iPad and iPad Pro For Dummies
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Yes, indeed, Safari on iPad supports tabbed browsing instead of the slightly clunky pages it used in older versions. And you’re not restricted to a meager two tabs — no way. Your iPad or iPad mini lets you open up to 24 — count ’em, 24 — tabs, so you can throw some wild web page parties.

These days, it’s a rare web surfer who marches sequentially through a series of web pages. In your own surfing sessions, you probably leave a few web pages open full time (for things like Google searches and RSS feed monitoring).

It’s also likely that you’ll come across a lot of links that you want to check out while leaving the original page open in the browser. In your computer’s web browser, you probably handle these and similar surfing situations by launching a tab for each page you want to leave open in the browser window. It’s an essential web-browsing technique, but can it be done with the Safari browser?

Be careful if you have the full complement of 24 browser tabs opened. If you click a link that automatically opens in a new browser tab, Safari automatically shuts down one of your existing browser tabs to make way for the new tab. This could be a problem if you had some important info in that window. To avoid this, consider opening a maximum of 23 Safari tabs so you always have an extra one available if you need it.

You can use either of the following methods to open a page in a new tab:

  • In Safari, tap the New Tab button (+) shown in this figure. Safari creates the new tab. You can then select a page from your bookmarks, type the page address, or run a search to find the page you want.

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  • On a web page, tap and hold a link to display the link options, and then tap Open in New Tab.

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Some web-based apps and web page links are configured to automatically open the tab in a new window, so you may see a new tab being created when you tap a link. Also, if you add a web clip to your Home screen, tapping the button opens the web clip in a new Safari tab.

If you recently closed a tab, you can reopen it quickly by tapping and holding the New Tab button. This displays the Recently Closed Tabs list, which shows the tabs you’ve closed during the current Safari session. You then tap the tab you want to reopen.

Once you have multiple tabs on the go, you navigate them by tapping the tab you want to view. To close a tab that you no longer need, tap it and then tap the X that appears on the left side of the tab.

When you tap and hold a link, and then tap Open in New Tab, Safari keeps the current page active and loads the new one in the background. That’s often the behavior you want because it lets the new page take its sweet time loading while you continue to read the current one. However, you might find that most of the time you open the new tab and then switch to it immediately. Performing that extra tap to select the new tab gets old in a hurry.

The solution is to follow these steps to configure Safari to always open new tabs in the foreground:

  1. On the Home screen, tap Settings to open the Settings app.

  2. Tap Safari. The Settings app displays the Safari screen.

  3. Tap the Open New Tabs in Background switch to Off.

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