How To Use Apple Reading List
Apple’s default web browser, Safari (you certainly know it as it is the native web browser for all iOS devices), was updated in its iOS 5 version with a feature (besides many others) called Reading List. Reading List is interesting because it offers an option that was only available through third party apps (like Instapaper) until Safari for iOS 5 and that option is the ability to save web pages that you want to view later. It is basically a feature that allows you to bookmark web pages and with its iOS 6 update for Safari, Apple improved Safari’s Reading List feature with the ability to use an offline mode. That means that you can now check already bookmarked web pages, without having to be connected to the internet.
But one of the most important aspects of Reading List is the fact that it syncs between all Safari browsers (both desktop and mobile) by way of Apple’s iCloud service, so as long as you have this service enabled, you can access your bookmarks from any of your iOS devices (the iPhone, iPad and Mac, since each one of these devices supports Reading List). In this article we will teach you how to use Reading List on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Enabling syncing via iCloud
As we said you can use Apple’s cloud service, iCloud, to sync between your iOS devices. The first step towards syncing is to verify that iCloud is enabled on every iOS device; after that you also need to verify that Safari sync is also enabled.
For your iPhone and iPad what you need to do is pretty simple: the first step is to open the Settings app from your iOS device’s Home screen. After that, you have to tap on the iCloud icon and then see if the Safari icon is set to on. If it is, than Safari sync is enabled; if it is not, then set it to on.
For Mac OS X, the steps needed to enable it are equally simple: first click the apple icon from the upper left part of the screen and once the menu appears, choose System Preferences. Click the iCloud icon and then, from the iCloud menu, be sure to check the option next to the Safari icon. If it is already checked that means that Safari sync was already enabled.
Adding pages to Reading List
For iPhone and iPad, the first thing you need to do is launch Safari from the Home screen of your iOS device. Now access the web page that you want to save. To save it, you need to tap the middle icon (it’s called the Share Arrow) from the navigation bar at the bottom of your iOS device’s screen. Now all you need to do is select the ‘Add to Reading List’ options by tapping on the icon. Now the web page will be available across all your iOS devices. Simple, right?
Adding pages to Reading List in Mac OS X is similar and follows about the same steps. You will first open the Safari browser, then access the web page that you want to save and click the Share icon. The icon is the same, only on MAC OS X it is situated to the left of the browser’s address bar. From the drop down menu you choose ‘Add to Reading List’ and the web page is saved, ready to be accessed from your iPhone or iPad.
Accessing Reading List
Accessing Reading List from you iPhone and iPad is done in four simple steps. First, you guessed it: from the Home screen of your iOS device, open the browser. Then you need to choose bookmarks by tapping the book icon found in the navigation bar from the bottom of the screen. Next you have to choose Reading List from the menu – it is at the top. After you selected Reading List, you will be presented with a list of every web page that you saved. Simply tap one to begin reading it (online or offline).
On your Mac OS X, accessing Reading List is just as simple. The first thing you need to do is to open Safari. Once the browser has launched, look at the browser bar: there should be an icon representing a pair of glasses. Select it and Reading List will be opened in the left part of the screen. Now you are presented with the list of saved web pages and you can select any of them and start immediately start reading it whether you are connected to the internet or not.
