iPhone THE MISSING MANUAL - Cdn.oreilly.com

The Address bar is the strip at the top of the screen where you type in a Web
page’s address. And it so happens that three of the iPhone’s greatest tips and
shortcuts all have to do with this important navigational tool:
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Insta-scroll to the top. You can jump directly to the Address bar, no
matter how far down a page you’ve scrolled, just by tapping the very top
edge of the screen (on the status bar). That “tap the top” trick is timely,
too, when a Web site hides the Address bar.
Don’t delete. There is a ˛ button at the right end of the Address bar,
whose purpose is to erase the entire current address so you can type
another one. (Tap inside the Address bar to make it, and the keyboard,
appear.) But the ˛ button is for suckers.
Instead, whenever the Address is open for typing, just type. Forget that
there’s already a URL there—just start typing. The iPhone is smart enough
to figure out that you want to replace that Web address with a new one.
Don’t type http://www or .com. Safari is smart enough to know that
most Web addresses use that format—so you can leave all that stuff out,
and it will supply them automatically. Instead of http://www.cnn.com, for
example, you can just type cnn and hit Go. (If it’s .net, .org, or any other
suffix, you have to type it.)
Otherwise, this Address bar works just like the one in any other Web browser.
Tap inside it to make the keyboard appear. (If the Address bar is hidden, tap
the top edge of the iPhone screen.)
The Safari Keyboard
In Safari, the keyboard works just as described on page 20, with three
exceptions.
First, Safari is the only spot on the iPhone where you can rotate the keyboard
into landscape orientation, as shown on the next page. This is a big deal; when
it’s stretched out the wide way, you get much bigger, broader keys, and typing
is much easier and faster. Just remember to rotate the iPhone before you
tap into the Address bar or text box; once the keyboard is on the screen, you
can’t rotate the image.
Second, there are no spaces allowed in Internet addresses; therefore, in the
spot usually reserved for the Space bar, this keyboard has three keys for things
that do appear often in Web addresses: period, /, and“.com.”These nifty special
keys make typing Web addresses a lot faster (below, left).
Third, tap the blue Go key when you’re finished typing the address. That’s your
Enter key. (Or tap Done to hide the keyboard without “pressing Enter.”)
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