Safari 1.1 v100 (the one that comes with Panther) now allows one to add a bookmark directly to the bookmarks menu, instead of always asking where to put it. One can perform this instant addition by either holding shift while selecting the "Add Bookmark..." menu item, or by using the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-D.

Im not sure when it appeared, but you can stop a page from loading by simply hitting the Escape key in Safari v. 1.1

I have missed this for along time. So long, actually, that I have learned to live without it ;).

[robg adds: This also works in Jaguar.]

I never liked that you can't set Safari to always ask you where to save downloads. With Folder Actions, there is a short fix though. I just attach this script to the folder where Safari downloads. Once the download finishes, I get prompted to move it where I want it.

(* Promts where to move a file just added to a folder
 Note: Only moves the first file if more than 
 one file if more than one file has been added.*) 
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
  try
    (* Assume it's only working with one item right now. *)
    set the_file_info to info for item 1 of these_items
    set the_folder to choose folder with prompt ¬
     ("Move " & name of the_file_info & " to:")
    tell application "Finder"
      (* Move the files *)
      move file (item 1 of these_items) to folder the_folder
    end tell
  end try
end adding folder items to

[robg adds: I think this should work in 10.2 as well as 10.3, but I have not tested it yet.]

Often, it's nice to get some genuine shortcuts in the Mac OS -- the kind that save you time (Option key usually duplicates, etc.). The keyboard modifiers the OS designers implemented indeed work well with Safari. As some power users know, Command-clicking on a link opens that link in a new tab, behind the current tabbed window, if tabbed browsing is enabled. There are also equivalent shortcuts for:

• opening in a new window (Option-Command-click) behind the current window
• opening the window front (Option-Command-Shift-click)
• downloading an item (Option-click)

But did you know you can also implement these shortcuts in the address bar (Command-L to get there quickly)? Enter your URL and hold down those very same key combinations and press Return -- and they'll work as described above. Amazing!

These are just a few subtle gems Apple engineers have come with to help us with our day-to-day tasks, and why the Mac OS is always ain elegant pleasure to work with. Enjoy!

In Mozilla and variants, and many other browsers, you can set Cookies to expire at the end of the session. This means that Cookies will be kept for your use, until you close your browser and they are then wiped out. I like that so that I have the benefits of Cookies but not the "long term tracking ability" that Cookies provide some less than above-board sites -- call me paranoid.

Well Safari has no preference to delete Cookies at any specified interval or when closing the browser. It IS easy enough in the preferences to delete them, but you still have to do it manually. However, Safari in its default configuration will store Cookies in the Cookies.plist file, which should be in the ~/Library -> Cookies folder. First remove all your cookies in Safari via the preferences, then do a Get Info on the Cookies.plist file and set it to Locked.

If you have successfully locked the file, in Panther at least, there will be a small locked padlock on the file icon. BINGO! Now Cookies will not be persisted to disk, only stored in memory during Safari's lifetime. You close Safari, Cookies go away!

Make sure that BEFORE you do this you go into Safari's preferences and remove all the cookies.

I use a Shuttle Pro device in conjunction with Safari to provide an easier means of reading web pages. In my case, I have the inner wheel set up to enlarge/reduce the text size, and I have the outer ring set up to scroll up/down by varying speeds depening upon how far the ring is twisted. Finally, a couple of buttons are assigned to move forward and back through the tabbed web pages.

Ever since updating to Panther, I've noticed the following behavior. I used to click on Safari to make it top most, then move the mouse pointer off of the app so that it isn't blocking my view when I read the content. Now, however, the Shuttle Pro only seems to control Safari if the mouse pointer is in the content area of Safari.Just leaving the mouse pointer on the title bar or tabs bar of Safari isn't sufficient, it must be in the part where the pages are rendered - i.e. it must be in my way. It is just some weird behaviour that I thought you might want to know about.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of people have had trouble with this. After installing RealOne, they still can't play Real video streams in the Safari browser window. Sometimes Safari will shuffle the content off to RealOne, but sometimes it won't, forcing me to shuffle through the page source, get the URL for the stream and then paste it into RealOne. This gets annoying. I've never seen a default install of RealOne play video in the browser window.

So I wondered, "Why the heck didn't Real make a browser plug-in?" Well it turns out that they did; it's just not put into your ~/Library -> Internet Plug-Ins directory by default (as far as I can tell). The necessary files are stored in the RealOne application package at RealOne Player.app -> Contents -> MacOS.

Copy these files into your ~/Library -> Internet Plug-Ins directory.

• pncrt.Shlb
• RealPlayer Plugin.xpt
• RealPlayer Plugin

Then simply re-launch Safari, and you'll be able to watch the stream in your browser window. If you still can't, try copying the Library directory inside RealOne Player.app -> Contents -> MacOS to your Internet Plug-Ins directory. In my experience though, this doesn't make a difference. Also, this may or may not work on video windows which use JavaScript controls. Real is a little flaky with those.

I was using my PowerBook on the bus the other morning and was desperate to view a page I had looked at a few days prior in Safari. Since I had rebooted the night before, it was not on the previous page arrow pulldown menu. Safari's great History apparently only remembers the URL and not the link to cache files, which is a real shame, since this would be great for occasional off-line viewing without having to remember to grab the page before you go off-line.

So, I went delving into Safari cache files (~/Library -> Cache -> Safari) to find the page I wanted. Fortunately, using grep from the command line (or the Finder's search -- but remember that the Finder's search is not case sensitive), it's easy to find a cache file with some content that corresponds to the page you want to display. But unfortunately, the file is of type .cache, and not just the original .html file. The HTML is contained in the cache file, however.

Safari won't open these files from it's File -> Open menu, but to my surprise, it did display them with a drag and drop from the Finder! There is header and footer garbage displayed from the remaining contents of the .cache file, but for the few cases I tried, Safari found the HTML and rendered the page well enough for me to get what I needed off of it.

I know there are a lot of cache emptiers out there, but are there any Cache viewing apps or a utility to strip the HTML out of the cache files to make the viewing even nicer?

I discovered a nasty bug in Safari's javascript engine. Apparently, Safari treats the javascript 'length' property (used for counting input elements on a form) as a variable, and does not reset its value. It's a bit difficult to describe the problem, so I've created an example page to demonstrate the issue. Open the page in Safari and Mozilla or Netscape to view the differences.

Also on the page is another problem with Safari -- the order in which key-press events are handled. For this problem, I've placed an example –and- a solution on the page.

I hope this is helpful.

[robg adds: This bug is also present in Safari 1.1 on Panther...]

The Safari tab bar now behaves the way the tab bar in Camino does. You can open a URL by drag-and-dropping it onto a tab (whether the tab is in the foreground or in the background). If you drag and drop a URL somewhere on the unused area of the tab bar, Safari will create a new tab for that url.

[robg adds: This is a long-awaited improvement; my old habits from other browsers were not going away, and I was always surprised when Safari didn't behave as expected when I dropped a URL on the tab bar.]