12. Surf the Web More Efficiently Using Safari

Chances are, if you know how to use a Mac or PC, you already know how to surf the Web using a browser such as Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome on your computer.

The Safari web browser on your iPhone (shown in Figure 12.1) or iPad (shown in Figure 12.2) offers the same basic functionality as the web browser for your desktop or laptop computer, but it’s designed to maximize the iPhone or iPad’s touchscreen and screen size.

Using the Handoff function, it’s possible to begin surfing the Web using Safari on one of your supported Macs or iOS mobile devices and then pick up exactly where you left off on another, as long as all the equipment is linked to the same iCloud account. Only iOS devices with the Lightning connector and 2012 Macs and newer support this feature.

To further customize your web surfing experience, launch Settings and tap on the Safari option. The Safari submenu (shown in Figure 12.3) offers a handful of customizable options. Here’s a summary of what each is used for:

Search Engine—The smart Search field is used to enter specific website URLs (addresses) and to find what you’re looking for on the Web via a search engine, such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. This option enables you to select your default (favorite) Internet search engine. So if you select Google as your default, whenever you perform a search using Safari’s Search field, the browser automatically accesses Google to obtain your search results.

Passwords—Safari can automatically store the passwords you create and use to access various websites. By accessing this feature, you can view the stored database of website-related passwords collected by Safari and edit this database by tapping on the Edit option.

Autofill—When turned on, this feature helps you fill in online-based forms by remembering your responses and automatically inserting your information into the appropriate fields. It also pulls information from your own Contacts app entry. Autofill is particularly useful when shopping online.

To customize this option and link your personal contact entry to Safari, tap on the AutoFill option, turn on the Use Contact Info option, and then tap on My Info to select your own Contacts entry.

You can also set whether Safari remembers names and passwords for specific websites you visit, as well as credit card information that you use to make online purchases. Tap on the Saved Credit Cards option to add or edit credit card information you have securely stored in Safari for use when making online purchases. This functionality is part of what Apple calls iCloud Keychain.

Frequently Visited Websites—Turn on this feature to display websites you frequent the most often when performing a search, as well as before you enter information into Safari’s Search field or into Spotlight Search.

Favorites—This feature serves as a shortcut for accessing websites you frequently visit or that you have favorited. As you begin typing a website address or website name into the Search field, Safari accesses your Favorites list and auto-inserts the appropriate website URL. When you tap on the Search field, a screen with icons representing sites in your Favorites list is displayed. Your Favorites list of websites automatically syncs between your Macs, PCs, and iOS mobile devices that are linked to the same iCloud account. This option now allows you to choose a specific folder where your favorite bookmarks are stored in the device you’re using.

Open Links (iPhone only)—Anytime a new web page opens as a result of you tapping on a link, this feature determines whether the new browser window is opened as the new active browser window or opened in the background as a tabbed browser window.

Open New Tabs in Background (iPad only)—Anytime a new web page opens as a result of you tapping on a link, this feature determines whether the new browser window is opened as the new active browser window or opened in the background as a tabbed browser window. How this option works depends on options you have selected on the Safari submenu of Settings.

Show Favorites Bar (iPad)—When you turn on the virtual switch associated with this feature, your Favorites Bar displays across the top of the Safari screen, just below the row of command icons and the Search field. The default setting for this feature is off because it utilizes some of your onscreen real estate.

Show Tab Bar (iPad)—When turned on, if multiple browser windows are open in Safari, tabs for each window are displayed along the top of the screen, just below the row of command icons and the Search field. The default setting for this feature is on. This makes it faster and easier to quickly switch between open browser windows.

Block Pop-Ups—When turned on, this feature prevents a website you’re visiting from creating and displaying extra windows or opening a bunch of unwanted browser tabs. The default for this option is turned on because this makes for a more enjoyable web surfing experience.

Do Not Track—By default, when you surf the Web using Safari, the web browser remembers all the websites you visit and creates a detailed History list that you can access to quickly revisit websites. By turning on the Do Not Track feature, Safari does not store details about the websites you visit.

