add bookmarklet safari

How-To Geek

Beginner geek: how to use bookmarklets on any device.

Web browser bookmarklets allow you to perform actions on the current page with just a click or tap.

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Bookmarklets explained, where to find bookmarklets, how to install a bookmarklet, how to use a bookmarklet.

Web browser bookmarklets allow you to perform actions on the current page with just a click or tap. They're a lightweight alternative to browser extensions. They even work on mobile browsers that don't support traditional extensions.

To use bookmarklets, all you need is a web browser that supports bookmarks -- that's it!

Web pages you view in your browser use JavaScript code. That's why web pages aren't just static documents anymore -- they're dynamic. A bookmarklet is a normal bookmark with a piece of JavaScript code instead of a web address. When you click or tap the bookmarklet, it will execute the JavaScript code on the current page instead of loading a different page, as most bookmarks do.

Bookmarklets can be used to do something to a web page with a single click. For example, you'll find bookmarklets associated with web services like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pocket, and LastPass. When you click the bookmarklet, it will run code that lets you easily share the current page with that service.

Bookmarklets don't just have to be  associated with web services. A bookmarklet you click could modify the appearance of the page, stripping away most of the junk and giving you a clean "reading mode." It could alter fonts, remove images, or insert other content. It can access anything the web page could access. For example, you could use a bookmarklet to reveal a password that just appears as ******* on the page.

Unlike browser extensions, bookmarklets don't run in the background and bog down your browser. They don't do anything at all until you click them.

Because they just use the standard bookmark system, they can also be used in mobile browsers where you couldn't run extensions. For example, you could install the Pocket bookmarklet in Safari on an iPad and get an "Add to Pocket" option in Safari. Safari doesn't offer browsing extensions and Apple's iOS doesn't offer a "Share" feature like Android and Windows 8 do, so this is the only way to get this direct integration. You could even use the LastPass bookmarklets in Safari on an iPad to integrate LastPass with the Safari web browser.

If you're looking for a bookmarklet for a particular service, you'll generally find the bookmarklet on that service's site. Websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Pocket host pages where they provide bookmarklets along with browser extensions.

Bookmarklets aren't like programs. They're really just a piece of text that you can put in a bookmarklet, so you don't have to download them a specific site. You can get them from practically anywhere -- installing them just involves copying a bit of text off of a web page.

For example, you can just search the web for "reveal password bookmarklet" if you wanted a bookmarklet that will reveal passwords. We've covered many of the must-have bookmarklets -- and our readers have chimed in too -- so take a look at our lists for more examples.

Bookmarklets are simple to install. When you hover over a bookmarklet on a web page, you'll see its address begins with "javascript:".

If you have your web browser's bookmark or favorites toolbar visible, the easiest way to install a bookmarklet is with drag-and-drop. Press Ctrl+Shift+B to show your bookmarks toolbar if you're using Chrome or Internet Explorer. In Firefox, right-click the toolbar and click Bookmarks Toolbar.

Just drag and drop this link to your bookmark toolbar. The bookmarklet is now installed.

You can also install bookmarklets manually. Select the bookmarklet's code and copy it to your clipboard. If the bookmarklet is a link, right-click or long-press the link and copy its address to your clipboard.

Open your browser's bookmarks manager, add a bookmark, and paste the JavaScript code directly into the address box. Give your bookmarklet a name and save it.

Bookmarklets are easiest to use if you have your browser's bookmarks toolbar enabled. Just click the bookmarklet and your browser will run it on the current page.

If you don't have a bookmarks toolbar -- such as on Safari on an iPad or another mobile browser -- just open your browser's bookmarks pane and tap or click the bookmark.

In mobile Chrome, you'll need to launch the bookmarklet from the location bar. Open the web page you want to run the bookmarklet on, tap your location bar, and start searching for the name of the bookmarklet. Tap the bookmarklet's name to run it on the current page.

Note that the bookmarklet only appears here because we have it saved as a bookmark in Chrome. You'll need to add the bookmarklet to your browser's bookmarks before you can use it in this way.

The location bar approach may also be necessary in other browsers. The trick is loading the bookmark so that it will be associated with your current tab. You can't just open your bookmarks in a separate browser tab and run the bookmarklet from there -- it will run on that other browser tab.

Bookmarklets are powerful and flexible. While they're not as flashy as browser extensions, they're much more lightweight and allow you to get extension-like features in more limited mobile browsers.

