3. Browsing the Web
In this chapter, you discover how to browse the World Wide Web using the Chrome browser app that comes with your Galaxy Note II. Topics include the following:
→ Bookmarking websites
→ Using tricks to browse quickly
→ Keeping track of websites you have visited
→ Configuring Chrome to work your way
Your Galaxy Note II has a full-featured web browser that enables you to take full advantage of its large screen. You can bookmark sites you want to revisit, hold your Galaxy Note II in landscape orientation so you can see more on the screen, and even share your GPS location with sites.
Navigating with Chrome
The Chrome browser app enables you to access sites quickly, bookmark them for future use, and return instantly to the sites you visit most frequently. You can even sync your open Chrome tabs among your Galaxy Note II, your other portable devices, and your computer.
1. Touch the Chrome icon on the Home screen.
2. Touch to type in a new web address. If the website has moved the previous page up so that the omnibox is hidden, drag the web page down so that the omnibox appears again.
3. Touch to navigate among your tabs. Read more about tabs later in this chapter.
4. Touch a thumbnail to go to one of your Most Visited sites.
5. Touch to display one of the pages you have closed most recently. You might need to scroll down to reach the button for the page you want.
6. Touch to display the list of Most Visited sites.
7. Touch to display your bookmarks.
8. Touch to display your Other Devices list, which shows the tabs open on your other phones, tablets, and computers that use Chrome and sign in to your Google account.
9. Touch the Menu button to display more options for working with Chrome and web pages.
Web Page Options
While a web page is open, you have a number of options, such as creating a bookmark for the page or finding text on the page.
1. Touch the Menu button to display the menu.
2. Touch to go back to the previous web page you visited on this tab.
3. Touch to go forward to the last web page from which you went back on this tab. This button is unavailable until you go back from a page.
4. Touch to add a bookmark for this page.
5. Touch to open a new tab.
6. Touch to open a new Incognito tab for private browsing. Incognito tabs are covered later in this chapter.
7. Touch to display your bookmarks.
8. Touch to display your Other Devices list.
9. Touch to share this web page with other people using apps such as Email, Gmail, Facebook, Messaging, or Twitter. The Share Via dialog shows all the apps you can use to share the web page.
10. Touch to search this page for specific text you type.
11. Touch to enable or disable forcing websites to show the regular view of a web page designed for full-size screens instead of a mobile view designed for small screens.
12. Touch to change the settings for the Chrome browser.
13. Touch to get help.
Browser Tricks
The Chrome browser app has some neat tricks to help you browse regular websites comfortably on your Galaxy Note II’s screen.
1. Rotate your Galaxy Note II so that its long edge is sideways. This puts the screen into what’s called landscape orientation. Your Galaxy Note II automatically switches the screen to Landscape mode.
2. Double-tap the screen to zoom in and out.
Pinch to Zoom
When you need to zoom in further, or zoom in to exactly the degree you want, use the alternative way to zoom. Place your thumb and forefinger on the screen and spread them apart to zoom in. Move them back together to zoom out.
Managing Bookmarks, Most Visited, and Other Devices
The Chrome app enables you to bookmark your favorite websites for quick access, but it also keeps a list of the sites you visit most often so you can return to them at the tap of an icon. The app also syncs your open tabs among your devices that run Chrome and sign in to the same Google account, so you can quickly pick up browsing on your Galaxy Note II exactly where you left it on your desktop computer, laptop, or tablet—or vice versa.
2. Touch Bookmarks. The Mobile Bookmarks folder opens.
3. Touch to display the main Bookmarks folder. From there, you can touch a bookmark it contains or another bookmarks folder.
4. Touch a bookmarks folder to display the bookmarks it contains.
5. Touch a bookmark to display the web page it marks.
6. Touch and hold a bookmark to display a menu of extra actions you can take with it.
7. Touch to open the bookmarked web page in a new tab.
8. Touch to open the bookmark in an Incognito tab.
9. Touch to edit the bookmark.
10. Touch to delete the bookmark.
11. Touch to add the bookmark to your Galaxy Note II’s Home screen, where you can quickly access it without having to switch to Chrome first.
2. Touch the Menu button to open the menu.
3. Touch to start creating a new bookmark.
4. Change the bookmark name if you want to. The default is the web page’s title; you might prefer a shorter name.
5. Edit the address if necessary. If you went to the right page in step 1, you do not need to change the address.
6. Select the folder in which to save the bookmark. You can create new folders as needed.
7. Touch Save.
Manage the Most Visited Sites List
The Chrome app’s Most Visited sites list enables you to quickly return to sites you visit frequently but that you have not necessarily bookmarked.
1. Touch the Menu button.
2. Touch Bookmarks to display the Bookmarks screen.
3. Touch to display the Most Visited screen.
4. Touch to open one of the pages in the current tab.
5. Touch and hold to display further options.
6. Touch to open in a new tab.
7. Touch to open in an Incognito tab.
8. Touch to remove the web page from the Most Visited list.
Manage the Other Devices List
The Other Devices list gives you instant access to the tabs open in Chrome on your other devices, such as your tablet and your PC or Mac.
