Safari's page menu button

Page menu

Safari's page menu button, sometimes also known as the page settings button, is positioned to the left of the Safari address field on iPhones and to its right on some iPads. Visually, it is a landscape rectangle with two lines below it. The page menu button offers a feature to adjust text size for low vision users and several additional options which both blind and low vision users will find helpful on some websites. If you are having trouble viewing a web page then it's often worthwhile to check out the features offered by the page menu.

To use the page menu, locate the page menu button. VoiceOver users should be able to locate it by swiping left or right from the address field on iPhone or iPad or you can explore the screen for it if you prefer.

iPhone screenshot of a Safari screen showing the page menu button near top left and highlighted with a red circle.

iPad screenshot of a Safari screen showing the page menu button to the right of the address field at the top of the screen. The page menu button is highlighted with a red circle.

Tap, or if you are a VoiceOver user double tap the page menu button and the page menu will now be at the bottom of the screen on iPhones. Presentation on iPads will differ.

VoiceOver users should swipe right through the menu that appears. The items I list here on this web page may not match what you see or hear since some options can't be provided for all web pages and the order in which items appear in the menu may differ between iPhone and iPad. Also it is possible to add and remove items from this menu with an edit button.

Listen to Page

On web pages with substantial text content, the top items wil often be "Listen to Page" and "Show Reader". "listn to Page" appears when the page has sufficient appropriate text content and does pretty much what you'd expect. When speech has commenced, the page menu button changes its appearance to indicate that speech is in progress but VoiceOver continues to call. it the page menu button. This button can be used to display a version of the page menu that includes controls over the voice that is speaking the contents of the web page. The speech speed can be changed and there are also jump back, jump forward and pause / resume buttons. This option is probably of most use to low vision users who don't use the speech controller. VoiceOver users have other, more controllable ways of hearing web pages spoken.

screenshot of a webpage from 9To5.com viewed in Safari.

Screenshot of the webpage after displaying the page menu. The page menu approximately fills the bottom half of the screen. It displays the title of the webpage below which are two large buttons, Listen to Page and Show Reader. There are other buttons below these two which will be discussed later.

the webpage after Listen to Page has been started. The page menu is no longer visible and the page menu button at the top of the screen has changed and displays a speech bubble containing a loudspeaker icon. This button will reveal speech controls.

Show Reader

"Show Reader" can be particularly helpful to VoiceOver users in removing unwanted items like advertisements and unwanted pop-ups from web pages. It will also reduce visual clutter for low vision users and offers options to control reader view appearance. The page in the illustration below was difficult to read with VoiceOver because the advertisement at the top of the page changed every few seconds and grabbed VoiceOver focus every time it changed. Some of the advertisements contained flashing animation which could disturb low vision readers. Reader view removed all the distracting advertisements and left behind only the relevant text and images. Reader view may not be helpful on pages where you have to enter text. If the reader view isn't helpful then use the page menu button again and locate the menu item to hide reader.

When reader view is selected, the page menu button changes in appearance to indicate that reader view is in use. This button can be used to reveal a version of the page menu that includes controls to customise reader view. Text font can be changed and there are four options for the screen appearance - black on white, black on sepia, white on grey and white on black. Controls for text size are also available.

a web page as it originally appears with a red advertising banner near its top.

the same web page after the page menu has been displayed using the page menu button. the two top buttons are Listen to Page and Show Reader.

the web page after Show Reader has been used to enter reader view. The advertising banner has gone leaving the text and a relevant image. The text is now white on a grey background in place of the original black on white.

the page menu button has been used again in reader view to display settings for reader view. These are font and colour scheme. The selected colour scheme is white on grey. There are also buttons to increase or decrease text size. There is a hide Reader button which exits reader view and returns to the original web page..

Hide Distracting Items

"Hide Distracting Items" lets you manually select and hide distracting items on a web page. This may be helpful if "Show Reader' wasn't available or didn't work as you expected. Low vision users can use this feature by selecting it in the page menu and then scroll through the page, tapping items to be hidden and then tapping on the Hide button which appears. When the Hide button is tapped, the item will disappear and you can continue down the page to remove further items the same way. When all the distracting items are removed tap on Done at the top right of the screen and you will be viewing the web page with your selected items hidden. Unfortunately, some items such as changing advertisement banners may reappear when they change.

The page menu button will probalby have changed its appearance to indicate that you have items hidden. Tap it if you want to unhide items and you will find a show hidden items button.

Although Hide Distracting Items is available to VoiceOver users I recommend it only to VoiceOver users who have sufficient vision to view the screen. VoiceOver users can swipe up or down to move between hideable items and then double tap to hide but it isn't always clear what you are about to hide from VoiceOver's spoken text.