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2 Simple Ways to Bookmark a Website in Safari

Last Updated: March 28, 2024 Fact Checked

Using iPhone and iPad

Expert q&a.

This article was co-authored by Luigi Oppido and by wikiHow staff writer, Rain Kengly . Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 920,461 times.

Bookmarking websites is a great way to keep track of them for later. If you visit a lot of websites, you can bookmark them in Safari. You can also create folders, edit existing bookmarks, and search for them. Here's how to add a bookmark in Safari using your Mac computer, iPhone, or iPad.

Bookmarking Websites in Safari

To add a new bookmark in Safari, open the webpage you want to save. On Mac, click Bookmarks in the top toolbar, then click Add Bookmark . On iOS, tap the Share icon, then tap Add Bookmark .

• You can enter a website in the address bar or use Google Search to find it.

• Alternatively, click the Share button in the top-right corner of the window.

• A pop-up window will open.

• To add a new folder, click Bookmarks in the menu bar, then click Add Bookmark Folder . This will add an "untitled folder" to the sidebar in Safari. Long-click the folder to edit the name.

• To access your bookmarks, click Bookmarks in the menu bar and click on the bookmark you want to open.
• Click Bookmarks in the menu bar and click Show Bookmarks to display the bookmarks sidebar.
• Click Bookmarks in the menu bar and click Edit Bookmarks to move, delete, or rename your bookmarks.
• You can also import bookmarks to Safari .

• You can enter a website in the address bar or enter keywords to search for one.

• If you want to create a new bookmark folder , tap the Bookmarks icon in Safari. It's a blue outline of two curved pages. Then tap Edit in the corner of the screen, tap New Folder , type a name for the folder, and tap Bookmarks under location.

• To access your bookmarks, tap the Bookmarks icon in Safari, then tap the bookmark you want to open.
• To delete a bookmark, tap the Bookmarks icon in Safari, then tap Edit in the corner of the screen. Tap the red - next to the bookmark you want to delete, then tap Delete .

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• ↑ Luigi Oppido. Computer & Tech Specialist. Expert Interview. 24 February 2021.

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How to really use bookmarks on iPhone and iPad

By Charlie Sorrel • 11:00 am, March 16, 2018

• Top stories

You probably already know how to save a bookmark on your iPhone or iPad, but you might not know just how many neat things you can do with them. You can customize your Safari home screen to show the bookmarks you want, but that’s just the beginning. Let’s find out how to really use bookmarks on your iPhone.

How to save a bookmark on iPhone

This is the basic unit of bookmarking, so we’ll cover it first. To bookmark a web page, just tap the share arrow in Safari, then scroll along the bottom row of buttons until you find Add Bookmark . Tap that, fill out the name (optional), and pick a location (more on locations in a second). Tap save, and your bookmark is saved.

Power-user tip: try long-pressing the bookmark icon to access this shortcut:

How to find your saved bookmarks on iPhone

Now you’ve saved a bunch of bookmarks, how do you find them again? The easiest way is to just start typing some part of the bookmark’s name or address into the regular Safari search bar, the one where you type URLS and Google searches. Safari’s autocomplete pulls from your bookmarks, so your bookmarks will show up here in their own section of the results, called Bookmarks and History .

Alternatively, you can tap then little Bookmark icon (bottom of the screen on iPhone, top left on iPad), and browse your saved bookmarks from there. Here you will see a list of your saved bookmarks, as well as any folders you have created.

Bookmark folders on iPhone

If you save a lot of bookmarks, you may want to organize them into folders. You can specify the folder where you want to keep a bookmark when you save it. To create a new bookmark folder in Safari on the iPhone, just open up the Bookmarks section, as in the last step, and tap Edit . In edit mode, you can delete existing bookmarks and folders, and drag them around to reorder.

To create a new folder, tap the New Folder button. you’ll be prompted to give the folder a name, and to choose its location — you can place it inside any other folder, or at the top level of your bookmarks list.

Tap Done , and you now have a new folder.

Special bookmark folders

There are one or two special bookmark folders. One is called Favorites . Any bookmark you save in Favorites will also show up in the Safari bookmarks bar on iPad and Mac. If you sync your Safari settings via iCloud, then these favorites will also sync. The bookmarks bar is a good place to store oft-used sites — your email service, for example — but it is also the spot to store bookmarklets that have their own special functions. For example, you can add a bookmarklet that will translate the current page with a single tap.

