The Navigation Toolbar can be customized by selecting the menu item View > Customize Toolbar. You can add items to the toolbar or remove the ones you don't need. Many of the buttons are available in different variants. Some buttons are available as combined button which need less space in the toolbar. You can choose the variants you prefer.
The most important items are the buttons for navigation Back, Forward, Stop and Reload which are also available as a combined button where Stop and Reload share the center part of the button. All these functions can be also activated through the Navigation menu, in case the Navigation toolbar is hidden or if the navigation buttons are not included in the Toolbar.
The URL field is used to enter new web addresses to load web pages. Clicking the "arrow" icon in the right corner of the field starts loading the page. The same happens when you press the Return or Enter key. While entering the address in the URL field, iCab will also look for addresses from the Bookmarks and the History and lists all the addresses in a list below the field which match the current input. This way you can often select the correct address from the URL suggestion list after entering just a few letters. In the preferences dialog you can configure which addresses are used for this autocompletion feature.
The URL field can be also used to search using an internet search engine. To do this you should enter a letter which represents the search engine (like "g" for "google" or "y" for "yahoo"), followed by a space character and the search keywords. For example entering "g iCab" initiates a search for "iCab" at "google". Because of the possibility to initiate searches in the URL field, the search filed is not always needed and can be removed from the Navigation toolbar to make room for other items.
The search field in the Navigation toolbar can be used to initiate a search in various internet search engines. Clicking the icon at the left of the search field you can select the search engine which should be used for the search, and you can also select one of the previous searches which are stored by iCab. The size of the search field can be changed as well. Move the mouse over the left or right side of the field until the mouse cursor indicates that the size can be changed. Then press the mouse button and resize the field. Resizing the field is only possible at the sides where other flexible elements are located in the Toolbar. These elements will then compensate the change of the size by getting smaller or larger as well.
You can also add the Smiley (Error Report) and a busy indicator into the Navigation toolbar. Both elements are also available in the status bar. So it's up to the user where these items are added. This is just a matter of taste.
Clicking the buttons of the Favorites toolbar will open the web page in the current Tab or window. When holding down the keys Cmd, Alt and/or Shift when clicking these favorites buttons will open the web page in a new window or tab in the background or foreground. The exact meaning of these modifier keys can be configured in the "Tabs" settings in the Preferences dialog. Users of a three (or more) button mouse can click with the third (middle) mouse button to open the web page in a new Tab or window (depending of the Tabs settings) without the need to holding down any modifier keys.
Using the contextual menu you can also open the web pages in new windows or tabs or even delete favorites buttons. Via drag & drop the favorite buttons can be reordered.
In the Navigation menu you can switch on or off the Favorites toolbar.
This toolbar can be switched on/off in the Navigation menu.
Control-clicking (right-click) on a Tab or the Tabs Toolbar opens the contextual menu with other commands that can be used for Tabs.
In the Preferences dialog you can configure the Tabs in the General > Tabs preferences panel. You can configure the keyboard shortcuts which control if a click on a link will open the link in the current page, in a new window or in a new Tab. You can also configure iCab to open a new Tab when a web page tries to open a new window.
Of course you can also use the keyboard to navigate between the previews of the Tabs (arrow keys), select a tab (space bar or return key) or to close a tab (delete or backspace key). The ESC key closes the tab Overview again.
The icons at the left side have the following meanings (from left to right):
The status bar can be switched on/off in the Navigation menu.