Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use
By Daniel Miessler on March 21st, 2008: Tagged as Apple | Safari
[Edit: An updated version of this post, with 6 additional features, can be found here]
Safari is an excellent browser for many reasons; its speed, clean aesthetics and ease of use are attractive from the outset. But there are a few extremely attractive and lesser known features that people should be taking advantage of as well.
Browsing and Search Snapback
Search snapback allows you to instantly jump back to the original search you made after clicking on a bunch of results. So if you originally searched for programming, and you clicked on a bunch of Wikipedia links and didn’t find what you want you can, with one action, instantly get back to the original Google results.
There are two ways to do it; you can click the little orange arrow to the right of the search as seen above, or you can use the keyboard shortcut — option-command-s
You can do the same thing with browsing as well, but it works slightly differently. If you type an address into the URL bar and go to that page as your initial page in a tab or window, that page is marked as your snapback page. You can then go anywhere else and snapback to it by hitting the orange arrow or by using the keyboard shortcut — option-command-p
You can also set a new snapback location by marking a current page as your snapback location. The fastest way to do that is with the keyboard shortcut — option-command-k , but you can do it from the history menu as well.
URL Path Navigation
It’s also possible to view and navigate through the various levels of a nested site using Safari. So on my site, for example, I have the root, then /study, then various pages. Well from one of the nested pages I can right-click the title of the page and see exactly where I am on the site. And from there I can navigate up if I want to.
Web Inspector
With the latest version of Safari (3.1) you can now inspect HTML and CSS elements right from your browser. The functionality is similar to the Firebug extension for Firefox, and gives you all sorts of information that’s helpful during web development and design.
To enable the functionality just type the following into a terminal window:
defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true
Once you’ve restarted your browser you can then right-click on various elements in the browser and select “Inspect Element”.:
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[...] Daniel points out three Safari features that most people never use: [...]
Pingback by Use Safari Better — 3/21/2008 @ 4:12 pm
No need for the CLI to enable the Developer menu - just go to the Advanced tab in Safari 3.1’s Preferences where the ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar’ option is ready to satisfy your desires…
Comment by Adrian Bool — 3/21/2008 @ 6:16 pm
nice list. I would add the activity window to that list too.
Comment by Jon Robinson — 3/22/2008 @ 2:55 am
Nice list. I recently talked about 10 ways to get more out of your Safari browser experience.
The additions to Safari in v3.1 are wonderful!
Comment by Dan — 3/22/2008 @ 4:59 am
@Adrian
Thanks for the tip — updated.
Comment by Daniel Miessler — 3/22/2008 @ 1:13 pm
I would also add GreaseKit to the list of very under used, but super sweet Safari additions.
http://8-p.info/greasekit/
Comment by Rusty Myers — 3/22/2008 @ 2:20 pm
The handy URL path tip also works with command-click in the same way than in most other programs, like Finder, Preview etc.
Comment by PA — 3/22/2008 @ 2:22 pm
I’ve been using the web inspector for years, It’s been there since 2.5
Comment by Zack K — 3/22/2008 @ 2:37 pm
I recently found the web inspector, But I still use firefox’s firebug for web debugging. Much easier to use, and more features.
Comment by Zen Stevens — 3/22/2008 @ 2:43 pm
Safari is lame, Firefox FTW!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by F1R3F0X — 3/22/2008 @ 3:05 pm
[...] Safari is an excellent browser for many reasons; its speed, clean aesthetics and ease of use are attractive from the outset. But there are a few extremely attractive and lesser known features that people should be taking advantage of as well.http://dmiessler.com/blog/three-powerful-safari-features-that-few-people-use [...]
Pingback by FuzzLinks.com » Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use — 3/22/2008 @ 3:14 pm
Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use | nerdd.net…
\r\nSafari is an excellent browser for many reasons; its speed, clean aesthetics and ease of use are…
Trackback by nerdd.net | news and opinion — 3/22/2008 @ 3:26 pm
The only thing i’m missing is xmlhttprequest response .. so i can see what ajax processes
ps, nice tip
Comment by Jasper — 3/22/2008 @ 3:35 pm
Gladly Safari now also supports SVG
Comment by stelt — 3/22/2008 @ 3:54 pm
Kudos on the URL path navigation - I’ve not come across that one before and suspect that it’ll come in useful in the future.
Comment by Kelmon — 3/22/2008 @ 4:00 pm
right-clicking on the page title to see where you are on a nested site doesn’t work when the site is using masked forwarding, FYI
Comment by David — 3/22/2008 @ 4:26 pm
Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use…
dmiessler.com — Safari is an excellent browser for many reasons; its speed, clean aesthetics and ease of use are attractive from the outset. But there are a few extremely attractive and lesser known features that people should be taking advantage of …
Trackback by pligg.com — 3/22/2008 @ 5:24 pm
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Comment by Nancy Odell — 3/22/2008 @ 6:53 pm
Safari SUX, just like every shit from Apple Cocksuckers.
Comment by nigger — 3/22/2008 @ 7:06 pm
I like Safari, and the new version is Really Fast. That said, the web inspector can’t hold a candle to Firebug. (Which, for developers–especially if you’re writing AJAX– is the greatest tool ever made.) If Safari had Firebug, I’d always use it. Otherwise, Safari looks like an also-ran.