The other special folder is chosen by you. Whenever you open a new tab in Safari, you’ll see a grid of bookmarked sites. By default, these bookmarks will be taken from the Favorites folder, and mixed in with recent- and oft-viewed sites automatically added by Safari. But you can pick any folder as the source for this “new tab grid.” To change the new tab folder, head to Settings > Safari on your iPhone or iPad, and then, in the General section, tap Favorites . This will show you a list of your bookmark folders. Just tap the one you want to set it.

Now, whenever you open a new tab, you will see bookmarks from this list. You can set a different folder for each of your devices: iPhone, iPad, Mac.

Add bookmarks to the iPhone Home Screen

Another place to save a bookmark if on the iPhone’s regular Home Screen. If you do this, then an icon will be added to the home screen, right next to the apps. You can move it around, put in the dock, and add it to a folder, just like any other app icon. And when you tap the bookmark icon, the pager will load in Safari (in some cases, it will appear to launch as a standalone app, but that’s beyond the scope of this article).

You might want to add a home-screen icon for your email service, for example.

To add a bookmark to the Home Screen, proceed as above, for adding a regular bookmark. Just hit the share arrow in Safari scroll the bottom row of buttons and tap Add to Home Screen . In the resulting pop-up window, you may want to edit the name to be a bit shorter and neater, then hit Add . Now, go take a look at the home screen. You’ll see the icon right there.

How to edit bookmarks on iPhone

Editing your bookmarks is easy. Just tap the Bookmarks icon in Safari, then tap Edit . You’ll see the familiar edit screen, with little red delete buttons next to each bookmark and folder. You can tap an item to rename it, or edit its address. you can drag to reorder bookmarks and folders, and you can add new folders.

Bonus tip: editing the new-tab grid

Whenever you’re looking at your nice, custom Safari home-screen grid, you can edit the layout any time you like. Just tap and hold on an icon, then drag it to its new position. this is easier on iPad, and on older iPhone without 3D touch, but you can do it on any iOS device (the Mac, too). You can also delete and edit bookmarks by long-pressing on them, and you can peek-and-pop websites by force-touching the icons.

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• How To Make a Bookmarklet For Your Web Application

Browser buttons (bookmarklets) are shortcuts that act like a simple browser plugin. Their advantages include:

• Fast installation : Just add a link to your bookmarks
• Convenient : Use features while on your current page
• Easy to write : Bookmarklets are just like making a webpage; there’s no need to write a whole browser plugin
• Cross-browser : The same bookmarklet can work in IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari.

Here’s a few bookmarklets I use regularly:

• Delicious buttons : Tag a webpage (useful for browsers that don’t have the delicious toolbar, like Opera and Firefox 3)
• Google translate : Translate the current page in one click
• InstaCalc Bookmarklet : Open a real-time calculator on any site

How easy is it?

Only one way to find out. Try the instacalc bookmarklet right here:

• Click this link: instacalc bookmarklet .
• A calculator opens in the corner of the page. Type 1 + 1 to see the result.
• Select this text 15 mph in fps and click the link again. Voila! The text is automatically inserted.
• Close the window by clicking the red “x”

Neat, eh? No install, just click and go. To save the bookmarklet, right click the link and “add to favorites/bookmarks”. Now you can open the calculator on any page.

Today we’ll walk through the anatomy of a bookmarklet, dissect a few, and give you the tools to build your own.

Bookmarklets 101

Regular bookmarks (aka favorites) are just locations to visit, like “http://gmail.com”. Bookmarklets are javascript code that the browser runs on the current page, and they’re marked by “javascript:” instead of “http://”.

When clicking a bookmarklet, imagine the page author wrote <script>bookmarklet code here</script> — it can do almost anything. There are a few restrictions:

• Restricted length: Most URLs have a limit around 2000 characters, which limits the amount of code you can run. There’s a way around this.
• No spaces allowed: Some browsers choke on spaces in a URL, so yourcodelookslikethis. We have a trick for this too.

A simple bookmarklet looks like this:

<a href="javascript:alert('hi');">my link</a>

Click this link to see it in action. This example isn’t too wild, but the key is that bookmarklets let you run code on an existing page.

What do you want to do?

