User interface

The user interface settings allow you to change the appearance and design, define the icons in the browser toolbars, activate, deactivate and position the toolbars, configure various menus and define gestures and keyboard shortcuts.

All features and functions of the app can be placed as icons in the browser toolbars, made available in menus and also triggered via multi-touch gestures and keyboard shortcuts. As there are many functions and they are not equally relevant for every user, you can configure them freely and thus customize the user interface to your own needs.

Browser toolbars

The browser toolbars can be configured separately for large and small screen sizes on the iPad, as different window sizes can be available here via “Split Screen” and “Stage Manager”, which means that a different arrangement of the icons can be useful. The “small” screen size is generally used on the iPhone.

There are two browser toolbars (one at the top and one at the bottom) for which you can assigned icons (functions). The arrangement of these bars can be freely selected: both can be placed at the top (standard for large screens) or both at the bottom of the screen, and one can be placed at the top and the other at the bottom of the screen (standard for small screens and iPhone). If no icons are assigned to a toolbars, it will not be displayed. Furthermore, a tab bar with all tabs can be displayed (or hidden) as well.

The view for configuring the toolbars is divided into three sections: A section for the icons of the top bar, a section for icons of the bottom bar and a section with all available icons. To configure the browser bars, simply move the icons to the top and bottom bar sections. There are several ways to do this:
Drag & Drop You can simply move the entries from the list between the sections using the handles on the far right
As the paths can become quite long when moving icons, you can also tap on the button on the right-hand side of each entry. This opens a small menu where you can move the entry directly to another area.
If you want to add several entries to an area at once, you can tap on the button on the right in the header area of a section. A pop-up menu will then open with all the available icons and you can then select all the entries you want to add.

The icon for the settings must always be present in one of the toolbars so that you cannot “lock yourself out” of the app because the settings are no longer accessible. This icon is therefore automatically added if it is missing.

In principle, there is no limit to the number of icons that can be placed in a toolbar. If there are more than there is actually room for, as many are displayed as there is room for, the rest is made accessible via a menu, which is placed last in the bar via the icon .

Some of the browser toolbar icons not only offer an action (single tap), but also an alternative action (long press):

Main action alternative action
BookmarksHistory
HistoryBookmarks
Web SearchIn-page Search
In-page SearchWeb Search
Action menuShare-Sheet
BackBack history
ForwardForward history
Twin BrowserTwin Options
HomepageHomepage Options
QuickstarterQuickstarter Options
TabsTab groups
Dark mode for Web sitesDark mode Options
Filter aktivierenFilter configuration
Reading modeReading list
Reading listReading mode
ReloadReload Options

Full-screen mode

The app offers a full-screen mode in which the browser bars are hidden so that the entire screen can be used for the website. There are two modes of the full-screen mode:

The full-screen mode can be automatically activated or deactivated when scrolling. The mode is activated when scrolling up and deactivated again when scrolling down. The browser toolbars are completely hidden.

The full-screen mode can be activated manually (by icon or menu entry) or automatically in landscape orientation and it also hides all toolbars, but still displays icons on top of the web pages that can be used to access app features.

These full-screen icons can be configured independently of the normal toolbars via Toolbars (full-screen mode).

Menus

The app offers various menus that can also be used to access browser features. In contrast to the icons in the toolbars, menus do not take up any permanent space in the user interface and are therefore suitable for functions that are not needed all the time.

There are three different menus that can be configured:
The Action menu can be accessed via the button and should generally contain all required functions that are not already available as icons via the browser bars. This menu can use all functions that relate to the displayed website and all general browser functions.
The FavIcon menu can be accessed via the website icon (FavIcon) on the left in the address field. In principle, you can equip this menu in exactly the same way as the action menu, but by default only the page-specific functions are accommodated here.
The Contextual menu only appears if you tap on a link or image on a website for a longer period of time. The context menu only shows entries that make sense in the respective context (link, image, etc.).

Each menu can have submenus to keep the menus more organized. All menus can be configured in the same way as the toolbar icons, with main menus and submenus being provided as separate sections. It is important to note that each submenu must also have its own entry in the main menu if you want to use it.

The text selection menu contains functions that can be applied to the currently selected text on a web page. The menu contains some system functions provided by iOS itself as well as some functions offered by iCab Mobile itself. You can specify which of these functions should be displayed here.

Colors, style

The colors of the toolbars and icons can be set separately for light and dark mode. Four color schemes can be saved, so you can easily switch between them.

The icon style and size can also be specified

Gestures

Many browser functions can also be accessed via multi-touch gestures. These can be based on swipe and tap gestures with 2-4 fingers, which can be performed anywhere on a website. Please note, however, that certain gestures can also be used by the iOS itself, which can lead to conflicts.

The following swipe gestures with one finger on the website can be explicitly switched on or off:
The swipe gestures for forwards/backwards must be performed from the left or right edge of the screen to the center of the screen and simulate tapping the icons (forward) and (back)
Drag down to reload allows you to reload the web page by dragging it down beyond the “top edge”.
Swipe to switch tabs allows you to slide a web page far to the left or right in order to switch to the adjacent tabs (right or left).
Swipe to create tab If you move the last tab (far right) to the left, a new tab is created directly on the right.

Keyboard

App functions can also be controlled via a BlueTooth keyboard. In principle, you can assign app functions to any key combination (letters, numbers and other characters in combination with Shift, Control, Option or Command key). Please note that iOS itself also uses some key combinations for its own purposes, so not all combinations can necessarily be used without conflict.

The up/down arrow keys can be used to scroll through lists (e.g. bookmarks, settings) and the return key can be used to open the currently selected entry. The ESC key (alternatively Cmd-W) is used to cancel/close.

Drag & Drop

Bookmarks, downloads, links and many other elements can be moved within the app using drag & drop, but also to other apps and thus copied to new areas. The drag & drop operation is triggered by holding your finger on an entry for a certain time (approx. 1 second) and then moving the entry to the target without lifting your finger.

However, since many elements also use the long press to display a contextual menu, Drag & Drop can significantly extend this “long press” (so that the initial long press for Drag & Drop and the long press for the contextual menu can be distinguished). It is therefore also possible to deactivate drag & drop to avoid this “extended“ long press.

Scrollbar

It is possible to provide websites with an always visible scrollbar, which can be used to quickly and easily reach any position on long websites. These scrollbars can be placed either on the right or left edge of the screen.