A web page with a distracting advertising banner near the top. The Page Menu button has been used to display the page menu and Hide Distracting Items is among the menu items.

The web page after Hide Distracting Items has been chosen. The banner has been tapped and a Hide button is now displayed within the banner.

the web page after Hide has been tapped. The advertising banner has gone. At top left of the screen there is a Cancel button. At top centre is the text "1 item hidden" and at top right is a Done button.

The web page as it appears after the Done button is tapped. The banner is no longer present at the top of the web page.

Manage Extensions

If you don't know what browser extensions are please just leave this alone.

Search

"Search Document" allows you to search the current web page. Visually, this is an icon representing a web page with a small magnifying glass at its bottom right corner. This can be useful for jumping quickly to the information you need on a long web page. As an example, Apple has a long list of keyboard shortcuts that can be used in Pages on iPhones and iPads used with an external bluetooth keyboard . If you just want to know the keyboard shortcut for underline, say, then use the search button and type or dictate underline. The first appearance of underline will now be highlighted visually and will be near the vertical middle of the screen for VoiceOver users to explore with a finger and hear what's there. On pages where the text being searched for appears multiple times, the up and down arrows will take you to previous result and next result, respectively. The Search button at bottom right of the keyboard will dismiss the keyboard but may take you back to the beginning of the document and you may need to use the next result key to return to the result you want. The search options button, visually the magnifying glass to the left of the text being searched for, displays an option to match only whole words and a second option to match case. The Done button dismisses the search.

Search document is being used and underline has been typed on the keyboard. The web page has scrolled down to show the word underline appproximately half way down the visible section of the page. It is highlighted visually.

The search button at bottom right of the keyboard has been used to dismiss the keyboard. The search text, next and previous result buttons and a Done button are present near the bottom of the screen. To the left of the search text is a magnifying glass which is the search options button.

The search options are displayed. They are whole words and Match Case.

Change text size on a web page

The text size controls are a small capital letter A and a large capital letter A ad can be tapped repeatedly to decrease or increase the text size by non-VoiceOver users. VoiceOver users can adjust text size by swiping up or down after locating the text size button. VoiceOver users will hear the current text size spoken but there is visual confirmation for non-VoiceOver users only when the text size returns to 100%, its original size. Text will remain at your chosen size when you follow links to other pages in the website but will revert to standard size when you visit a new website.

and more...

Visually, the more button is the usual three dots button. This brings up a long menu. I'll highlight some of the more useful items and leave you to discover the others.

Page Actions

Privacy report

This offers a feature which increases your browsing privacy.

Hide Toolbar

The hide toolbar button will remove the Safari toolbar from the screen and give a little more space for the web page. The toolbar was where the page menu button resided. To get it back, VoiceOver users should locate the address field and double tap and non VoiceOver users can just tap the address field.

Request Desktop Website

This one needs a little explanation. Websites are usually designed to display differently on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets from the way they display on larger desktop computer screens. Sometimes there are fewer features offered on the smartphone version of a website than on the desktop and the layout will usually be different. If you are having problems using the mobile version of a website you can try requesting the desktop website. If this is available, text may be very small but should be accessible to VoiceOver users. iPad users may prefer to use the desktop version of a website since they have a larger screen to work on. If you sample the desktop website and don't like it you can use the page menu again to request the mobile website.

I have occasionally found that requesting desktop website is a workaround for VoiceOver accessibility issues; it's worth a try if a website is proving difficult.

Print

Print lets you print the web page on a wireless printer which has been set up to be available to your iPhone or iPad.

Tab Actions

These include actions such as bookmarking a web page and pinning the current tab.

Website Settings - Choose the way a website is displayed every time you visit it

Website options allows you to set options which will take effect every time you visit the current website. These include options to request desktop website and to use reader view automatically. There are also options to set how access to microphone, camera and location is granted. It's definitely worthwhile to use these for websites you visit frequently and for which you need to use reader view or the desktop website.

The first screen of actions revealed by the more button. The Page Options and Tab options are all fully visible.

Scrolling down reveals the website settings which weren't initially visible below the tab actions.

Additional options in Safari Settings

That's almost it, except that there is a way to control some website settings for all websites. Go to Settings / Apps / Safari and find the SETTINGS FOR WEBSITES heading. Here you will find settings for page zoom, request desktop website, reader, microphone, camera and location. The request desktop website and reader options let you turn on and off the feature for websites that you have previously set and then offers an option to turn the feature on or off for all other websites. So, for example, if you were an iPad user who preferred always to view desktop versions of websites, you could set that here and still be able to request the mobile website using the page menu button when you visit a specific page.

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