Your bookmarklet should do something useful. Ideas include:

• Transform the current page. Do find/replace, highlight certain words or images, change CSS styles…
• Open/overlay a new page . Open a new page or draw a window on the current one, like a sidebar
• Send data to another site . Post, share, or upload the current URL or selected text (like Google translate).
• Look at the bookmarklet directories for more inspiration.

People spend most of their time on other sites. Web application authors, think creatively: how can people use your service when away from your site?

Javascript for Bookmarklets

A bookmarklet can use any javascript command , but certain ones are helpful:

Get current page title: document.title Get the current URL : location.href Get the currently selected text :

Make text url-safe: encodeURIComponent(text) (and corresponding decodeURIComponent() ). The page title or URL may have invalid characters (spaces, slashes, etc.) so it’s a good habit to encode them before sending them over (spaces become %20, etc.).

Dissecting the Delicious Bookmarklet

Here’s the code for the delicious bookmarklet (spaces added for readability):

And here’s what’s happening:

• Change to a new URL (to post the item)
• Specify query parameters for the current document’s url (location.href) and title (document.title)
• Make the paramaters url-safe with encodeURIComponent

Once you tag and save the post, delicious sends you to the original page. How do they know where? Because it was sent along in the original request!

Bookmarklet Interface Ideas

Imagine this: Your users are browsing for cat photos (or the journals of the American Chemical Society, but probably lolcats ) when they click your killer Web 2.0 bookmarklet. What happens?

Common techniques are:

• Take the user to a new page. Hopefully, you can use some data from the current page, otherwise it’s a regular bookmark.
• Frame the current page , like Google translate or Stumbleupon. This is similar to the first technique, but your site displays the old page inside the window.
• Overlay a new interface. Use CSS absolute positioning to make a window in a set place, or fixed positioning to have the window follow you as you scroll. Beware the CSS bugs.

Overlaid windows are great, but won’t that be hard to cram into a single line?

The Big Trick: Dynamic Javascript

Direct javascript works fine if you just want to redirect the user to another page, like the delicious bookmarklet. The no spaces, 2000 character limit really hurts when you want a more complicated interface.

There’s a fix: Our bookmarklet becomes a stub to load another (regular) javascript file. Here’s the code (spaces added for readability):

Here’s how it works:

• Define an anonymous function to download the script
• Create a script element, type text/javascript . We can’t use var _my_script because of the spaces, so choose a unique name.
• Set the src of the script to our real javascript file. This file could pull down more javascript also.
• Add the script element to the current page

And that’s it! Our bookmarklet can now load any javascript we please, without the annoying restrictions. An added bonus: see how many people are using your tool, and you we can change our script (fix bugs or add features) on the server.

Dissecting the Instacalc Bookmarklet

Here’s the steps I went through to make the instacalc bookmarklet

Create a bookmarklet interface

I made a trimmed-down page designed for the bookmarklet. If you click the page it appears fullscreen, but it resizes to the parent container. I planned on hosting this page inside a smaller iframe.

Create a stub bookmarklet

Because I wanted to get the currently selected text and overlay an interface, I knew I couldn’t fit my javascript into 2000 characters. So I used the dynamic javascript technique above to get the real javascript file .

Careful caching

I didn’t want to cache the bookmarklet javascript in case I wanted to change its behavior (but I did cache the other files ). I added a dummy query parameter using Math.random() , which forces the browser to download the file each time. Since the script is small, this wasn’t too much of an issue.

Build the interface

The script to build the interface is pretty straightforward. There’s some helper functions for encoding (instacalc stores data using base64). The script gets the selected text, constructs the URL for the iframe, and loads it up. It generates the CSS to have a fixed window on the top right of the screen, and a button to hide the window.

As a slight trick, if the bookmarklet is run again on the same page, it just shows the existing window instead of creating a new iframe.

Tips & Tricks

Keep this in mind when making your bookmarklet:

Make it friendly . Don’t interrupt the user’s flow. Bring up the window on the same page, or a new page that closes. If you must redirect the user to their original page.

This is important: the user was nice enough to use your service, so put ‘em back where they were!

Make it fast . After you’ve got it working, tweak your bookmarklet’s speed using the following techniques

• http caching
• gzip compression
• javascript optimization

Give people instructions . Bookmarklets aren’t that common, so help people understand your tool. A few instructions (“right click this link and add to bookmarks/favorites”) and a screenshot go a long way.

