On Episode 155, Web Browsers: Word Search on a Webpage, Veronica Belmont has a great tip that allows you to quickly find a word or phrase on a webpage so you don’t have to read the entire page to find what you’re looking for. Although this tip is very helpful, I wanted to add to it.

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.flv/bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/revision3/flv/tekzilla/tzdaily/0155/tekzilla--tzdaily--0155--2008-08-11findtext--large.fl8.flv

In the video, she says you can press CTRL + F (or CMD + F on a Mac) whether you’re using Firefox, Safari, Opera or Internet Explorer and a search bar or window will appear and then you can enter in what you’re looking for and the word will be highlighted in the browser. Then, press the previous or next buttons to find more instances of that word. I find that to be a little slow and prefer another way (at least when using Firefox).

In Firefox, make sure Search for text when I start typing is enabled. To enable this feature:

1. Go to Tools > Options in the menu.
2. Then select Advanced.
3. In the General tab, select the checkbox next to Search for text when I start typing.
4. Click OK.

Now when you start typing a word, each part of it will automatically be selected on the webpage where ever the first instance appears. There is no need to press CTRL + F (or CMD + F on a Mac) to start searching.

If you want to find another instance of the word or phrase you’re searching for on the webpage, just press F3. F3 will go through every instance on the webpage as many times that you press it. Want to go back to a previous word or phrase? Press Shift + F3.