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How to Find and Silence the Browser Tab That’s Playing Audio

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When a Web browser has many tabs open, it can be hard to find the one playing audio if you need to silence it. Worse, when a browser relaunches, it can be tough to identify and silence all the tabs that have automatically started playing audio. Happily, all browsers can help. Tabs with active audio show a speaker icon next to their names; click it to mute the audio. These speaker icons are easier to spot in browsers that display tabs vertically rather than horizontally across the top, where space constraints may prevent the speaker icons from appearing. Safari provides an additional option: a speaker icon on the right side of the address bar (see the top screenshot). Click it to mute all audio, or Control-click it to see which tabs are playing audio. Chromium-based browsers—including Google Chrome, Brave, and Microsoft Edge—display a musical note icon in the upper-right corner of the toolbar (bottom screenshot). Click it to open playback controls and stop playback.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/Khosrork)

Social Media: Drowning in open tabs and can’t find the one playing sound? Look for the speaker icon on the tab itself, or use Safari’s address bar icon or Chrome’s music note for quick control.

Create Links to Selected Text in Long Web Pages

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If you have Control- or right-clicked on text in a Web browser in the last year or two, you may have seen an oddly named command: Copy Link to Highlight. When you choose it, it puts a URL on your clipboard, not just to that page, as Copy Link Address would, but also to the selected text. You can use this URL to make a link or share it directly, and when someone follows it, their browser scrolls to the selected text, simplifying navigation on a long page. For example, compare this link to Apple’s long Apple Watch faces page with this one that points directly to the Unity watch face most of the way down. All Web browsers can follow these links, but Google Chrome was the first to let you make them, and you’ll also find the feature in Arc, Microsoft Edge, and Vivaldi. Apple recently got on board with Safari 18’s Copy Link with Highlight command. The Link to Text Fragment extension adds the feature to other Chromium browsers and Firefox.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Arkadiusz Warguła)

Social Media: You can now create a link directly to text anywhere on a Web page with the handy Copy Link to Highlight command in many Web browsers. Here’s how to invoke the command and an example of why it’s so useful.