The gotcha: cross-domain communication

Because of cross-domain security restrictions, your bookmarklets can’t use fancy-pants Ajax techniques to communicate with your site. The easiest way to communicate is through query parameters in a URL.

What’s programming without bugs? Use firefox to debug your javascript and CSS. Instead of clicking a bookmarklet each time, just make a page that runs the javascript file directly: <script src="..."> . This is what the bookmarklet does.

Once the dummy page is working, try your bookmarklet on other sites. You’d be surprised how other CSS rules can mess up your carefully positioned elements (remember, you’re running in the context of another site).

Links & Resources

I’m sure you’ll come up with crazy ways to use your newfound toy. The main benefits are simple installation, compatibility, and being able to interact with the current page.

There are crunching tools to make your javascript bookmarklet-friendly. But it’s nice to just dynamically load the real script and be done with it.

People have put the delicious bookmarklet on steroids , such as letting you type the tags in the url before hitting the button.

Taking this to the extreme, Greasemonkey is a firefox plugin letting you run really powerful scripts. For example, there was a script to add a “delete” button to Gmail before it was available.

Other Posts In This Series

• Starting Ruby on Rails: What I Wish I Knew
• Intermediate Rails: Understanding Models, Views and Controllers
• A Simple, Comprehensive Overview of Javascript
• Using JSON to Exchange Data

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Safari  - Bookmarking in Safari

Safari  -, bookmarking in safari, safari bookmarking in safari.

Safari: Bookmarking in Safari

Lesson 4: bookmarking in safari.

/en/safari/customizing-safari/content/

Have you ever found a website you wanted to view later, only to realize you didn't remember the web address when the time came? Bookmarks are a great way to save and organize specific websites so you can revisit them again and again.

In this lesson, we'll talk about how to add bookmarks to Safari, how to manage and organize your bookmarks and folders, and how to import bookmarks from another browser.

Check out the video below to learn the basics of bookmarking in Safari.

To add a bookmark:

We recommend only placing a website in the Favorites folder if it is a website you will be visiting frequently. If you save too many, the folder can become cluttered.

Using bookmarks

Once you've bookmarked a website, there are two ways to open the bookmark.

Managing bookmarks

If you plan to use bookmarks regularly, you may want to learn how to organize them.

To create a folder:

New folders can be added within the Favorites folder or as their own standalone folders.

To delete bookmarks and folders:

If you no longer use certain bookmarks or folders, you can always delete them.

You cannot delete the Favorites folder.

To search for a bookmark:

If you're looking for a specific bookmark but can't remember where it's saved, you can search for it.

Importing bookmarks

If you've already saved a lot of bookmarks in another web browser, you can import these bookmarks into Safari.

To import bookmarks:

/en/safari/privacy-and-security-in-safari/content/

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How to Add Safari Bookmarks on an iPhone or iPod Touch

Create shortcuts to your favorite websites on your iOS home screen

What to Know

• Go to the URL in Safari. Tap Share > Add Bookmark or Add to Favorites . Accept the name, and select Save .
• Edit and rearrange bookmarks by tapping the Bookmarks icon at the bottom of Safari and selecting Edit beneath the list.

This article explains how to add bookmarks on an iPhone or iPod Touch using the Safari browser app. We also discuss the difference between bookmarks and favorites. Instructions apply to devices with iOS 10 and later.

How to Add Bookmarks in Safari for iPhone

To add a bookmark to Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch:

Open Safari and go to the URL you want to bookmark.

Tap the Share icon at the bottom of the page. It looks like a box with an arrow pointing up.

In the Share menu, tap Add Bookmark . Enter a new name, if you like, or tap Save to save the bookmark under its original name.

Alternatively, press and hold the Bookmark icon (it looks like an open book) beside the Share icon and select Add Bookmark . Select Save to save the bookmark.

How to Add Favorites to Safari on an iPhone

The process for adding favorites is similar:

Open Safari and go to the URL you want to add to your Favorites list.

In the Share menu, tap Add to Favorites . Enter a new name, if you like, or tap Save to save the URL under its original name.

Safari Bookmarks vs. Favorites

People often use the words bookmarks and favorites interchangeably. However, there is a distinction between the two folders in the Safari app on the iPhone and iPod.

In iOS, a favorite is one type of bookmark. Bookmarks on an iPhone or iPod Touch appear in a default primary folder in Safari, where all bookmarked pages are stored. Anything added to this folder is accessible through the Bookmarks icon in Safari so that you can access those saved links at any time.