1. Touch the Menu button.
2. Touch Other Devices.
3. Touch a heading to expand or collapse the list of pages on a device.
4. Touch a page to open it.
Managing Multiple Tabs
The Chrome app can have multiple web pages open at the same time, each in a different tab. This enables you to open multiple web pages at once and switch between them.
1. Touch the tab icon in the Chrome app.
2. Touch to open a new tab.
3. Touch to close an existing tab.
4. Touch a tab to switch to it.
Browsing in Secret
If you want to visit a website in secret, you can. Visiting a website in secret means that the site you visit does not appear in your browser history or search history and does not otherwise leave a trace of itself on your Galaxy Note II. To browse secretly, create a new Incognito browser tab by touching the Menu button and then touching New Incognito Tab. Inside that browser tab, all sites you visit are in secret.
Customizing Browser Settings
You can customize Chrome to make it behave the way you want. Here are the various settings you can change.
1. Touch the Menu button.
2. Touch Settings.
3. Touch your Google account name.
4. Touch to turn sync on or off. If you turn sync on, you can choose which items to sync: bookmarks, omnibox history, open tabs, or everything.
5. Touch to enable or disable sending web pages from your computer to the Chrome app on your Galaxy Note II.
6. Touch to enable or disable automatically signing in to Google sites. Signing in automatically saves you time and typing but decreases your privacy.
7. Touch to return to the Settings screen.
8. Touch to choose your search engine. Your choices are Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
9. Touch to enable or disable the Autofill Forms feature. This feature lets you add profile information—your name, address, and so on—and credit card information for the Chrome app to fill in automatically on web forms. This means you can complete web forms and spend your money with even less effort.
10. Touch to enable or disable the Chrome app’s ability to save your passwords so it can enter them for you.
11. Touch Privacy.
12. Touch to enable or disable showing suggestions for web addresses that you enter incorrectly or that Chrome cannot locate.
13. Touch to enable or disable showing related queries and popular websites similar to those you type in the omnibox.
14. Touch to enable or disable the Network Action Predictions feature. See the nearby sidebar for details.
15. Touch to choose whether to send usage and crash reports to Google. Your choices are Always Send, Only Send on Wi-Fi, and Never Send. If you are happy to provide this data, choosing Only Send on Wi-Fi is usually the best choice because it prevents the reports from consuming your cellular data allowance.
16. Touch to display the Clear Browsing Data dialog.
17. Touch to enable or disable clearing your browsing history. This clears the history of websites you have visited using the Chrome app on your Galaxy Note II.
18. Touch to enable or disable clearing the cache, data that Chrome stores so that it can redisplay web pages more quickly when you visit them again.
19. Touch to enable or disable clearing your cookies and website data. Browser cookies are used by websites to personalize your visit by storing information specific to you in the cookies.
20. Touch to enable or disable clearing your saved passwords.
21. Touch to enable or disable clearing your Autofill data.
22. Touch to clear the items whose boxes you checked in the Clear Browsing Data dialog.
23. Touch to return to the Settings screen.
24. Touch Accessibility.
What Is Text Scaling?
When you use text scaling, you instruct your Galaxy Note II to always increase or decrease the font sizes used on a web page by a specific percentage. For example, you can automatically make all text 150% larger than was originally intended.
25. Drag to make the text in the Preview box appear at a comfortable size for reading. This is the minimum size to which the Chrome app zooms the text when you double-tap a paragraph.
26. Touch to turn on or off Chrome’s ability to zoom in on a website that prevents zooming. Some websites turn off zooming because their creators rate design higher than readability.
27. Touch to return to the Settings screen.
28. Touch Content Settings.
29. Touch to enable or disable accepting cookies. Browser cookies are used by websites to personalize your visit by storing information specific to you in the cookies.
30. Touch to allow or disallow websites access to your GPS information. Providing your location to websites is helpful when you need information related to where you are, but at other times, you might prefer to keep your location private.
31. Touch to enable or disable JavaScript. JavaScript is used on many web pages for formatting and other functions, so you might want to leave this enabled.
32. Touch to block pop-up windows. Pop-up windows are almost always advertisements, so keeping this enabled is a good idea; however, some websites might not work correctly if pop-up blocking is on.
33. Touch to view the list of websites that are storing data on your Galaxy Note II. You can then clear the data for a specific website if necessary.
34. Touch to return to the Settings screen.
35. Touch Bandwidth Management.
36. Touch Preload Webpages to open the Preload Webpages dialog. (Refer to the “What Are Network Action Predictions” sidebar for more information about preloading webpages.)
37. Touch to preload pages over both Wi-Fi and cellular connections.
38. Touch to preload pages over Wi-Fi only.
39. Touch to turn off preloading. You would normally do this only if you need to minimize data use on your Wi-Fi connection.
40. Touch to return to the Settings screen.
What Are the Developer Tools in Chrome Settings?
The Chrome app’s Developer Tools screen offers two features intended for people developing apps for Android, but one of the features is useful for nondevelopers as well. The Enable Tilt Scrolling feature enables you to scroll through your open tabs in Chrome by tilting your Galaxy Note II backward and forward. The Enable USB Web debugging option lets developers use Chrome on a PC or Mac to hunt down bugs in Chrome on Android.
