Undoubtedly one of the apps with which many of us spend the most time in our iPad (y iPhone) is safari, and surely we are all well familiar with all the basic controls, but there are times that we limit ourselves to the known and do not explore others features that can be very utility. Today we review several very simple shortcuts that will make life easier. Did you know them all?
Very useful shortcuts that only require a long press
We have said that they are very simple shortcuts to handle and you will immediately be able to verify that we are not exaggerating, because all they require is that we hold down instead of giving a simple touch, giving us direct access to some of the most used functions and saving us having to go through more menus.
Buttons to go forward and back
We start with a recurring need that is access history, to return to a page that we visited some time ago: if we hold down the back button instead of going directly to the previous page, a window opens with the last pages that we have visited. If we want to go back to a later one, we do the same in the button to go forward.
Bookmarks button
Holding down the favorites button also gives us access to a few options in a more direct way: the window that opens allows us to add a bookmark, but also to add reading list o add to shared links. For the first option and the third, a new window opens to confirm, but the second does it directly.
Add tab button
We do not need to go through the history, however, if what we want to do is reopen a tab that we have accidentally closed: simply by holding down the button to open a new tab, the one with the "+" sign, a window will appear with the recently closed tabs.
"OK" button
If we are in the view that shows us all the tabs that we have open, keep pressed on the "OK" button, it will always give us the option to close all tabs, but on the iPad it also appears in the floating window, an extra option that allows us to open in split window.
Tabs button
If instead of holding down the button with the “+” sign, we do it in the one on the right, a menu will open that allows us to access some of the most interesting functions that are opened on the screen. We can see all the tabs, but without having to go through this one, more specifically open one in private browsing.
Refresh button
If we find ourselves on a website that is not well optimized for mobile phones, or on one optimized for the iPhone that is not comfortable for us to navigate on our iPad, we can go directly to desktop version simply by holding down the update button, until the corresponding window opens.
Read mode button
This is a novelty of iOS 11 and all fans of the reading mode will appreciate it: if instead of tapping on the corresponding button (the one with the three stripes to the left of the url) we keep pressed, a menu will appear that will give us the option about what all pages support, automatically open in this mode.
Links
Not only does holding down on some buttons open up direct options, but also on links: we can choose to open them, including opening them on split screen as well, but we can also copy them or, as from the bookmarks button for an already open page, move them to the reading list.
Images
If the website we visit has not disabled it, a long press on the images will also open a floating menu. As with links, this operation is also quite intuitive, and surely you will not be surprised to discover that it opens up the possibility of opening it in a new tab, but also copying and saving it.
Favorites
Another quite intuitive option but it is worth remembering: holding down the favorite icons will allow us to rearrange them to leave them in the order we prefer, simply by dragging (it has nothing to do with the drag and drop function, like this which works the same in any version of iOS).