Safari: Links in New Tabs

March 21st, 2008

SafariTabs.pngJust a quick tip for those of you who are Safari users (all you Mac users should be using Safari anyway). Personally, I was always really annoyed that Safari didn’t open links in a new tab, always opting to open them in a new window.

As a result, I found myself using programs like Saft and SafariStand, purely to get my links to open in new tabs instead of new windows. Luckily, thanks to a post on TUAW today, this problem is no more. Even those of you who are Terminal-shy can definitely do this. I promise it won’t hurt (and is well worth it!). Just keep in mind that you need the newest version of Safari (3.1), which you can get via Software Update.

All you have to do is open up Terminal, and paste the following command into it, and press return.

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true


That’s it. From now on, your links will open in new tabs, instead of new windows. To undo this preference, just copy the same command above into terminal, changing the true to false. Enjoy.

Update #1: I found some more really interesting Safari tips via Digg. Be sure and check those out too!

historyflow.pngUpdate #2: In keeping up with my apparent theme of cool Safari tricks, Jon Hicks of Hicks Design pointed out a cool new trick in the leopard version of SafariStand. Its called History Flow. Just as the name implies, it allows you to go through your browsing history with a coverflow-type interface. Very cool for those instances that you remember what a webpage looked like, but not what it was called. Click on the image to the left for a screen shot.

my writing

my website is a collection of my work and writing since 2004, so please don't be surprised if things seem a little outdated, particularly in the technology section. That said, the concepts behind most posts should be interesting given all that's happened since they were written so enjoy!