7. Surfing the Web
In this chapter, you learn about Safari, the browser built-in to the iPad. You can use it to browse the Web, bookmark web pages, fill in forms, and search the Internet.
• Returning to Previously Visited Websites
• Creating Home Screen Bookmarks
• Copying Text and Images from Web Pages
• Viewing News Articles with Safari Reader
The iPad is a beautiful web surfing device. Its size is perfect for web pages, and your ability to touch the screen lets you interact with content in a way that even a computer typically cannot.
If you have been using the iPhone or the iPod touch to browse the Web, you immediately notice how you no longer have to pinch and rotate to read text or see links. The screen size is much more ideal for web pages than a mobile phone device.
Browsing to a URL
Undoubtedly, you know how to get to web pages on a computer using a web browser. You use Safari on your iPad in the same way, but the interface is a little different.
At the top of the Safari browser is a toolbar with just a few buttons. In the middle, the largest interface element is the address field. This is where you can type the address of any web page on the Internet.
1. Touch the Safari icon on your iPad to launch the browser. It might be located at the bottom of the screen, along with your other most commonly used applications.
2. Tap in the address field at the top of the screen. This opens up the keyboard at the bottom of the screen. If you were already viewing a web page, the address of that page remains in the address field. Otherwise, it will be blank.
To clear the field at any time, tap the X button located inside the field all the way to the right.
3. Start typing a URL such as apple.com or macmost.com.
4. As you type, suggestions based on previous pages you have visited appear. To go directly to one of these pages, tap the page’s address in the list.
5. Tap the Go button on the keyboard when you finish typing.
Some websites present you with a special iPad version of the site. This is not as common as the special iPhone or iPod touch versions that many sites offer. If a website does not look the same on your iPad as it does on your computer, you might want to check to see if a switch is on the web page provided by the site to view the standard web version, instead of a special iPad version. This is especially useful if a site has lumped the iPad together with the iPhone and provided a needlessly simplified version.
Searching the Web
The Web wouldn’t be useful if you had to already know the exact location of every web page to view it. The iPad’s Safari web browser has search built into it, as a field right at the top of the screen.
As you type, Safari suggests search terms based on previous searches that others have performed starting with the same characters. This list, which changes as you type, can save you a lot of time and even help you better define what you are looking for.
1. Open Safari and tap in the search field at the upper-right portion. It expands, shrinking the address field to give it more room. The keyboard pops up at the bottom of the screen.
2. Start typing your search term.
3. As you type, a pop-up list appears with suggestions. You can stop typing at any time and tap one of these suggestions to select it and start the search.
4. Tap the X button to the right of the search field at any time to clear the field. If you previously searched for something, it might have appeared in the field when you started your search, and you can use the X button to clear that text.
5. Tap the Search button on the keyboard to finish the text entry and start the search.
6. The results display in a typical Google search results page, provided you have Google selected as your search engine. Tap any link to go to a page, or use the links at the bottom of the screen to view more results.
Below Google Suggestions in the search suggestions drop-down menu is a list of recent searches and the occurrences of the phrase on the web page you are viewing. Use the latter to find the phrase on the page.
Siri: Search the WebYou can use Siri to search the web, even if you are not currently looking at the Safari screen. Sometimes Siri will also answer general questions by suggesting a web search:
“Search the web for iPad tutorials.”
“Search for local plumbers.”
“Search for MacMost.com.”
“Search Wikipedia for Paris.”
“Show me some web sites about geology.”
“Google Denver news.”
“Search for iPad tutorials on MacMost.com.”
Viewing Web Pages
Whether you typed in a URL or searched for a web page, after you have one open on your iPad screen, you can control what you view in several ways. You need to know these techniques to view the complete contents of a web page and navigate among web pages.
1. Navigate to any web page using either of the two techniques in the previous step-by-step instructions.
2. When you are viewing a page, you can touch and drag the page up and down with your finger. As you do so, notice the bar on the right side that gives you an indication of how much of the complete web page you are viewing at one time.
If you release your finger from the iPad screen to stop scrolling while dragging, the screen will continue to scroll with a decelerating affect and then come to a stop quickly.
3. To zoom in on an area in the page, touch the screen with two fingers and move your fingers apart. This is called an unpinch. You can also move them closer together (pinch) to zoom back out. A double-tap restores the page to normal scaling. This works well on websites made for desktop computers, but mobile sites usually are set to already fit the screen at optimal resolution.
4. You can also double-tap images and paragraphs of text to zoom in to those elements in the web page. A second double-tap zooms back out.
5. While zoomed in, you can also touch and drag left and right to view different parts of the web page. You see a bar at the bottom of the screen when you do this, just like the bar on the right side in step 2.
6. To move to another web page from a link in the current web page, just tap the link. Links are usually an underlined or colored piece of text; however, they can also be pictures or button-like images.
