- Using Tabbed Browsing with Safari on an iPhone
- Safari's Enhanced Share Icon
- Create a Personalized Reading List
- Get Rid of On-Screen Clutter with Reader
- Customize Your Safari Web Surfing Experience
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Customize Your Safari Web Surfing Experience
At any time, you can customize your Safari web surfing experience by adjusting the app-related settings using the iPhone or iPad's Settings app. To do this, launch Settings from the Home Screen. From the main Settings menu, scroll down to the Safari option and tap on it.
From the Safari menu screen within Settings, you'll find a handful of customizable options that are divided into the following categories: General, Privacy, and Security. Under the General option, for example, you can choose your default Search Engine for Safari. Your options include Google, Yahoo!, or Bing. You can also turn on or off the AutoFill option, which makes filling in repetitive fields within online forms less tedious, because your iOS device will remember past responses and automatically fill in the appropriate fields for things like usernames and passwords.
The Open New Tabs in Background feature allows websites to open additional (tabbed) web pages on your behalf, but keep them in the background until you're ready to view them. The web page you're currently viewing will remain the active browser window.
Finally, under the General option within the Safari menu of Settings, you'll find the Always Show Bookmarks Bar. This allows you to continuously display your custom Bookmarks Bar near the top of the Safari screen. Using this feature allows you to keep a listing of your favorite web pages easily accessible, but it also takes up one line of on-screen real estate, so whether or not you turn on this feature is a matter of personal preference.
If you turn this Always Show Bookmarks Bar feature off, the Bookmark Bar will automatically appear whenever you are manually typing a website's URL into the Safari website address field or when entering information into the Search field. However, it will then disappear.
Under the Privacy heading of the Safari menu screen within Settings, you can turn on or off the Private Browsing feature, which means that websites you visit will not appear within Safari's History folder. You can also decide whether or not Safari will accept cookies from websites you visit. (A cookie is data that allows a website to remember who you are and any personalized settings or preferences you have related to a website.)
By tapping on the Clear History icon, you can delete Safari's History folder, which maintains a list of all websites you've visited. If you tap on the Clear Cookies and Data field, this will delete any cookies stored on your iOS device related to specific websites.
The Fraud Warning, JavaScript, and Block Pop-Ups options all have a virtual on/off switch associated with them, and by default are in the on position. The Fraud Warning feature will help keep you from accidently surfing to fraudulent websites that pose as legit websites, while the JavaScript feature will allow you to view websites programmed using JavaScript website design tools.
The Block Pop-Ups feature will keep websites from opening up random and unwanted pop-up windows as you're surfing the web. If you're not sure how to adjust any of these Safari-related options within the Settings app, leave the default options intact.