Block Cookies—Many websites use cookies to remember who you are and your personalized preferences when you’re visiting that site. Cookies contain data that gets saved in your iPhone or iPad and is accessible by the websites you revisit. When this option is turned on, Safari does not accept cookies from websites you visit. Thus, you must reenter site-specific preferences and information each time you visit that site. The Block Cookies submenu offers four options: Always Block (meaning all cookies are blocked), Allow from Current Websites Only, Allow from Websites I Visit, and Always Allow (meaning no cookies are blocked).

Fraudulent Website Warning—Turn on this feature to help prevent you from visiting impostor websites designed to look like real ones, which have been created for the purpose of committing fraud or identity theft. It’s not foolproof, but this feature gives you an added level of protection, especially if you use your iOS device for online banking, shopping, and other financial transactions.

Clear History and Website Data—Use this feature to delete the contents of Safari’s History folder in which details about all the websites you have visited are stored. At the same time, cookies (data pertaining to specific websites you’ve visited) are also deleted.

Use Cellular Data—This option enables your iPhone or iPad to use the cellular data service (as opposed to a Wi-Fi Internet connection) to download Reading List information to your device from your iCloud account so that it can be read offline. Although this feature is convenient, it also utilizes some of your monthly cellular data allocation, which is why an on/off option is associated with it. The option is available on all iPhones, as well as iPads with Cellular + Wi-Fi capabilities.

Advanced—From this submenu, view details about website-specific data that Safari has collected. If you choose, you can manually delete this information. You also can enable or disable the JavaScript feature.

If you’re using Safari on an iPad, the Title bar displays all of Safari’s command icons along the top of the screen. Immediately below the Title bar, if you have the option turned on, your personalized Favorites Bar is displayed. Below the Favorites Bar, the Tabs bar becomes visible if you have more than one web page loaded in Safari at any given time (and you have this featured turned on).

When you’re viewing the Tab View screen, tap on the New Browser Window (+) icon to create a new (empty) browser window and then manually surf to a new website by typing a URL or search term into the Smart Search field, selecting a favorite icon, or selecting a bookmark.

To switch between active (viewable) browser windows that are open, simply tap on one of the web page thumbnails displayed. Scroll through the browser window thumbnails using an upward or downward swipe motion with your finger as needed. To close a window (tab), tap on its “X” icon.

Tap the Done option to exit the Tab View screen and return to the main Safari web browser screen. Alternatively, tap on any web page thumbnail displayed in the Tab View screen to open that browser window and continue your web surfing experience at the selected web page.

As you’re viewing a web page, to simultaneously open another web page, tap on the New Browser Window (+) icon displayed near the top-right corner of the Safari screen (between the Share and Tab View icons). When you do this, a new tab is created for an empty browser window. This allows you to visit a different web page without closing the web page(s) you’re currently viewing.

The Tab bar can display multiple tabs at once. To instantly switch between web pages, tap on the desired tab. The website name (or web page title) is displayed in the tab for easy reference.

To close a tab, tap on the small x that appears on the left side of that tab.

The Safari Reader works only with compatible websites, including those published by major daily newspapers and other news organizations. If the feature is available while you’re viewing a web page, the Reader icon (as shown in Figure 12.8 and Figure 12.9) is displayed before that web page’s URL on the extreme left side of the Smart Search field.

When you see the Reader icon displayed, tap on it. An uncluttered screen that contains just the article or text from that web page, along with related photos, is displayed. Use your finger to scroll up or down.

Tap the Reader icon a second time to exit the Reader window and return the web page to its normal appearance.

To add a website or web-based article to your personalized Reading List for later review, tap on the Share icon and then tap on the Add to Reading List icon displayed as part of Safari’s Share menu.

To later access your Reading List to view any of the stored web pages or articles, tap on the Bookmarks icon and then tap on the Reading List tab. Figure 12.11 shows an example of a Reading List. The Reading List tab looks like eyeglasses.

On the iPhone, when you tap the Bookmarks icon, the Bookmarks menu is displayed on a new screen in the Safari app.

At the top of the Bookmarks menu are three tabs. The leftmost tab (shaped like a book) is the Bookmarks tab. When you tap on it, your saved list of website bookmarks is displayed. The center tab is the Reading List tab. Tap on it to reveal your reading list (refer to Figure 12.11).