Favorites is a folder stored within the Bookmarks folder. It's the first folder you see when you access Bookmarks. You don't get quicker access to favorites than to bookmarks on an iPhone or iPod Touch. However, on an iPad, the favorites appear as tabs at the top of every Safari page you open, so you're one tap away from any of them. You can add additional custom folders to either folder to organize your bookmarks on any iOS device.

It's also possible to add bookmark shortcuts to the iPhone or iPod Touch home screen so that you can instantly access websites without first opening Safari.

How to Edit and Arrange Bookmarks

You can edit and arrange your bookmarks in a few ways:

• To view and organize folders and bookmarks, tap the Bookmark icon at the bottom of any Safari screen to display a list of folders, and then tap the Bookmark tab.
• To edit folders, tap a folder to open it and display the individual URLs saved in the folder, then tap Edit .
• To delete a folder or bookmark, tap the red minus next to the name.
• To rearrange folders or bookmarks, drag the three-horizontal-line icon next to each entry up or down.
• To add a folder, tap New Folder at the bottom of the editing screen.

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Or, you can install the bookmarklet manually. If you prefer a video, refer to the bookmarklet installation screencast for week two. The instructions are different for each browser:

• In Chrome, click Bookmarks > Bookmark Manager
• You will see a new tab open with all of your bookmarks in it
• (If you see a big blue button labeled "New", then jump to the section below . Otherwise, continue.)

If you have the newer Chrome, follow these instructions:

• Click the blue "New" button in the left column
• Copy the JavaScript by right-clicking on the bookmarklet link and selecting 'Copy Link Location'
• Paste the code into the "URL" field.

There are two ways to do this in Firefox:

To install a bookmarklet you created in Firefox:

• Type a name for your bookmarklet into the Name field, and select where you want the bookmark to live. If you want it easily accessible, choose the "Bookmarks Toolbar."

• Copy the JavaScript for your bookmarklet, and paste it into the "Location" field.
• Click Save.

If you want to install a bookmarklet that is on a webpage:

• In Firefox, if you already have a bookmarklet on a web page, right-click on the bookmarklet link

• Type the name of your Bookmarklet in the "Name" field
• Click "Save"

Dragging the link to the bookmarks bar is the easiest way to do this in Safari. Otherwise we have to create a bookmark for something else, and then edit the URL to be the Javscript we want to run.

• In Safari, load any web page. We're use infopeople.org for this example. (You can't add a bookmark unless you're on a page already, it seems.)
• Select Bookmarks > Add Bookmark
• Click "Add"

• You should now see a text box pop up under your bookmark
• Copy the JavaScript by right-clicking on the bookmarklet link and selecting "Copy Link"
• Paste the code into the text box

4. Internet Explorer

Older versions of Internet Explorer don't support drag-and-drop bookmarks, so this might be your only option with IE.

• Make sure your favorites bar is visible. (Right-click on the menu bar and make sure "Favorites" is checked.)
• Right click on the bookmarklet link and choose "Add to Favorites"
• In the "Create In" field, choose "Favorites Bar"
• You should now have a bookmarklet link in your Favorites Bar

How to add bookmarks and favorites on an iPhone's Safari browser for quick access to your preferred webpages

• You can easily bookmark or favorite a webpage on an iPhone if you want to regularly return to a particular page.
• Just tap the "Share" button at the bottom of a page and then tap "Add Bookmark" to create a bookmark in your iPhone's Safari browser.
• If you save a bookmark to the Favorites folder or choose the "Add to Favorites" option, it'll appear in the Favorites list when you open a new tab in Safari.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

Like any web browser, you can bookmark web pages you want to return to using Safari on your iPhone .

Once bookmarked, you can find these saved pages by tapping the Bookmark button at the bottom of the Safari screen. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Iphone xs (from $999 at apple), how to save a bookmark on your iphone's safari browser.

1. Start the Safari app and open a web page that you want to bookmark. 

2. Tap the Share button (the square with an arrow).

3. Tap "Add Bookmark."

4. On the Add Bookmark page, you can edit the name of the bookmark and even tweak the URL if necessary — just tap either of those fields and type as needed. 

5. If you want to store the bookmark in the default Favorites folder, tap "Save." If you want to choose a different folder, tap "Favorites" and then choose a folder (or create a new one) and then tap "Save."

