Safari: Tabs - More Tricks

2010-03-10 07:11 AM Category Internet | Safari

Who would have thought there is even more things that can be done with Safari’s tab feature?

Yesterday I did a special presentation for the Falcon’s Landing Apple Group. I used Safari: Using Tab as the basis for the presentation. When I was reflecting on the day, I decided to look for a few more features. I can often find hidden commands and little-know tidbits in the View and Windows menu of application.

While the View menu didn’t yield much, the Window Menu was full of things to explore:

safari_window_menu

If you look at the bottom of the menu, you can see that I had seven different windows open in Safari:

safari_windows

If you look at the upper left corner of my screen, you six of the windows, but one is completely hidden. Unless you go to the Window menu, it’s easy to miss something that you have opened.

This is a time when it would make sense to move all of those windows into one--and there is a command for that!

safari_merge

If you use the Merge All Windows command, the seven windows will suddenly become this:

merged_safari

Merging all the windows into one is certainly efficient. Now, let’s explore some ways to navigate around tabs. In the same Window menu are the clues.

safari_tab_commands

The Select Next Tab command ends with two symbols and the Select Previous command adds a third. I have learned that most Mac users don’t know what those little symbols mean, so here is a cheat sheet:

apple_keyboard_symbols

So, using this chart, to go to the next tab you would press Command - Tab. To go to the previous tab, press Command - Shift - Tab.

If you would like a copy of the list of symbols above, just drag the graphic to your desktop or press and hold the Control key while clicking on the picture to see this pop-up menu:

save_image

You can find even more Apple keyboard shortcuts by clicking on the words.

There are two more command that you might find helpful. Pressing Command - T will make a new tab in you current Safari window.

The second command in very interesting. Look carefully at the two screenshots below.

safari_new_tab safari_close_tab

When I made the first screenshot, I had a Safari window open with no tabs. The command to close the window was Command W. The Close Tab command was grayed out. Now look at the second screenshot, In this case, the Safari window had at least one tab. Using Command W would close the active tab. If I wanted to close the window, I would need to press Shift - Command - T.

It is the little features like these that show how much thought and effort has gone into the programming of Safari. Kudos to Apple for all the little, useful details!

If you would like to learn even more about Safari, book a tutoring session with Doctor Mac Consulting. We can show you how to make your computer easier to use and we can see where you are having problems. The cost is $60.00 per hour and we can use our special software to “see” your computer. Send a note to urgentrequest@boblevitus.com or call us at (408) 627-7577 for further information.

--Pat

Tags: Safari