The Shared Links tab (represented by the @ symbol) enables you to see a listing of website links shared with you by your Contacts, as well as subscriptions to RSS feeds or social media accounts (including Twitter). Set this up by tapping on the Subscriptions option that’s displayed in the lower-right corner of this menu.

After you tap on the Subscriptions option, add compatible social media accounts (such as Twitter), or if you’re visiting a website or blog that has an RSS feed associated with it, visit that site and tap on the Add Current Site option to make it a subscribed feed. From the Subscriptions panel that’s displayed, you can then delete a subscribed feed by tapping on its corresponding “-” icon.

The Share menu (shown in Figure 12.12), which is accessible by tapping on the Share icon, offers a variety of features for sharing, printing, and managing web page content.

The following options are often available from the Share menu, but vary based on the content you’re viewing and how you have integration with some Sharing-related options set up:

Message—Send details about the web page you’re currently viewing to one or more other people via text or instant message using the Messages app (without having to leave Safari). Tap on Message, fill in the To field, and then tap the Send button. The website URL is automatically embedded within the text or instant message.

Mail—To share a website URL with others via email, as you’re looking at the web page or website you want to share, tap on the Share icon and select the Mail option. In Safari, an outgoing email window appears.

Fill in the To field with the recipient’s email address and tap the Send icon. The website URL automatically is embedded in the body of the email, with the website’s heading used as the email’s subject. Before sending the email, it’s possible to add text to the body of the email message and/or change the Subject.

Reminders—Create a new item within one of your lists in the Reminders app that contains the web page URL and content that you’re currently viewing. Tap on Options to choose which Reminders list the web page content should be added to, add a date/time and/or location-based alert, set a Priority, and add optional text-based notes with the new reminder.

Notes—Use this feature to gather the content from the web page you’re viewing and quickly export it into a note in the Notes app. After tapping on the Notes app icon displayed as part of the Share menu, tap on the Choose Note option to select an existing note in the Notes app to add the web page content to, or select the New Note option to create a new Note from scratch. You can also add text-based notes to the web page content by tapping on the Add Text To Your Note option (shown in Figure 12.13).

Twitter—If you have an active Twitter account enabled in Settings, tap on the Twitter option to create an outgoing tweet that automatically has the website URL attached.

When the Twitter window appears, enter your tweet message (up to 140 characters, minus the length of the automatically shortened version of the website URL). Tap the Send icon when the message is composed and ready to share with your Twitter followers.

Facebook—Thanks to Facebook integration within iOS 9, when you tap on the Facebook option, you can update your Facebook status and include details about the web page you’re currently viewing.

Other Compatible Third-Party Apps—A growing number of third-party apps now allow you to export content from Safari to be imported into another app or shared via another app. When you have one or more of these compatible apps installed on your iPhone or iPad, app icons for them are displayed in the Share menu.

More (Top)—Located to the extreme right of the app icons related to Safari’s Share feature is a More icon. Tap on it to customize which app icons appear in Safari’s Share menu and to reorder these app icons (by placing your finger on an app icon’s Move icon and dragging it up or down in the Activities list). Tap on the Done option to save your changes.

Add To Favorites—Add a listing for the website you’re currently viewing to your Safari Favorites list. This list syncs with iCloud and will be updated on all the Macs, PCs, and iOS mobile devices that you have linked to the same iCloud account.

Add Bookmark—Tap on this option to add a bookmark to your personal Bookmarks list. When you opt to save a bookmark, an Add Bookmark window appears. Here, you can enter a title for the bookmark and decide whether you want to save it as part of your Bookmarks menu or in your Favorites Bar. It’s also possible to create separate subfolders in your Bookmarks menu to organize your saved bookmarks.

Add to Reading List—Instead of adding a web page URL to your Bookmarks list or Favorites Bar, you can save it in your Reading List for later reference. (It is downloaded to your iPhone or iPad for later viewing, even if no Internet connection is then available.) To access your Reading List, tap on the Bookmarks icon, and then tap on the Reading List tab.