Returning to Previously Visited Websites
Returning to the last page you visited is easy. Just tap the Back button, which is the left-facing triangle at the top-left corner of the Safari screen. You can continue to tap the Back button to go to pages you visited previously.
Likewise, you can tap the button next to it, the Forward button, to reverse your direction and move forward, returning to your more recently viewed pages.
A more precise way to view previous pages is to use the History button.
1. After using Safari to view several pages, tap the Bookmarks/History button at the top of the screen.
2. Tap the History button to view your browsing history as opposed to your bookmarks or reading list. A list of pages that you visited today appears.
3. Tap any item in the list to jump to that web page.
4. If you visited many sites today, Earlier Today appears and below that, previous days may also appear. Tap to dig down into the history for that date.
5. When you are into the history for a specific date, you can tap and drag to scroll up and down on longer lists, or tap an item to jump to that page.
6. You can move back up from a specific date to the main History menu by tapping the History button at the top-left part of the History pop-up menu.
Safari treats both History and Bookmarks the same. They are both just lists of web pages. Think of your history as a bookmark list of every site you have visited recently.
Bookmarking Websites
While using Safari on the iPad, you need to bookmark some of the sites you visit most often. This can give you quick access to the information you need the most.
1. Use Safari to navigate to any web page.
2. Tap the Share button at the top of the screen.
3. Choose Bookmark.
4. Edit the title of the bookmark. The official title of the web page is prefilled, but you can use the keyboard to change it. You can tap the X to clear the text and start fresh.
You’ll also notice the Print button when you tap the same button you use to create bookmarks. If you are using a printer compatible with Apple’s AirPlay technology in your iPad, you can send the current page to a printer attached to your network. See “Printing from Your iPad” in Chapter 18 for details.
5. Tap the Bookmarks folder name to select a folder to place the bookmark.
You can also put bookmarks into a special Reading List using the Add to Reading List button. This is a good way to temporarily bookmark a page you want to revisit one more time. The Reading List is like your Bookmarks, and you can get to it in the same place. But it is just a simple list of pages without subfolders. It is also possible to view All or only Unread items in the list. So after checking out the page a second time from your Reading List, it will no longer appear as Unread.
Deleting Your Bookmarks
Adding and using bookmarks is just the start. You eventually need to delete ones you don’t use. You might find that over time you no longer need some bookmarks. Some might even link to missing or obsolete pages. There are two ways to delete a bookmark. The results of the two methods are the same; however, you might find the second method gives you a little more control.
Delete a Single Bookmark
The first method uses the Bookmarks list to locate and delete a single bookmark.
1. Tap the Bookmarks/History button at the top of the Safari screen.
2. Tap Bookmarks.
3. Swipe across a bookmark, from left to right, with your finger. This brings up a red Delete button.
4. Tap the Delete button to remove the bookmark. The bookmark is instantly deleted.
Another Way to Delete Bookmarks
This method for deleting bookmarks lets you unlock and delete bookmarks from the Bookmarks list.
1. Tap the Bookmarks/History button at the top of the Safari screen.
2. Tap Bookmarks.
3. Tap the Edit button at the upper-right corner. (It becomes the Done button.) Now each bookmark has a red circle with a line through it to its left.
4. Tap one of the red circles to unlock it. A Delete button appears to the right.
5. Tap the Delete button to remove the bookmark.
If you want to go to town and really organize your bookmarks, you might be better off doing so on your Mac or PC with the Safari browser. Syncing your iPad to your computer should sync your bookmarks as well. And if you are using iCloud, the syncing should be immediate and automatic. Safari on your computer gives you greater control over moving and deleting bookmarks. So just do your wholesale editing on your computer and resync.
Creating Home Screen Bookmarks
If a web page is somewhat important, you might want to create a bookmark for it. If it is extremely important and you need to go to it often, you might want to make sure that bookmark is saved to your Bookmarks Bar so that it is easily accessible.
However, if a web page is even more important to you than that, you can save it as an icon on your iPad’s Home screen.
1. Use Safari to navigate to any web page.
2. Tap the boxed arrow button at the top of the screen.
3. Choose Add to Home Screen. Note that the icon shown here will change to use the icon for that website or a small screen capture of the site.
Managing Home Screen Bookmarks
You can arrange and delete Home screen bookmarks just like icons that represent apps. See “Arranging Apps on Your iPad” in Chapter 15 for details.
4. You can now edit the name of the page. Most web page titles are too long to display under an icon on the Home screen of the iPad, so edit the name down to as short a title as possible.
5. You can tap Cancel to leave this interface without sending the bookmark to the Home screen.
6. Tap Add to complete adding the icon to the Home screen.
The icon for this type of bookmark can come from one of two sources. Web page owners can provide a special iPhone/iPad icon that would be used whenever someone tries to bookmark her page.
However, if no such icon has been provided, your iPad can take a screen shot of the web page and shrink it down to make an icon.