If you save your bookmark to the default folder, it will appear in the list of favorites when you open a blank new tab in Safari, giving you fast access to commonly used web sites.

The difference between favorites and bookmarks in Safari

You might notice that when you tap the Share button, there are options to add both a bookmark and a favorite. Since the Favorites folder happens to be the default location to save bookmarks, this can be somewhat confusing. 

In reality, favorites are just a special kind of bookmark. If you save a bookmark to the Favorites folder (either using the Add Bookmark button or the "Add to Favorites" button in the Share menu), it's effectively the exact same thing as a favorite.  If you store a bookmark in a different folder, you'll need to navigate past the default Favorites folder to find them. 

Bottom line: Using the "Add to Favorites" button does the same thing as using the default folder for "Add bookmark."

Read more coverage from  How To Do Everything: Tech :

How to add link shortcuts to business insider and insider on your iphone or ipad, how to move apps and create app folders on any iphone model, how to stop robocalls and other spam calls from reaching your iphone, how to print a file from your iphone or ipad in a few easy steps.

Watch: How to use the iPhone's new spam-call-blocking feature

• Main content

Safari User Guide

• Change your homepage
• Import bookmarks, history, and passwords
• Make Safari your default web browser
• Go to websites
• Find what you’re looking for
• Bookmark webpages that you want to revisit
• See your favorite websites
• Use tabs for webpages
• Pin frequently visited websites
• Play web videos
• Mute audio in tabs
• Pay with Apple Pay
• Autofill credit card info
• Autofill contact info
• Keep a Reading List
• Hide ads when reading articles
• Translate a webpage
• Download items from the web
• Share or post webpages
• Add passes to Wallet
• Save part or all of a webpage
• Print or create a PDF of a webpage
• Customize a start page
• Customize the Safari window
• Customize settings per website
• Zoom in on webpages
• Get extensions
• Manage cookies and website data
• Block pop-ups
• Clear your browsing history
• Browse privately
• Autofill user name and password info
• Prevent cross-site tracking
• View a Privacy Report
• Change Safari preferences
• Keyboard and other shortcuts
• Troubleshooting

Add a bookmark folder in Safari on Mac

You can organize bookmarks into folders in the Safari sidebar.

Open Safari for me

Control-click in the sidebar and choose New Folder.

Enter a folder name.

To change the name, Control-click the folder, then choose Rename.

Drag the folder to the location you want.

How to Create, View, Edit, and Restore Bookmarks in Safari on Mac

Bookmarks are shortcuts to your favorite web pages so that you can navigate to them in seconds. This article explains how you can create, view, edit, and restore your Bookmarks in Safari on your Mac.

Using Bookmarks is a great way to save and organize websites so you can easily visit them later. If Safari is enabled in iCloud Preferences on your Mac, Safari will use iCloud to synchronize your bookmarks across multiple devices. You can use iCloud.com to restore your bookmarks from an earlier version that was automatically archived in iCloud. In other words, this will let you recover your bookmarks you accidentally deleted.

See also: How to Import Chrome or Firefox Passwords to iCloud Keychain on Mac

How to Create a Bookmark

There are several ways to add a bookmark:

Use the Share button

• Launch Safari and open the desired website that you want to bookmark.
• Click the Share button in the toolbar.
• Click Add Bookmark. And a dialog box will appear saying “add this page to”.
• Choose a folder (you can create folders see the “how to manage bookmarks” section below). The default folder is Favorites. You can change its name and add a description.
• When you are done, click the blue Add button.

See also: Safari Top Sites Not Working On Mac, Fix

Use the Smart Search field

• With the wanted website open in Safari, move your mouse over the Smart Search field (this is the address field where you enter URLs), do not click yet.
• A circle (+) icon will appear at the left side of the field. Then click and hold this button.
• And choose Bookmarks.

Safari menu bar

If you use this met dog, you can add multiple bookmarks at once. Here is how:

• In Safari, open a website you want to bookmark. If you want to bookmark multiple sites, use tabs, and open more than one site.
• From the Safari menu bar, click Bookmarks.
• From the drop-down menu, select Add Bookmark or Add Bookmarks for These X Tabs. Then again you may add description etc and click Add.

See also: How To Change Default Search Engine in Safari (iOS and macOS)

This is arguably the easiest way. You can simply use the keyboard shortcut to add a bookmark. Here is how:

• Open the desired website in Safari.
• On your keyboard, press the Command-D keys together.
• This will open the Bookmark dialog. Select a folder and then click Add.

