Monday, November 23, 2009
How To Search Within a Web Page on the iPhone
Since I just bought an iPhone, I am learning - and will be posting - some tricks and shortcuts for making it more useful.
The iPhone G3 is a great smart phone and mobile computing device. However, it has some real blind spots. For example, you cannot do a basic search within a web page for words or phrases.
Here is the hack/workaround:
1) Open up your Safari web browser
2) Bookmark a page (by tapping the
button)
3) Go into bookmarks (by tapping the
button)
4) Click "Edit"
5) Select your new bookmark
6) Change the name to "Search" or "Find"
7) Delete the address
8) Copy and paste the following into the address box:
javascript:void%28s%3Dprompt%28%27Find%20text%3A%27%2C%27%27%29%29%3Bs%3D%27%28%27+s+%27%29%27%3Bx%3Dnew%20RegExp%28s%2C%27gi%27%29%3Brn%3DMath.floor%28Math.random%28%29*100%29%3Brid%3D%27z%27%20+%20rn%3Bb%20%3D%20document.body.innerHTML%3Bb%3Db.replace%28x%2C%27%3Cspan%20name%3D%27%20+%20rid%20+%20%27%20id%3D%27%20+%20rid%20+%20%27%20style%3D%5C%27color%3A%23000%3Bbackground-color%3Ayellow%3B%20font-weight%3Abold%3B%5C%27%3E%241%3C/span%3E%27%29%3Bvoid%28document.body.innerHTML%3Db%29%3Balert%28%27Found%20%27%20+%20document.getElementsByName%28rid%29.length%20+%20%27%20matches.%27%29%3Bwindow.scrollTo%280%2Cdocument.getElementsByName%28rid%29%5B0%5D.offsetTop%29%3B9) Save (by tapping Done)
Now surf as normal, and when you want to find something within a web page, choose bookmarks and select "Search" or "Find".
The following javascript dialog will pop up:
It works well.
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Posts
I've got to try this!
ReplyDeleteWorks great! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Works like a charm! Is there any way you could write a script to trick websites into thinking an iPhone is not a mobile device? Some mobile sites are severely limited and don't provide a link to the full site. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!!! Works like a charm!
ReplyDeleteI tried this right now on my iPhone 3gs!!!! This works perfectly!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for sharing this!!!!! :)
Simple yet clever - thanks!
ReplyDeleteGreat, thanks! Somehow I got the impression that this feature of searching within a webpage was going to added to iOS 4, but so far apparently not. This is a great workaround, at least in Safari (rather than say, within Mail or Notes). Any suggestion from Apple that it plans to incorporate a similar feature anytime soon?
ReplyDeleteThanks you @Thomas for sharing this info. iphone app development
ReplyDeleteJust use the opera mini app. It has this feature built in
ReplyDeleteYou can search web pages on iOS 4.2 now using the same box where you can search google / yahoo / bing. Just type and scroll down and it's below the suggestions.
ReplyDelete