OS X Tip #26
Safari is fast, has built-in RSS aggregator, supports web standards, has a great bookmark manager, and built-in Google search. There is more to this browser than you might realize.

As much as I like Safari the default web browser in OS X. I have no idea why Apple does not have some features turned on by default. I have found many people not getting the most out of Safari as they never knew what they were missing.

Here are some tips for making Safari far more usable and fun.

Turn-on Tabbed Browsing
Just open the Safari Preferences under the Safari menu item and go to Tabs, then just Enable Tabbed Browsing.

Once you experience tabbed browsing you will not be able to live without it. Even Microsoft is adding tabbed browsing in the next IE 7. You can add bookmarks to a folder in your bookmarks and check fro them to open in tabs. This way you can launch multiple sites at once and tab thru them.

Creating new tabs to open sites is easy. Just Command+T (Apple key + T key) and a blank tab will open, then just type the URL and hit enter. Or you can hold down Command key (Apple key) while you click on a bookmark and the URL will open in a tab. Using tabs is great when you have a lot of web research to do.

Block Pop-ups
Blocking pop-ups is a number one ambition of many web users. Safari does this well. Just go under the Safari menu and toggle on and off Block Pop-Ups Windows.

Maintain your privacy
You can also toggle on and off Private Browsing here. This will allow you to visit URL without a trace. If you share your Mac with others, you can reset the Safari browser to maintain your privacy and “clear out” the browser for the other user(s).

Resetting Safari:
Empties the cache
Clears history
Clears the download window
Removes cookies
Removes saved user names, passwords or other AutoFill data
Clears Google search entries

To reset Safari:
Go to -> Safari menu -> Reset Safari

View Status Window
Turn on the Status bar view under the view menu. It is a nice way to preview where you are being brought to before you click on a link. Just look at the bottom status bar while hovering over a link.

Increasing the Text Size
To increase the size of text, making it easier to read. Simply hold the Command key (Apple key) and press the + key to enlarge the text or the – key to decrease the text.

You can also choose View menu -> Text Size from the menu bar. To add two buttons to the Safari toolbar that you can then click to adjust the size of text see “Customize Address-bar” below.

Enable Autofill for web passwords
Never type a web password and username a second time. Let Safari and your Keychain do all the work by autofilling this info.

General Prefs
Make your home page your choice and decide on how you will use the download manager.

Customize Safari Address-bar
Just go to Safari View menu and select Customize Address-bar.

Add what you like. Adding the Autofill is a nice feature. Clicking on this can “auto fill” an entire web form in one click!

One of the best features that I like about Safari is it’s syncing with .Mac. Having the same bookmarks synced between all my Macs and having the .Mac bookmark app to use when I am not on my own machine is great for me.

Safari SnapBack Technology
Return to the point you last typed a URL, entered a Google search or selected a bookmark with SnapBack. Just click on “SnapBack” icon. This is a real time saver.

Spellcheck Web Form Entries
When entering text into a Web-based form, Safari can spellcheck your text for you before you submit it.

After typing in some text into the Web form, keep the cursor inside the form and press Command (Apple key) + the Semicolon (;) and Safari will do a spellcheck for you. Incorrect words will appear with a dashed line across the bottom. Correct the misspelled words by Control + clicking on word and having Safari suggest the spelling to you using OS X’s built-in dictionary.

RSS Feed Reader
When you see the RSS icon in the Safari address field. Simply bookmark it and you are now subscribed to that sites RSS feed. As soon as an update to that site’s feed happens Safari will let you know by displaying the number of updates next to the bookmark.

Click the built-in RSS icon and Safari automatically will display any available RSS feed for the current site. You will see a list of headlines from that site. Safari has a slider control for customizing the displayed length of each article summary and controls for sorting and filtering displayed articles by Date, Title and Source.

No need for a separate news aggregator to join the RSS world. All you need is Safari.

Save and Email Web Pages
You can view web pages long after they disappear from the Web, complete with images and links, using Safari’s archive feature. Keep them to read later or email to friends and colleagues. Archiving is ideal for saving short-lived web pages such as articles and personal receipts. Links embedded inside the page will continue to work as long as their destination web pages still exist.

Parental Controls
Specify exactly which websites your children can access by bookmarking only those sites on the Safari Bookmarks Bar. With Safari Parental Controls enabled, your kids browse only the sites on the Bookmarks Bar. New web addresses typed into the address field or non-approved sites linked from approved sites will not load on Safari. Instead, an error message appears, giving your child the option to request approval on blocked pages.

My Favorite Safari Keyboard Shortcuts
1) Spacebar scrolls web page down. Option + down Arrow or page down key does the same thing. Shift + Spacebar scroll web page up.

2) Command (Apple key) + clicking on a link opens the link in new window/tab. If you hold the Shift while pressing Command (Apple key) + clicking a link, the link is opened in a new tab and it is made the active window/tab. (Depending on if tabs are enabled if this will open a new window or tab) Command (Apple key) + clicking a form’s submit button and the form is submitted to a new window or tab.

3) Press and holding on top of the Back or Forward buttons will pops down a menu showing up to 10 back/forward entries by page title. You can navigate to any page you like. Option + pressing and holding Back or Forward button does same thing.

4) Command (Apple key) + Option + clicking on a link will download the source code of link.

5) Command (Apple key) + Double-clicking on a bookmark will open the bookmark in a new window.

6) Command (Apple key) + Option + M will Mark current page for SnapBack.

7) An easy way to close all of Safari’s tabs except for the current one is to press Command (Apple key) + Option + W. You can also close the current tab by pressing Command (Apple key) + W.

For More Keyboard Shortcuts
List of Safari Keyboard Shortcuts

    | Tags: mac tips, safari