How To Add A Website To Your Home Screen

If you’re reading this blog post on your iPhone or iPad, you may wish to capture the website address so that next time you want to visit, it’ll be an easier journey.

Apple’s Safari browser makes that simple. This tip will work not only for any of my websites that I hope you frequent, but for all of your favorites.

Here’s how to add a website to your Home screen. But wait, perhaps a definition is in order: the Home Screen on your iPhone or iPad actually starts on the the second page of your device. The first page is what I have named, the global search page. You use that when you can’t find, or remember where an email, document, or app is on your phone. Just type the description into the horizontal blank space, and a list of suggestions should appear.

The Home Screen is the page where all of your Apple apps (applications), as well as those you’ve added, sit. This screen can actually go on for several pages, depending upon the number of apps you’ve placed on our phone or pad.

So, when you visit a page in Safari that you want easy access to -- perhaps your own website -- just tap the Share button at the bottom of the Safari window on the iPhone and at the top of the iPad. (Share looks like an arrow that points to the right and is coming out of a box.) Several rows of options for how you’d like to Share this website are available. 

You choose and tap Add to Home Screen. Another box will open with a title Apple believes should be attached to the chosen website. You can pick this and click the Add button at the right hand top of the screen, or you can type in a name which you believes fit better.

Once you’ve hit the Add button, swipe to the last page of all of your screens and you’ll see the website added. It will look like your other apps. Test it out. Click on it and it should take you directly to the website without going on your Safari browser first.

Boo! Apps and Links for Halloween

When I asked my daughters, Faith and Jill, what they remembered of Halloween costumes of their youth, their answers were “Pirate” and “Hobo.” Ah yes, now I recall the frantic evening before the holiday that found me thrashing through my husband’s closet to grab his clothing (hobo) and through my bathroom shelves for makeup (pirate).

Because of that pathetic memory, I’m starting early by identifying for you Apps and websites that will not only help to put together garb, but also create ghoulish sound effects and purchase candy you remember from your own childhood.

iPhone and iPad Apps

Not surprisingly, app developers have gone wild for Halloween and created dozens that pop up when you search for the holiday. You can go on your own hunt, but I’ve gathered a few to start you out.


Halloween Countdown is free on the iPhone and an iPad version that adds an "i" to its title, costs $2.99. While listening to haunting music, you’ll see the number of days counting down until the big day. You’ll watch as the animated transparent skull gets bigger. The app includes five background musical soundtracks and if you wish to see the skull’s eyes flash red, just shake.

DressUp Lite is a free iPhone app. If you’re not one of my kids, you may have wondered what you’d look like as a pirate. This app encourages you to put costumes on photos of you or your friends and then publish them on your favorite social media site.

zGhost2 is a $0.99 iPhone app lets you see ghosts in the real world. According to the application description, "The iPhone camera is actually sensitive enough to pick up the low-glow ectoplasm radiated by Ghosts." Check it out, But don’t click when alone.

iHalloween is a free iPhone app that creates spooky, creepy sound effects, such as a cat screaming, ghoul laughing, or a simple boo.

Web Sites

Parents.com offers 21 Halloween Costumes Made by Real Moms, Best Pregnant Halloween Costumes, and Quick and Easy DIY Halloween Costumes. What are you waiting for? Fetch the felt, scissors, and feathers!


If you’re a do-it-yourself-er like you know whom, you might want to turn to ehow.com for ideas. Among their Homemade Halloween Costumes are Cyndi Lauper, a Nun, Jellyfish, David Bowie, and Greek Goddess. Unusual selection I'd say.


You might want to opt for an easier route and just buy the damn stuff. At halloweencostumes.com, you can choose your fantasy. Their claim, “We are one of the largest retailers of Halloween costumes on the web. Not only do we carry a wide array of costumes, but we also have all of the accessories you need to make your Halloween costume stand out from the rest.” Categories include: Kids, Adult, Couples, Sexy, Group. (Have the courtesy to wait until I finish before you seek Sexy.)

If it just isn’t Halloween without a visit to a haunted house, check out hauntedhousechicago.com. That’s where I found a dozen haunted houses that were voted "Official Top 13" and the 2010 People's Choice. "Disturbia-Torment of Fears" won first place.


I promised candy, and here it is at retrocandyonline.com “Our Halloween Candy includes gummy body parts, candy corn, gummy bones, bat dots, ghost dots, gummy eyeballs and pumpkin seeds are just a few treats that are perfect Halloween treats.”


Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t include in this Halloween blog post daughter Jill’s production of Hollywood Hell House in 2004. “HOLLYWOOD HELL HOUSE ran from August through October of 2004. Here's what she had to say about it, "My sometimes writing partner, Maggie Rowe, called famed Colorado minister Pastor Keenan, the man who created Hell Houses -- Christian conversion haunted houses -- and ordered the entire kit -- scripts and set design and marketing materials, so we could put on our very own Real Live Hell House. You'd recognize some of these prominent participants: Andy Richter as Jesus, Bill Maher as the Devil and Sarah Silverman as Abortion Girl."

Now go out and scare somebody!