Safari Browser (Yes, Apple's Browser)...

SCCutler

SCCutler

Administrator
Management Council Member
PoA Supporter
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Messages
17,273
Location
Dallas
Display Name
Display name:
Spike Cutler
OK, Apple Kool Aid Drinkers-

Apple has released Safari to the public for Windows 'puters, complete with claims of faster operation.

Being the open-minded sort that I am, I have (of course) downloaded it and installed it on several computers.

It does appear faster, to me, than either IE or Firefox. It also seems to have a different font rendering which, to my eye, is more readable, but that is (of course) subjective.

What I need is this:

What are the tips and tricks, the shortcuts I need? By way of illustration, I am used to being able to type the URL without the "www." or the ".com" and with <ctl-enter>, it is completed and loaded. Is there an equivalent?

I am confident that, because Apple's coders are inherently more creative and better in every measurable respect, you AppleNauts will be abl eto provide me with a comprehensive list of the easy-uppers I need to use Safari efficiently.

Of course, I like this, I buy a Mac, right? Not so far-fetched, as it turns out, so you guys have a chance to win a convert.

Don't blow it!
 
SCCutler said:
OK, Apple Kool Aid Drinkers-

Apple has released Safari to the public for Windows 'puters, complete with claims of faster operation.

Being the open-minded sort that I am, I have (of course) downloaded it and installed it on several computers.

It does appear faster, to me, than either IE or Firefox. It also seems to have a different font rendering which, to my eye, is more readable, but that is (of course) subjective.

What I need is this:

What are the tips and tricks, the shortcuts I need? By way of illustration, I am used to being able to type the URL without the "www." or the ".com" and with <ctl-enter>, it is completed and loaded. Is there an equivalent?

I am confident that, because Apple's coders are inherently more creative and better in every measurable respect, you AppleNauts will be abl eto provide me with a comprehensive list of the easy-uppers I need to use Safari efficiently.

Of course, I like this, I buy a Mac, right? Not so far-fetched, as it turns out, so you guys have a chance to win a convert.

Don't blow it!
Click to expand...

Its not so much an Apple thing, Spike, but I do not like Safari. It doesn't handle templates very well, and its not W3C compliant, which means many sites will not display properly (even more sites than Firefox).

When I first started using Konqueror on Kubuntu (which is Safari, without the Apple name), I noticed I didn't like it.

There are no decent plugins for it. Flash MIGHT have come out now, but last I checked it wasn't.

You'd be better off with one of the Mozilla flavors or Opera (which I THINK is Mosaic based).

Summary:

Firefox: Mozilla
Opera: Mosaic (I THINK)
Safari: Konqueror (which I'm sure is based on something else)
IE: Crap.

Your choices suck for a browser. Gotta pick the least of the evils. Safari probably ain't it though.
 
OK, Nick. I may have to give Opera another go. I used to avoid it because they wanted (horrors!) money for it; now, it's free (I still don't get that business model).

I do like the rendering and appearance of the text in Safari. Dunno why.
 
I use Safari (I've got 5 macs throughout the house) and I really like it. I've got firefox too, and always seem to go back to safari.

No need to "www." Just type "whatever.com" and it's there.

I LOVE the bookmarks bar, but only keep your top 8 sites there and use your bookmarks menu for your less visted sites.

Tabs Tabs Tabs! We all love tabs! I know this isn't just a Safari thing, IE even has them now. But they're great for laptop/small screen use. Or if you're on the comp all day you can have a window for say, all of your work site, all of your aviation sites, and all of your...news sites and have 3 windows open instead of goin back to all of those sites.

Snapback is a really cool feature that I use, I'm not sure if its found in any other browser or not. You can hit "history>mark page for snapback" and then go on to other sites, do dad around on them and then just hit "history>snapback" and boom you're back on that page, it's nice when searching for help topics...google searching etc.

Speaking of Google searching...aah...you already figured that one out I assume. (I used to hate typing in www.google.com while on my windows side of my mac)

I think that's it. If you like Safari, and you can use iTunes, you can use a Mac. They're so easy, and they just work.
 
every party needs a pooper thats why we invited you...
 
