11 Tricks To Use Safari Browser Better

Safari wasn’t always as great, but has risen to being among the best internet browsers with time and numerous updates. Using this browser has several benefits as it is energy efficient and has pretty decent browsing speed.

However, you might not be aware of its many features, keeping you from getting the best from your browser. So, we have listed a few tips and tricks for you to get the best of Safari.

1. Reader View –

Safari provides you with “Reader” option to view an article on a web page in a single page free from distracting ads and popups. The font, font size, and background color could be adjusted for the reader for easy reading.

To read the article:

• Click on Reader button at the left end of the Smart Search field (used as an address bar or search field).

Note: The button will only appear if there is an article that Reader can show.

Image credit: support.apple.com

• You can change the font, format, background and font size by clicking on the letter button located at the right end of the Smart Search field.
• If you want to stop using Reader, click on Esc.

2. Spotlight suggestions

Whenever you type in the search field, Safari displays suggestions from default search engine chosen. Moreover, it matches your favorites, bookmarks and spotlight suggestions like news stories, Wikipedia articles, maps and contact details that are relevant to your keywords to customize and speed up the web experience.

Also Read: Lost All Your Safari Bookmarks on Mac? Here is how you can restore them

3. Customize the Toolbar

You can customize Safari toolbar according to your preference. You can also remove default toolbar icons if not needed. All you need to do is right-click the toolbar and select Customize Toolbar. Now, you can add or remove the icons as you please.

4. View URL without opening it

Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox display website URLs by simply hovering your cursor on it in search results. Isn’t that convenient? Well, you bet it is and Safari browser can also do that. But this feature is disabled by default. To enable the feature, you need to go to View -> Show Status Bar.

5. Search between tabs

Sometimes, while browsing or working, you tend to open a lot of tabs. Safari stacks related tabs neatly in the tab switcher page. When you’re on that page and want to search between all the tabs, press the Control key along with F key.

6. Privacy options

It is a good habit to remove and block the web data that could be used to track you on your Safari browser. To change the preferences, you need to change the settings. Go to Safari Preferences -> Privacy. You can choose how much you want to restrict websites, third parties, and advertisers from storing cookies and other website data on your Mac.  You will be provided with options like Always Block, Allow from current website only, Allow from websites I visit and  Always allow.

7. Turn Off Notification Popups

You might have noticed that whenever you visit certain websites, you get pop-ups or notifications. It is quite annoying to deny the request every time you visit a website.

Wouldn’t that be convenient enough, if you could disable this feature altogether?

You can do that, click on Settings page in Safari, click on Notifications. At the bottom of the page, and uncheck the option Allow websites to ask for permission to send push notifications.

8. Edit Favorites

On the start screen, Safari shows some website links. There are two different sections Favorites and Frequently Visited.   You can easily modify/edit the web address of favorite web sites saved. Right-click on a Favorite link select the option to edit accordingly.

9. Picture-in-Picture

Picture-in-Picture is one of the newest and best feature added for a person who loves watching videos all the time. Being able to watch YouTube videos while doing other work is a dream come true. Here is what you have to do to do both the things simultaneously, open a YouTube video > right-click on the video player twice > select “Enter Picture in Picture.” and voila!

10. Manage plug-ins

Safari has this neat trick to stop the extension from hogging resources and battery power. You can check extension and manage each one’s approachability, to sites you’ve already visited and any others you may visit in future, at Go to Safari Preferences > Security

Also Read: Beware iPhone Users, Safari is Ransomware’s New Hideout

11. Mute Tabs

Isn’t it annoying, when have multiple tabs open on your browser and suddenly an unnecessary video starts playing and you have no clue on which tab should you navigate? Not anymore, as Safari tags the tab that’s playing audio with a speaker icon. No matter on which tab the video is playing, you’ll see a speaker icon in the smart search field(URL bar). You can click it to mute all tabs at once.

These are a few tips and tricks that could make working on Safari a lot easier than ever.

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