How to Use Bookmarks in the iPad's Safari Browser

The ability to bookmark a website has become universal among web browsers. The bookmark allows you to quickly open a favorite site, and you can create folders to help keep your bookmarks organized. Don't have time to read that article? There's also a special reading list, which means you can keep your articles separate from your favorite websites.

How to Create a Bookmark:

The key to saving a website as a bookmark in the Safari browser is the Share Button. This button looks like a box with an arrow pointing out of it and is located at the top-right of the screen, just to the right of the address bar. Remember: the address bar hides itself as you scroll down the page, but you can always tap the top of the screen right where the time is displayed to have the address bar reappear.

When you tap the share button, a window pops up with all of your share options. Adding the website to your bookmarks is the first button on the second level of buttons. It looks like an open book.

When you tap the Add Bookmark button, you will be prompted with a name and location for the bookmark. The default name and location should be fine. As your bookmarks list grows, you may want to organize your bookmarks into folders. (More on that later...)

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How to Save an Article to the Reading List:

You can save an article to your reading list in much the same way as you can save a website to your bookmarks. After you tap the Share Button, simply choose the "Add to Reading List" button instead of the "Add Bookmark" button. These buttons are side-by-side. The button for adding to the reading list has a pair of glasses on it.

Did You Know: You can also save a website to your iPad's home screen.

How to Open Your Bookmarks and Your Reading List

Of course, it wouldn't do us much good to bookmark a website if we couldn't pull up a list of those bookmarks. Your bookmarks are accessed by tapping the Bookmark Button, which is to the left of the address bar at the top of the screen. This button looks like an open book.

The top of this list has a favorites folder, a history folder and any other custom folders you have created. After the folders, individual websites will be listed. If you saved a bookmark to your favorites, you can tap the Favorites folder to retrieve it from the list. To open a website, simply tap its name from within the list.

The history folder lets you browse through your web history. This is great if you want to return to a recently visited website but you didn't bookmark it.  How to clear your web history on the iPad.

At the top of the bookmarks list are three tabs. The open book is for bookmarks, the reading glasses are for articles you have added to your reading list and the "@" sign is for articles that have been shared in your Twitter feed. (You'll need to connect your iPad to your Twitter account for this feature to work.) If you have saved any articles to your reading list, you can tap the glasses to retrieve it.

Next up: Adding folders and deleting websites from your bookmarks.

As you begin filling up your bookmarks folder in the Safari browser, it can become disorganized. What's the good of a bookmark if you have to hunt through a long list to find it? Luckily, you can organize your bookmarks on the iPad.

First, open up the bookmark tab in Safari. You can do this by tapping the button that looks like an open book to the left of the address bar at the top of the screen. (No address bar? Just tap the time at the top of the screen to make it appear.)

Just below the list of bookmarks is the "Edit" button. Tapping this button will put your bookmarks in edit mode.

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In edit mode, you can delete a bookmark by tapping the red circular button with the minus sign. This will bring up the Delete button. Tap the Delete button to confirm your decision.

You can move bookmarks around the list by holding your finger down on a bookmarked website and dragging it to a new location on the list.

You can edit a bookmark by tapping it. This will not only let you change the name of the bookmark, but also the location. So if you have multiple folders, you can move a bookmark into a new folder through this screen.

Last, you can create a folder by tapping the "New Folder" button at the bottom of this screen. You will be prompted to enter a name for the folder. Once created, you can move websites into the new folder. You'll also have the ability to add new bookmarks directly to the folder.

When you are finished organizing your bookmarks, tap the Done button at the bottom.

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