Comment by silkyd — 3/22/2008 @ 8:13 pm
Awesome. Thanks for these tips. And your commenters are great!
Comment by ObeyTheFist — 3/22/2008 @ 8:14 pm
Hey thanks for the amzing tip.. I had no idea. This will help my staff save time.
Great job and great post….. Your now bookmarked
Comment by Darel — 3/22/2008 @ 8:32 pm
I’m a huge fan of the web inspector.
Comment by macgasm — 3/22/2008 @ 8:40 pm
Great post — It took me a long time to find these features and they are really useful. I love web inspector too.
Comment by R.J. — 3/22/2008 @ 8:43 pm
Safari has been consuming CPU way too often and no fix so far…after idle use for a while with some windows open…I have always been disappointed with the somewhat inflexible bookmarks system…clean interface otherwise with some expected refinements in a current browser. They ALL need more work to bring to 2008 standards possible.
Comment by applesince1985 — 3/22/2008 @ 9:20 pm
INLINE DICTIONARY ! INLINE DICTIONARY ! INLINE DICTIONARY ! INLINE DICTIONARY ! INLINE DICTIONARY ! INLINE DICTIONARY ! INLINE DICTIONARY ! INLINE DICTIONARY !
No body knows about it
Comment by JAmes — 3/22/2008 @ 9:58 pm
command + shift + y adds any selected text to a sticky, I use this all the time when citing research.
Thanks for the cool post
Comment by 24tracks — 3/22/2008 @ 10:28 pm
Thanks for the last post about the sticky.
Comment by Ignatius — 3/22/2008 @ 11:22 pm
rather unexciting “features”
i use primarily a macbook for browsing and opera instead of pre-installed safari. opera got more of those little nice details imo.
Comment by xt — 3/22/2008 @ 11:34 pm
inline dictionary is not a Safari feature — it works in any Cocoa app. Highlight any word and press cmd-ctrl-d to get the definition of the selected word.
Comment by Brian Hammond — 3/22/2008 @ 11:59 pm
Another awesome feature is the bookmark/history search: Do “Show All Bookmarks” (option-command-b). There’s a search field in the top-right corner in the window. And it’s not just looking in the URL, it searches cached page contents!
I also use “Mail Link to This Page” (shift-command-i) quite a bit. And, the “Activity” window rocks…
Comment by zander — 3/23/2008 @ 12:31 am
[...] Apple product, they have also installed a browser that passes ACID2, supports CSS3, and a slew of other things that will enrich the internet greatly. Local databases, embedded fonts, and technologies that [...]
Pingback by EliHorne » Why Apple’s PC auto-update rocks my world — 3/23/2008 @ 4:31 am
i seriously tried to use safari a lot … but i always end up going back to opera … i think safari needs more customization options … like … i like keep my tabs on the right side … there is no way (that i know of) to do that in safari …
Comment by subcorpus — 3/23/2008 @ 6:09 am
yes… anyone knows if there is SEOQuake for Safari? or any kind of SEO plugin for safari?
Comment by Goran — 3/23/2008 @ 1:23 pm
[...] of functionality from Firefox it’d be a done deal. Also, many thanks to the commenters on the original article who pointed out the features that I included in this expanded [...]
Pingback by 8 Powerful Features of Safari That Few People Know About — 3/23/2008 @ 2:37 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
Pingback by Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use « Scorchman’s Weblog — 3/23/2008 @ 4:48 pm
[...] (and also within document-based applications) but that it also works in Safari is a new one on me.read more | digg [...]
Pingback by P812 » Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use — 3/23/2008 @ 8:29 pm
[...] extremely attractive and lesser known features that people should be taking advantage of as well.read more | digg story Uncategorized Subscribe to RSS feed Leave a [...]
Pingback by Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use — 3/23/2008 @ 11:32 pm
[...] extremely attractive and lesser known features that people should be taking advantage of as well.read more | digg story addthis_url = [...]
Pingback by Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use | Simple Drops — 3/24/2008 @ 5:08 am
[...] Another small small thing: Remove any headphones from your macbook. Turn off the volume. Now insert the headphones again. You will see that the mac remembers two different volume settings, one for headphones and one without. I just find that sooooo brilliant - no sound will ever come out of my macbook that can disturb anyone else. “Can do, just works” All this was just a cover-up writing so I could tip you about this good article about some Safari gems people might miss: Three Powerful Safari Features [...]
Pingback by Can do, just works - why Macintosh keeps impressing me — 3/24/2008 @ 10:47 am
Hi,
Your updated post link doesn’t work.
Comment by Web Browser — 3/25/2008 @ 11:33 am
[...] from Firefox and/or Opera it’d be a done deal. Also, many thanks to the commenters on the original article who pointed out the features that I included in this expanded [...]
Pingback by 10 Lesser Known Safari Features Worth Switching For — 3/25/2008 @ 11:21 pm
Subcorpus: Try Saft plugin!
I will do tabs right or left and with an option to put tabs right or left of the current tab.
Comment by Olligarski — 3/26/2008 @ 3:15 pm
Thanks for the Web Inspector tip. I had no idea it was there. Very nice feature!
Comment by theurge14 — 3/27/2008 @ 2:57 am
@Goran - I’ve created a great SEO user stylesheet for Safari that is a good start. Not a plugin, but better than nothing!
Comment by Zack Katz @ Katz Web Design — 9/30/2008 @ 4:26 pm