Navigation Toolbar

The Navigation Toolbar in the browser window contains several buttons, the URL field and the search field so you can enter web addresses, search in the internet and navigate in the Web.

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.

Favorites Toolbar

The Favorites Toolbar is displayed below the Navigation toolbar and contains certain bookmark items which should be accessible much more easily that the other bookmarks that are accessible through the Bookmarks menu. In the Bookmarks window you can mark a certain folder as "Favorites" folder and the content of this folder will be displayed in the Favorites toolbar.

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.

Standard Links Toolbar

The Standard Links Toolbar contains several navigation buttons which can be enabled by the web page itself. A web page can use these buttons to provide a site internal navigation outside of the content area of the web page. This feature is not very often used in the Web.

This toolbar can be switched on/off in the Navigation menu.

Tabs

In iCab you can open multiple web pages in a single browser window. The web pages will be organized in Tabs when this is the case. Clicking a Tab button will reveal the web page of this Tab and hide the others. The Tab buttons can be reordered via Drag & Drop, it's even possible to move a Tab from one window to another window. Dragging an URL into the Tab toolbar will open a new Tab and load the new web page in this new Tab.

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.

Tabs Overview

At the right side of the Tabs toolbar you'll see a small icon. Clicking this icon (or selecting the menu item Window > Tab Overview) will open the Tabs Overview, which is similar to Exposé in the Finder. It will display a preview of all the Tabs side by side to give the user a good overview of what is displayed in the Tabs. You can click on a preview to select this Tabs, it's also possible to close certain Tabs you don't need anymore from within the Tabs Overview.

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.

Status bar

The status bar at the bottom of the browser window is used to display status information. At the left side of the status bar there are several buttons, to the right iCab displays status information which show the progress of the page loading or the destination addresses of the links which you have moved the mouse over.

The icons at the left side have the following meanings (from left to right):

All of these icons can be shown or hidden using the contextual menu (control-click or right-click in the status bar). So if you are not interested in certain of these status icons, you can just remove them from the status bar.

The status bar can be switched on/off in the Navigation menu.