Add to Home Screen—Save a website URL in the form of a Home screen icon. This feature is explained later in the “Launch Your Favorite Websites Quickly with Home Screen Icons” section.

Copy—Use this command to copy the URL for the web page you’re looking at to the virtual clipboard that’s built in to iOS 9. You can then paste that information into another app.

Print—Wirelessly print a website’s contents to any AirPrint-compatible printer that’s set up to work with your iOS mobile device. To print a web page, tap on the Print command. From the Printer Options screen, select the printer you want to use, and then choose the number of copies you want printed. Tap the Print icon at the bottom of the Print Options window to send the web page document to your printer.

Find On Page—This iOS 9 feature enables you to quickly search the open web page for a keyword or search phrase. When you tap on this icon, the iPhone or iPad’s virtual keyboard appears, along with a new Search field. Type what you’re looking for, and the matching text is highlighted in yellow within the web page you’re viewing (shown in Figure 12.14). Use the up and down arrow icons to scroll through the various search results one at a time. Tap the Done option to exit this feature.

Request Desktop Site—Anytime you visit a website using the iOS 9 edition of Safari, if a mobile version of the website is offered, that’s the version of the website that automatically loads. A mobile website has been custom formatted to accommodate the smaller iPhone or iPad screen size (compared to a full-sized computer monitor). However, if you’d prefer to switch to viewing the Desktop version of the website, tap on the Request Desktop Site icon, and if available, this version of the website loads. You can then use the zoom in and zoom out finger gestures, as well as swipe finger gestures to navigate around the web page.

More (Bottom)—This More icon is located to the extreme right of the second row of command icons displayed in the Share menu. From the Activities menu, adjust the order in which the command icons are displayed in the Share menu, plus customize some options that relate to third-party apps and your ability to share Safari content with those apps.

To activate iCloud sync functionality as it relates to Safari, launch Settings and then tap on the iCloud option. When the iCloud Control Panel appears, make sure your iCloud account is listed at the top of the screen and then turn on the virtual switch associated with the Safari option. This must be done on each of your iOS mobile devices just once.

Once this feature is turned on, your Bookmarks list, Favorites Bar, open browser windows (tabs), Safari Reading List, and Keychain data are automatically and continuously synced with your iCloud account. Thus, when you add a new bookmark while surfing the Web on your iPad, for example, within seconds that same bookmark appears in your Bookmarks list on your iPhone and on Safari that’s running on your Mac.

To turn on and begin using iCloud Keychain, launch Settings and tap on the iCloud option. Then, from the iCloud Control Panel, turn on the virtual switch that’s associated with the Keychain option. Follow the onscreen prompts that walk you through the feature’s built-in security precautions.

Next, return to the main Settings menu and tap on the Safari option. Tap on the AutoFill option and turn on the virtual switches associated with the Use Contact Info, Names and Password, and/or Credit Cards options. Also, tap on the My Info option and select your own entry from your Contacts app database.

When using this feature, it’s a good strategy to also activate the Passcode Lock feature of your iOS mobile device to prevent unauthorized people from accessing personal information when using your iPhone or iPad to surf the Web.

Using iCloud Keychain, you no longer need to remember the unique usernames and passwords that you associate with each of the websites you frequently visit. Plus, to make your web surfing experience even more secure, you can use the built-in Password Generator feature to create highly secure passwords for you (which the web browser then remembers).

To create a Home screen icon, surf to one of your favorite websites. After it loads, tap on the Share icon and then tap on the Add to Home Screen button.

The Add to Home window appears. It displays a thumbnail image of the website you’re visiting and enables you to enter the title for the website (which is displayed below the icon on your device’s Home screen). Keep the title short. When you’ve created the title (or if you decide to keep the default title that Safari creates), tap on the Add option in the upper-right corner of the window.

Safari closes, and you are returned to your device’s Home screen. Displayed on the Home screen is what looks like a new app icon; however, it’s really a link to your favorite website. Tap on this icon to automatically launch Safari from the Home screen and load your web page.

After you create a Home screen icon for a web page, it can be treated like any other app icon. You can move it around on the Home screen, add the icon to a folder, or delete the icon from the Home screen.