Some people just have to be different...I guess I should have said "Tabs Tabs Tabs! Almost all of us besides Ed and a few others love tabs!"

:)
 
SCCutler said:
What are the tips and tricks, the shortcuts I need? By way of illustration, I am used to being able to type the URL without the "www." or the ".com" and with <ctl-enter>, it is completed and loaded. Is there an equivalent?
Click to expand...

Even easier - Just hit enter. For instance, when I wanted to see what was up with this new version of Safari, I just typed "apple" and hit return. Bingo, it goes to "http://www.apple.com/"

You can also extend that to sub-sites. For instance, you can type "pilotsofamerica/forum" and it'll go to http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/ though I think you need a question mark afterwards these days on PoA. For other examples, try apple/safari and that sort of thing.

The only time this will do anything funky is if you have no internet connection or the first page load fails for some reason. In that case, it'll go to http://apple/ and if you try to reload that after your connection is working again it'll choke 'cuz the http:// is already there so it won't add anything on.

A shortcut that fits in well here: Command-L (should be ctrl-L on Windows I'm guessing) highlights the location bar so you can type in a new address. Google searches can be quickly accessed with ctrl-L followed by a tab.

I should also mention that I am still running Safari 2 at the moment, and on a Mac, so things may be slightly different. However, Apple doesn't do that Microsoft thing of changing all their key combos between versions so it should presumably be pretty much the same.

I am confident that, because Apple's coders are inherently more creative and better in every measurable respect, you AppleNauts will be abl eto provide me with a comprehensive list of the easy-uppers I need to use Safari efficiently.
Click to expand...

Here's a few tips:

1) Bookmarks. Rather than being glommed into a massive disorganized bookmarks menu, when you create a bookmark it asks WHERE in your bookmarks menu you want it. So, click that little book-lookin' icon just below the Back button and create some folders you might want to have if you don't have 'em already, so you can make all your new bookmarks in an organized fashion. If you can't find the bookmarks button described above, Bookmarks menu -> Show All Bookmarks will do the same.

2) Tabs. Tabs are your friend, at least they are for this Mac geek - My screen gets incredibly cluttered otherwise, as I often have 100+ pages open. Now, I generally only have 4 windows open and everything's in tabs.

To create a new blank tab, ctrl-T. To open a link in a new tab, ctrl-click it (you can change how this works in the preferences, I set it so that the page opens in "a new tab behind the current tab" so that I can click multiple links on a page to open them in their own tabs, then I close the first page when I'm done and read the rest in turn.) To switch between tabs, it's probably ctrl-shift-left or right arrow. The shortcuts in this paragraph are my most-used ones in Safari. BTW, the tab-switching ones don't work if the location bar or a field is highlighted. If you try and it doesn't work, click on the web page in a non-form area and try again. I think this might have something to do with some of my Mac-specific system settings, though.

3) Bookmarks plus tabs: You may notice that you have a bookmarks bar below the location bar. These bookmarks are in the "Bookmarks Bar" folder. You can create sub-folders for the bookmarks bar folder. For instance, I have an "FAA" folder with registry, accident database, and publications type links. I also have a "Wx" folder with a bunch of links that I use for weather.

Here's where it gets kinda cool: When you create a folder inside the bookmarks bar, it creates a menu with those bookmarks on the bookmarks bar. The last thing in that menu is "open in tabs." So, you can instantly open ALL of your weather links in separate tabs. Saves a lotta clickin' and typin'.

Hopefully this'll give you a good start. Have fun playing with it, and let me know if you've got any questions. :yes:
 
SkyHog said:
There are no decent plugins for it. Flash MIGHT have come out now, but last I checked it wasn't.
Click to expand...

You must not have checked in a really long time... Flash has been on Safari darn near forever (well, in tech terms ;)) now.

Also, while a lot of pages didn't display properly in the very early days of Safari, I haven't come across one that didn't in a long time (like 4 years or so...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top