iPhone: The Missing Manual

The Address Bar

As on a computer, this Web browser offers four ways to navigate the Web:

• Type an address into the Address bar.

• Choose a bookmark.

• Return to a site you've visited recently, using the History list.

• Tap a link.

These pages cover each of these methods in turn.

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:

• 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 ...