Safari Shortcuts a Big Timesaver
As the Web continues to evolve, with thousands of new sites and blogs springing up every day, the mountain of information to claw through grows ever higher. More sites are bookmarked, and more RSS feeds are added. Inevitably, with this data glut comes new approaches to navigation to help speed the intake.
For me, one of the undervalued timesavers which I use all day, every day, is Safari’s ability to navigate pages simply by hitting Command and a number, to move from sites in my Bookmarks Bar. If you use the Bookmarks Bar to contain your most frequently-accessed sites, in addition to folders, hitting Command-1 will select the leftmost site, Command-2 will hit the second in line, and so on. Now, instead of moving the mouse and clicking on the shortcut, or entering the URL, you can rapidly move through your daily Web surfing.
As I read a page from left to right, my morning news intake moves similarly, left to right. Command-1 opens My Yahoo!, Command-2 moves on to ESPN, Command-3 offers me the option to check .Mac e-mail, Command-4 opens Google Reader for news feeds, Command-5 hits my blog and Command-6 checks the stock portfolio. And thanks to Apple’s iSync software, these shortcuts work both at home and at the office.
As Mac users, we revel in getting things done more quickly and in a more elegant way. In contrast to the simplicity of Safari, I often feel handcuffed on Internet Explorer and Firefox, unable to use my synchronized .Mac bookmarks, and unable to use my keyboard shortcuts to get me where I need to go immediately. While everybody has their own way to walk the Web, for me, Safari’s keyboard shortcuts change my walk to a run.
Joe on January 19th, 2007 at 11:59 am
I think Safari 2 is a great browser. I added the inquisitor and Stand plugins and have stopped using Firefox altogether for regular browsing. I have to admit though that Firefox with plugins is better for web development.
David on January 19th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
this is actually one of the primary reason Safari is still my default browser…I really like Camino with the Favicon-based Bookmark bar, but I need these shortcuts
Josh B. on January 19th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I actually prefer Firefox’s behavior, where Command-1 -2 -3 gives focus to the first/2nd/3rd open tab. That way I can keep gmail, gcal, and greader open in those positions all the time, and easily jump to them from whichever tab I am in. (This might be a TabMixPlus feature? I haven’t tested to see)
Galley on January 19th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
I was thinking about submitting this tip a few days ago. Like many others, I discovered it by accident.
Andrey K. on January 20th, 2007 at 12:41 am
To navigate between open tabs in Safari, you can use Command-Shift-Left/Right Arrow to cycle through.
Adi Feiwel on January 20th, 2007 at 3:46 am
Is there a keyboard shortcut for going to the Home?
Andrey K. on January 20th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Adi, sure there is: Command-Home. On a MacBook, it would be Command-Fn-LeftArrow
FUDsucker Proxy on January 20th, 2007 at 11:07 am
There is an easier way to navigate between multiple open tabs in Safari than what you suggest A.K.
Just place your mouse over one of the open tabs then scroll with the scrollball/scrollwheel and it will quickly flip from one page to the next.
Adi Feiwel on January 21st, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Thanks Andrey! that’s great :)
alex on November 15th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
great posts, these shortcuts will help alot.