How can I search for or find text within a web page on the iPhone?

How can I search for or find text within a web page on the iPhone?

Update: iOS 9 has added a dedicated search function to Safari that allows you to search web pages for specific text.

Surprisingly, there is no native "find" function in the version of Safari that comes with the iPhone.

If you are browsing a large piece of content, and need to find a particular word or section of the page quickly, this can present a serious problem.

Thankfully, you can add a search or text finding function to Safari on your iPhone with relative ease through the use of bookmarklets.

Refer to this post for more information about bookmarklets and how to add them to your iPhone.

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If you already know how to add bookmarklets to your iPhone, you can use the bookmarklet below to find text within any page on your iPhone.

Search/Find Text Bookmarklet

tags: 
Internet and Browsing

Comments

Josh replied on

You should add the JavaScript code so that we can add this bookmarklet right from our phones. That would be very helpful. Thanks.

Lion replied on

There is a way to find key words in an iPod/iPhone. You could download the free Google app (its a blue app square with a white lowercase g) and when u are surfing the web and/or you are in a written document, there is a little magnifying glass logo at the bottom right corner just tap it and type the word you want to find. Its accurate, cool and precise. i use it a lot

Jurriaan Plesman replied on

Finding a word in an article in iPhone
Double press URL
The alphabet will appear
Type the word
Go to the bottom of page and tap "Find on this page"

iphonaphob replied on

don't listen to this clown. there is a way.

use the Search field on the top right of the Safari page where you want to search for text. tap the field, then type the text you're looking for. as you're typing, the auto-find feature will start listing instances of the text, putting the results in a wide gray box below your typing to indicate how many instances of that word are on that Safari page. It will say "On this page ('x' instances)", where 'x' is the number of times the text appears.

good luck

me replied on

Text-field search
Spotlight in iOS employs a basic "starts-with" search on certain text fields in the content of your device. It does not search the middle of words.

If Spotlight does not return expected results:

Ensure the text you entered in the search is correct.
Try searching using the first few characters of the words you are trying to find.
Review your Search Results settings to see if you excluded any searchable content by tapping General > Spotlight Search.
Note: for iPhone 3G and iPod touch (2nd generation), tap Settings > General > Home > Search Results.
Spotlight is not case sensitive, so you can search using uppercase or lowercase letters and get the same results.
Note: Words without a space between them will be counted as separate words if each word starts with an uppercase letter. For example: Searching for "two" will be successful in "OneTwoThree", but not in "onetwothree".

Mail search

Anonymous replied on

Yes it says how many times the text appears but I want to see where it is on the page.

Anonymous replied on

Great!!! I was thinking their had to be a way easier than this! Awesome advise! https://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/971141

Anonymous replied on

Thanks very much boss. You saved me a lot of time

Anonymous replied on

Thanks very much boss. You saved me a lot of time

penvmbra replied on

Whoa I had no clue this feature existed! This would've saved me so much time in the past. Thanks for the tip!

Me replied on

Here:

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%3B

Kay replied on

To search on a page, just type quotation marks first

Anonymous replied on

Yeah, so you don't need to download anything to search a page. Here's a short video link showing how to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7JjcZZa2oc&list=UU9CQOdT1A9JlAks0-PF5vvw

Essentially you just go to the URL/OMNIBAR like you're going to do a google search (or type in a website address) and type what you want to find; before you hit enter though, you scroll down with your finger and click "find on this page".

Pretty simple, yet somewhat hidden. :P

Chairman Joe replied on

That's the only method I could get to work. Thanks

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JP replied on

Thanks. So handy. I was getting cranky thinking apple had decided in their wisdom that we didn't need it.

Me replied on

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%3B