Building a Reading List
Your reading list is similar to bookmarks. You can add a page to your reading list to remember to return to that page later. When you do, it will be removed from the Unread section of your reading list, but still appear in the All section.
In addition, pages you add to your reading list are downloaded to your iPad so that you can read them later while not connected to the Internet.
1. Find an article you want to read later.
2. Tap the Share button.
3. Tap Add to Reading List.
4. To see your reading list, tap the Bookmarks/History button.
5. Tap the Reading List button.
6. You can tap here to see a list of pages you have added to your reading list, but have not yet viewed.
7. After you have viewed a page, it is removed from the Unread section, but you can still find it in the All section. Tap All to view that list. To remove any article completely, swipe right to left across any item and tap Delete.
8. Tap the item to view the article.
Filling in Web Forms
The Web isn’t a one-way street. Often you need to interact with web pages, filling in forms or text fields. Doing this on the iPad is similar to doing it on a computer, but with notable differences.
The keyboard shares screen space with the web page, so when you tap on a field, you bring up the keyboard at the bottom of the screen.
Also pull-down menus behave differently. On the iPad, you get a special menu showing you all the options.
1. Use Safari to navigate to a web page with a form. For demonstration purposes, try one of the pages at http://apple.com/feedback/.
2. To type in a text field, tap that field.
3. The keyboard appears at the bottom of the screen. Use it to type text into the field.
4. Tap the Go button when you finish.
5. To select a check box or radio button, tap it just as you would click on it on your computer using the mouse.
6. To select an item in a pull-down menu, tap the menu.
7. The special iPad pull-down menu reacts like any other iPad interface. You can tap an item to select it. You can touch and drag up and down to view more selections if the list is long.
8. A check mark appears next to the currently selected item. Tap that item or any other one to select it and dismiss the menu.
Some websites may use special menus that they build from scratch, rather than these default HTML menus. When this is the case, you get a menu that looks exactly like the one you get when viewing the web page on a computer. If the web page is well coded, it should work fine on the iPad, though it might be slightly more difficult to make a selection.
Opening Multiple Web Pages
Safari on the iPad enables you to open multiple web pages at the same time. You can view only one at a time, but you can hold your place on a page while you look at something on another page.
Previously on the iPad, you used a complex system of pages to do this. But in iOS version 5, you can use tabbed browsing just as you can on Mac and PC browsers.
1. While browsing the Web using Safari on the iPad, tap the + button at the top of the screen to the right.
2. You see two tabs at the top of the screen now. The one on the right is in front of the one on the left and is labeled Untitled since no page has yet been loaded. You can see that no web page is displayed below the tabs.
3. You can return to the previous tab by tapping it.
4. You can enter a web address to load a page in this tab. Alternatively, you can enter a search term or use a bookmark to navigate to a web page.
5. You can close the current tab by tapping the X button to the right of the tab’s name.
If you have iCloud set up on multiple iOS 6 devices and/or Macs running Mountain Lion, you may see a cloud icon in the Safari toolbar next to the Share button. Tap that and you will see tabs that are currently open on those other devices. You can select one item to open that page. This means you can surf on your Mac for a while, and then switch to the iPad and easily find the pages you were just looking at on your Mac.
Copying Text and Images from Web Pages
You can select text from web pages to copy and paste into your own documents or email messages.
1. Use Safari to navigate to a web page.
2. Tap and hold over a piece of text. You don’t need to be exact because you can adjust the selection later. The word Copy appears above the selected area that is highlighted in light blue.
3. You can tap and drag one of the four blue dots to change the selection area. When your selection gets small enough, it changes to only two blue dots indicating the first and last character of the selection.
4. Tap outside the selection to cancel at any time.
5. Tap the Copy button over the selection to copy the text.
6. You can now go to another application such as Mail or Pages and tap in a text area to choose Paste and paste the text into the area. You can also do this in a form on a page in Safari, such as a web-based email form.
Using Images from Web Pages
Along with copying and pasting text from Safari, you can copy images and save them to your photo collection.
1. Use Safari to navigate to a web page that has an image you want to save.
2. Tap and hold your finger on that image.
3. Select Save Image. This saves your image to your Saved Images folder in the Photos app. You can then use this image in any app where you select images from your photo albums.
4. Select Copy to copy the image to the Clipboard. You can then go to a program such as Mail or Pages and paste that image into the document you are composing.
Viewing News Articles with Safari Reader
Web pages on the iPad can be vibrant and pretty. But sometimes the website tries to cram so much text and other junk onto a page that it can be painful to read. You can clear away all the clutter to reveal the text of a news article or blog post using the Reader feature.
1. Look for the Reader button in the address field. It will only appear on some news articles and blog posts. Tap it to enter the Reader mode.
2. In Reader mode, only the text and inline images of the article appear.
3. Tap the font size button to increase or decrease the size of the text.
4. Tap Reader again to return to the regular view of the page.
