How to Inspect Element on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge
You can examine various code elements of a website by using the Inspect command on most web browsers. On Chrome, you get it as a right-click context menu item. Different web browsers may name the option differently but the goal is the same.
Understanding the construction of a competitor’s websites helps digital marketers and developers craft highly competitive websites from their own brands. But, as a developer or designer, you need to know how to inspect elements on popular web browsers.
Read this tutorial until the end to get a complete understanding of the inspect element feature of most trending websites that internet users use.
What Is Inspect Element for Any Web Browser?
Modern web browsers come with many developer tools to help users inspect website source code, malicious activities, etc. One such tool is the inspect element. It reveals the highlighted content in an HTML or code format.
You can read the code to understand what the code is actually doing in the background. Experts mostly use this tool to edit the source code of any website. The source code may include Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), media files, JavaScript, etc.
When you modify a part of the source code through inspect element, you can see the effect directly on the web page. However, such changes do not make any lasting effect on the website’s server. The website itself reverts to the original source code when you refresh the web page.
Who Should Know How to Inspect Element and Why?
You must know the way to inspect elements on a web page if you are from any of the following professions:
1. Content Creator and Writer
You can take high-quality screenshots of websites by eliminating unnecessary elements through inspect element tool. It lets you spot redundant visual assets by pinpointing their codes on the website source code.
2. Website Developer
You can test various web components online by using the inspect element feature when you are in the development stage. Also, after the development, you can do debugging using inspect element.
3. Customer Support Representative
Customer experience agents can help developers and marketers online by manipulating web components using this option.
4. Website and Graphic Designer
Graphic and website designers also benefit from the inspect element tool by visualizing new additions before implementation.
5. Digital Marketer
Search engine optimization and marketing executives use this tool to discover competitors’ actions to optimize the website. For example, you can find out targetted keywords, website metadata, SEO title, content headers, Google Search index status, and so on.
If you know how to inspect elements on a web browser you can utilize all the advantages mentioned so far. Let’s find out the inspect element options on several popular web browsers below:
How to Inspect Elements on Chrome
- Visit the website on which you need to use the inspect element tool.
- Select any element like text, image, hyperlink, etc.
- Now, right-click and then select Inspect from the context menu.
- The Elements navigation pane will open on the right side showing many codes.
- The code with a blue highlight is the element that you have selected on the website.
- Just click the Close (cross) button on the top-right corner of the Elements sidebar to close the panel.
How to Inspect Elements on Safari
- Open the Safari app on your macOS device and then click on Preferences.
- Select the Show Develop menu in menu bar in the Advanced section of Preferences.
- Now, a Develop option will show up.
- Then, visit any website and select a web component.
- Right-click and click on Inspect Element to view the code of the selected web component in the inspector view console.
- You can click on the cross button of the inspect view navigation pane to close the inspect element tool.
How to Inspect Elements on Firefox
- Open Firefox and go to the competitor’s website.
- Now, navigate to a page on which you need to inspect elements.
- Select any web component like an image, illustration, content, or hyperlink.
- Right-click on your mouse, and you will see a context menu with several options.
- One of those options will be Inspect Element.
- Click on Inspect Element to open the inspect view sidebar.
- The highlighted code within the inspect view is the code line for the component that you have selected.
- Selecting the Close or cross icon on the top-right corner of the inspect view console will close the panel.
How to Inspect Elements on Edge
- Access a web page using your Microsoft Edge browser.
- On the browser’s Toolbar, you’ll see a kebab or three vertical dots menu. Click on it.
- A context menu will open with a lot of options.
- Scroll down until you find the More Tools option. Now, click on it.
- A new context menu will open with another option Developer Tools. Select that.
- This will open the inspect view for the page.
- Alternatively, select any element on the website and then right-click.
- Click on Inspect from the context menu that appears.
- The highlighted code that you’ll see in the inspect view console is the element code.
- Just like the other websites mentioned so far, clicking the cross icon on the inspect view console will close the inspect element feature.
Conclusion
So far, you’ve discovered several methods of inspecting code elements for popular web browsers. You should now understand clearly how to inspect elements on the mentioned web browsers.
You can apply the learnings in your profession or hobby as a web developer, designer, or digital marketer.
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