Go on Safari

Besides App Store and Messages, Safari is arguably iOS’s most important app. Let’s start with a look at Safari’s controls (Figure 70).

If you can’t see the controls shown above, they will reappear as you scroll up the webpage.

Search in Safari

The Address/Search box allows you to search in several ways:

• Enter a URL: To visit a specific webpage, just type its URL into the Address/Search box, such as www.takecontrolbooks.com, and tap Go on the keyboard. Press and hold the Period key to see a popover with common URL suffixes such as .com, .org, and .net.
• Search the web: Type your search terms into the Address/Search box, and then tap Go. (To delete all text in the box, tap the Clear Text icon at the right of the box.)
• Suggested Sites: Suggested Sites (sometimes called Top Sites depending on the results) can often save you the trouble of typing a long search query.

  For instance, if I type just obi wan into the Address/Search box, Safari suggests the Wikipedia page for the fictional character.

• Search within a page: There are two ways to do this:
  • Enter your search term in the Address/Search box, and tap the item in the results list under On This Page.
  • Tap the Share icon on the toolbar, and then Find On Page. Enter your query.

  Use the arrows to navigate the results, and tap Done when you finish.

Wrangle Tabs

Safari lets you have multiple webpages open at one time, split into tabs. Here’s how to use them:

• iPad: Tabs work much as they do in Safari on the Mac. Tap a tab to switch to it, tap the Clear icon to close a tab, or hold and then drag a tab to move it. To view all open tabs, tap the Pages icon or pinch in with two fingertips. Note that if you’re viewing websites in Split Screen on a device smaller than a 10.5-inch iPad Pro, tabs will likely work as they do on the iPhone.
• iPhone and iPod touch: The screen is too small to display tabs (except on an iPhone 6 Plus or iPhone 7 Plus in landscape orientation), so to view and manage tabs, you must tap the Pages icon. This presents your tabs in a 3D overhead view.

  Scroll through your tabs and tap one to choose it. To close a tab, slide it from right to left, off the screen.

• Private mode: To open a private tab, tap the Pages icon, tap Private, and then tap the New Tab button. Private Browsing has a darker theme than regular Safari. To leave Private mode, tap the Pages icon, and tap Private again.

Discover and Store Links

Tap the Bookmarks icon to view Bookmarks, Reading List, and Shared Links:

• Bookmarks: Bookmarks are shortcuts to websites you want to visit again. To bookmark the current page, tap the Share icon and then Add Bookmark. To visit a bookmark, tap it in this list. To manage bookmarks, tap Edit.

  To access your favorite bookmarks more easily, tap the Address/Search box. To bookmark the current page and add it as a favorite quickly, tap the Share icon and then select Add to Favorites.

• Reading List: You can save a page for later reading by adding it to your Reading List. To do so, tap the Share icon and then tap Add to Reading List. (In many apps, including Safari, you can touch and hold a link to send it to Reading List.)