear the text by tapping the X to the right of the text.
Then type in your search word or phrase.
Scroll down the the bottom of the list of search results until you see “On This Page” and tap on “Find phrase” where the search you entered appears to the right of Find.
If the word or phrase is found in more than one location on the page,

Entering URL's

Tap anywhere in the field to display the keyboard and start entering or editing text. When entering a URL, the keyboard provides some convenient shortcuts: a key for entering the .com with one keystroke, and a Go key, used to go to the Web site when you've entered the URL. After you tap the Go button, the keyboard disappears while Safari fetches your Web page and displays it.

Refresh Arrow

One icon that appears in the URL field is the refresh arrow icon, an arrow that looks like it goes in a circle. Tapping the refresh arrow icon will ask Safari to update the currently displayed page. Refresh is useful when you are viewing a webpage with information that updates frequently. For example, when you put your iPhone or iPad to sleep and then wake it up again. You don't need to re-enter the webpage URL to see the most current information. Tap the refresh arrow icon, and Safari will update the page for you.

Text Size Button

When viewing a webpage, this button opens a menu with options. At the top is the scale of the view with a small A and a large one. Tap on either one to make the text size smaller or larger.

The next option is to show reader view, a view which removes ads and extraneous material to make the page easier to read.

A translation option is available thanks to Apple's new translate app.

Other options are:

Hide Toolbar - conceals the top search field for a full screen view of the webpage.
Request Desktop Website - changes the view from mobile-friendly to desktop.
Website settings - allows you to set default views and permissions of a website
Privacy Report - prevent trackers from following you across the web

Back and Forward Arrows

Safari includes a Back and Forward button at the bottom (at the top on the iPad) to go back one page or forward one page while you're browsing any website.

Scrolling on Web Pages

Scroll up and down on webpages by swiping with your finger anywhere on the screen. Because iPhones have a smaller screen than iPads, scrolling on a webpage causes the bottom row of navigation buttons to disappear. Just swipe down on the screen to display the bottom row.

Tabs and Pages

Safari can open several Web pages at once using tabbed browsing. Tabs are a feature in web browsers that allows one browser to open and display multiple webpages. Each new page creates a new tab, and it's possible to switch from one webpage to another by selecting the appropriate tab. Using tabs eliminates the need to open a new browser to view multiple pages. Since iPhones only show one app at a time on the screen, tabs are a valuable feature.

To understand tabs, think about having several documents arranged on your desk. You have one desk (your browser), and you're able to view several different documents on your desk by looking in another direction. Tabs work pretty much the same way. Only you use navigation icons to change the webpage you view on your screen.

When you tap on a link to another webpage, the website may either replace the current page or open a new tab and keep the original page open in another tab. It's up to the people that created the Web site, and when clicking links, you don't have any control. But you can open new tabs on your own at any time on almost any type of Web browser.

Opening Tabs

On the Safari screen is a square icon with another square on top of it. This represents a stack of paper, with different sheets of paper standing for a different webpage. Tap on the icon, and one of two things will happen, depending what webpages you have been viewing.

To open Tabs, tap on the Tabs button.
Your screen view changes on the iPhone to show all of the webpages currently open in a Tab like the view in the picture shown here in the screenshot of my iPhone.
If you only see one webpage, tap on the Plus icon at the bottom of your screen and enter a new website address.
Tap on the Tab button again and you'll see the webpages you have open stacked above each other.
Tap on any webpage to open it in Safari.
Tap on the X on the left side of any tab page view to close the webpage's tab.
To delete all your tabs, tap and hold on the tap button, then select the option.

By using tabs, you can have several webpages open at the same time and use the tab icon to switch between them quickly. This saves having to type in a new URL to go to a webpage, then using the back arrow and forward arrow to reload a Web page from the Internet. When webpages are downloaded, they are stored in your iPhone or iPad memory while the page is displayed. Tabs give you a way to switch between several webpages without the need to reload each page every time you want to view it. In fact, the webpage will often be there even if you lose your Internet connection since it's in your local device memory.