Now you may choose a method and then you may repeat this step for all your favorite sites.

See also: How To Manage Downloads In Safari On iPhone And iPad

How to view bookmarks

So you have added your desired websites to your bookmarks. Here is how you can find and view your bookmarks:

• In Safari, click the Sidebar button in the toolbar. And then click the Bookmarks tab. Or alternatively, click Bookmarks and choose Show Bookmarks.
• You will see all of your bookmarks and bookmark folders. You can click a bookmark to visit.
• You will see a search field at the top which you can use to search your bookmarks. If you do not see the search field, scroll down to open it.
• To close this sidebar, you can click the Sidebar icon again. Or you can choose the Hide Bookmarks option from Bookmarks.

Alternatively, you can view your Bookmarks by clicking the Bookmarks in the menu bar.

See also: Safari kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Error, Blank Page Fix

How to manage bookmarks

You can manage your bookmarks. You can:

• edit, copy and delete your bookmarks or folders.
• edit a bookmark’s description
• create folders and organize your bookmarks.

Edit, rename or delete your bookmarks or folders

• In safari, open the bookmark sidebar by clicking the Sidebar icon and then clicking the Bookmark icon.
• Select a bookmark or bookmark folder to modify.
• Right-click (or control-click) the bookmark or folder.
• A menu will appear. Select one of the options: Rename, Edit Address (this will let you change the URL address of the bookmark), Copy, and Delete.

Edit description

If you want to change a bookmarks description, you can do that as well:

• In Safari, open the Bookmark sidebar and then double-click a folder where the bookmark you want to change its description is located. If you have not created a bookmark, then double-click Favorites.
• This will open all of the bookmarks in that folder.
• Select a bookmark and then control-click (or right-click) it.
• This time you will see an option saying “Edit Description”, select that.

You can also move your bookmarks to different folders by using your mouse to drag them there.

See also: Safari Says: Not Secure. What Does It Mean?

Create bookmark folders

You can create bookmark folders. This will let you organize your bookmarks. This will also make your bookmarks easier to find. You can create new bookmark folders many different ways, for example:

• In Safari, click the Sidebar icon Open the Bookmark sidebar. Then click the Bookmark tab. Control-click (or right-click) anywhere inside the sidebar and then select New Folder.
• Alternatively, in Safari, click Bookmarks and then Edit Bookmarks. This will open a bookmark window. Click the New Folder button (top-right corner of the screen). Or, to open this bookmark window, you can use its shortcut. On your keyboard, press these three keys together: Option(alt)-Command-b.

How to restore bookmarks

If you have ever accidentally deleted a bookmark, it can be incredibly frustrating. The good news is that, if you are using iCloud, you can restore your bookmarks to recover them by using iCloud.com. Follow the steps below:

• Open Safari on your Mac and visit iCloud.com .
• Sign in with your Apple ID. Then follow the onscreen instructions (verifying your identity etc).
• Click Account Settings.
• Scroll down and find the Advanced section.
• Click Restore Bookmarks. You will see all of the available bookmarks. You can sort them by “Date Deleted”, “Name”, or “Folder”.
• Select one or more then click Restore. Then click Done.

See also: How To Recover Deleted Contacts

Dr. Serhat Kurt worked as a Senior Technology Director specializing in Apple solutions for small and medium-sized educational institutions. He holds a doctoral degree (or doctorate) from the University of Illinois at Urbana / Champaign and a master’s degree from Purdue University. He is a former faculty member. Here is his LinkedIn profile and Google Scholar profile . Email Serhat Kurt .

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One Comment

Thanks for this info. So How do you MAKE a custom icon for your bookmark favorites toolbar in Safari?

Yes, I know about “favicons” and copy/past emojis from iChat or such into the toolbar from “Edit Bookmarks.” I have a bunch up there already. But if you have, for example, an organization with a logo, that makes more sense to show than having or abbreviating “Acme Plastics Composite and Recomposting Development Technologies Of the Puget Sound” or even “APCRCFTPS”… How about just the logo? That saves an enormous amount of real estate. How do you do that? No article even mentions anything about “customization” except how to move stuff around your toolbar. Thanks!

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Pocket for Safari

Installing the Pocket browser extension installs buttons that let you save items with one click.

Install the bookmarklet