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Share a Web page from Safari on the iPhone 4?

I spend a lot of time surfing the Web on my iPhone 4 and sometimes want to share what I find with my administrative assistant. On my laptop, I can just copy and paste the URL, but in Safari on my Apple iPhone, I can't seem to do the same without a lot of hassle. Is there an easier way to share a Web page address on the little gizmo?


Dave's Answer:

You betcha! Turns out that the version of the Safari web browser that's on iOS devices has a lot of features and capabilities that aren't shared by its big sister on your Mac OS X computer. Most notable is that the bookmark button offers quite a few more options than on your Mac system. One of those options, as you'll see, is to share a Web page with a colleague via email, exactly what you seek.

It's funny, I remember before the copy and paste capability showed up in iOS, the iPhone operating system, and how its addition seemed to make so many things easier. But you're right, there are still some areas of the phone where copy and paste seems to be more of a task than they should be, and one of which is within the world of Web browsing. That's probably why they added these extra capabilities to the bookmark feature, right?

Anyway, let me show you the steps required. It's easy once you know where to find the option....

So here I am looking at a Web page, one about the meaning of the iconography in the Unilever corporate logo:

iphone share web page url link 1

On the bottom are a row of buttons. We want the one smack in the middle, the square with the arrow pointing up and out of it. Tap on that...

iphone share web page url link 2

In addition to the bookmark features and reading list, etc., note the fourth option: "Mail Link to this Page". That's what we want. Before we proceed, though, also note the "Tweet" and "Print" options. Handy if you have those set up.

But let's tap on "Mail link to this Page" within Safari instead.

iphone share web page url link 3

Nice. You can see that it's automatically pulled up an email composition window with the message subject the actual title of the Web page and the first portion of the message itself being the URL of the page.

iphone share web page url link 4

I'll send it to myself just for this test. Normally I wouldn't do that. Though sometimes I will find a page on my iPhone that I want to revisit once I get to my desk, so it's not entirely without precedent. Or I'm lonely and want more email. One of the two. :-)

If I am sending it to someone else, I'll take the extra time and add a short note. Easily done by tapping in the message body field and tapping something in:

iphone share web page url link 5

Ready go to? Tap on "Send" and if you've set up an iPhone signature too, you'll be surprised how nicely it all comes out:

iphone share web page url link 6

Don't know how to customize your signature? I have you covered: How to change the email signature on your iPhone.


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Categorized: iPhone and Cell Phone Help   (Article 10134, Written by )
Tagged: apple iphone, bookmarks, iphone 4, safari, shared url, web surfing
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Reader Comments To Date:

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
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