Tabs on iPad

Tabs do the same functions on iPads as they do on iPhones, but they appear more like a traditional desktop browser displays tabs, just above the webpage display. On iPads you'll see a plus sign on your Safari screen. Tap the plus sign and you can open a new tab, then enter a search or a URL. Since the tabs are displayed across the top of the screen, you don't need to tap any icon to view them. And each tab has an X on the left of the tab for you to delete the tab.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks in a web browser are like bookmarks in a book. They mark a place you can quickly locate and return to in the future. Safari, along with Apple's iCloud, offers several enhancements to the bookmark used commonly in Web browsers. Bookmarks are accessed by using the bookmark icon, which looks like an open book. Tap on the bookmark icon, and the Bookmarks menu appears. It looks slightly different on the iPhone and iPad since the iPad has a bigger screen. You save a bookmark using the Share icon..

Bookmark Types and Uses

These are the types of bookmarks and their use for Safari:

Bookmarks Menu. A list of webpages that are bookmarked. This is the most traditional use of a bookmark, which saves the URL of a webpage in a list that you can access whenever you want to go back to any of your bookmarked webpages.
Favorites. The bookmarks bar is a group of bookmarks that appear in a bar in the top of the Safari browser. History. Safari keeps a record of your browsing history in the History list. On the iPhone it's a menu item in the Bookmarks screen, on the iPad, History is the clock tab on the Bookmarks list.
Reading List. A pair of glasses is the icon for the Reading List in the menu on the iPhone and a tab on the Bookmarks screen on the iPad. The Reading List is a list of Web pages saved in local memory, so you can read them at your convenience without the need for an Internet connection.
History. History displays a record of webpages you've visited.

Editing Bookmarks

The bookmarks menu screen has an Edit button which allows you to delete, move, edit, and change the order in which your bookmarks appear in their respective list.

Tap the Edit button to access the editing function. When you're done editing, tap the Done button. For each bookmark, you'll see a red circle badge with a dash on the left, an arrow on the right of the bookmark menu item, and a three bar slider icon on the far right.

To delete a bookmark, tap the red badge next to the bookmark you want to delete, then tap the Delete button to confirm. To go back one step, tap on the red dash badge.
To re-order your list, tap and hold on the 3 bar slider icon at the far right to select the bookmark you want to move up or down in a list, then slide it up or down to the desired position. Lift up when you're done with the move.
To create a new bookmark folder for a group of bookmarks, tap the New Folder button and name your folder. You can choose to make the new folder a sub-folder underneath a folder that already exists by tapping the name of the folder that appears in the menu item below the bookmark description. You'll see a check mark next to the top level Bookmarks folder, and a list of any additional folders. Tap the folder in to which you want to place the new sub-folder.
To change the bookmark name or location, tap the arrow to the right of the bookmark. You can edit the bookmark description text here, change the URL, and change the folder location for the bookmark. To change the folder location for the bookmark, tap the current folder menu which is displayed, then select the new folder location.

iCloud

Using your iCloud account with Safari allows you to synchronize your bookmarks, tabs, and reading list across all your devices, including Safari on the desktop. To check and see if your bookmarks are being synced with Safari follow these steps:

Open the Settings app
Tap your name
Tap iCloud
Scroll to Safari, then check to see that the On/Off slider for Safari is ON for all your devices.

To sync bookmarks with Safari on your PC, you'll need to install iCloud for a Windows PC, and use Settings on a Mac.

Sharing Webpages

Safari includes a Share feature for several Web page sharing options. The Share icon, if you're not already familiar with it, it's the icon with an arrow coming out of a sheet of paper. On the iPad it's located at the top, left of the URL field, on the iPhone the Share icon is located in the bottom navigation row.

The Share icon is used in many apps besides Safari. Like most Apple icons, the Share icon has the same function in all apps, which is to share information from the app with someone or some other app.

Share Options

In Safari, share options can include these and more:

Share a webpage as a link in a email
Share a webpage as a link a message
Share a webpage as a link a Tweet
Share a webpage as a link Facebook status update
Create a Bookmark for the webpage you're viewing
Add the webpage to your Reading List
Add a button for the webpage you're viewing to your Home screen
Copy the link into the clipboard
Print the webpage

Create a Bookmark

To create a bookmark, use the Share icon and tap the Bookmark icon. This opens the bookmark listing, where you can use the current description or change it, and select where you want to place the bookmark by choosing a folder. The bookmarks menu is the folder that's pre-selected for you, and if you don't change it your bookmark will appear in the bookmark menu list folder.

Add to Home Screen

Using Add to Home Screen will create a home screen icon for any Web page. If you frequently visit a webpage, this option is really convenient and creates an icon that is used just like an app, only it opens a specific Web page. Instead of opening Safari and looking for a bookmark, you can go directly to the web.