Macs All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition (2014)

---

Figure 1-5: Words or phrases you search for appear as web links in a new web page.

Going back in time

If you visit a website and want to visit it again, Safari stores a list of your visited websites in its History menu, even for one year if you choose that option in Safari⇒Preferences⇒General.

To view a list of the websites you visited, follow these steps:

1. In Safari, click History on the menu bar.

A drop-down menu appears, displaying the most recent websites you visited. Additionally, the History menu lists the past week’s dates so you can view websites that you visited several days ago, as shown in Figure 1-6.

2. Choose a website to have Safari display your selected site.

Figure 1-6: The History menu lets you revisit previously viewed websites.

Although the History menu displays your web history from only the past seven days, you can choose History⇒Show All History to view a list of all the websites you visited after the last time your history was deleted. To establish the length of time you want to keep your browsing history, go to Safari⇒Preferences and click the General button on the toolbar. Choose a period specified by the Remove History Items pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 1-7.

You can also erase your web-browsing history at any time by choosing History⇒Clear History.

Reading in Reader

If Safari perceives a readable article on the page you are viewing, the Reader button is active in the Search and Address field, and you have the option to open the article in Reader. Safari aims to be elegant and clutter-free, so Reader removes all the ads, buttons, bells, and whistles from the web page and shows you only the article as one continuous page. Even the scroll bar appears only when you hover the mouse pointer near the edge of the Reader “page,” as shown in Figure 1-8.

Figure 1-7: Choose how often you want your browsing history erased.

To display an article in Reader, do the following:

1. Click the Safari icon on the Dock or Launchpad.

2. Type in the URL for the website you want to visit.

For example, you might visit The New Yorker at www.newyorker.com.

3. Click the article you want to read.

You see the article with various advertisements, banners, photos, links, and so on.

4. Click the Reader button or choose View⇒Show Reader.

(Or press +Shift+R.)

If the article runs over several pages, Reader displays it as one continuous page so you need only scroll down, not click from one page to the next.

If you need to adjust the size of the text, click the type buttons (the two A’s) in the upper-left corner.

Figure 1-8: Reader displays multipage articles as one continuous page.

To exit Reader, click the Reader button, choose View⇒Hide Reader. Or press the Esc key to exit Reader and return to the normal Safari view of the article. Click the Back button to return to the original site.

In both Reader and normal Safari view, press += or +– to zoom in or out on the text. If you have a Magic Mouse or Trackpad or a MacBook that recognizes multitouch gestures, you can also pinch in or out to zoom.

Using tabbed browsing

When you want to keep track of more than one website while browsing a second, third, or fourth site, you could open two (or three or four) separate browser windows. However, here’s a more handy way. Safari and most other browsers offer a tabbed browsing feature, which allows you to easily jump around among multiple web pages in a single window. This is similar to the tabbed Finder window we explain in Book I, Chapter 4. All you have to do is click the tab associated with the web page, as we discuss in these sections.

Creating new tabs

When you load Safari, you see a single web page displayed in a window. To add a tab, simply click the New Tab button (the plus sign on the right), and then open a website by typing a URL or search term in the Search and Address field.

Choose what type of tab you want to see when you click New Tab by going to Safari⇒Preferences and clicking the General button on the toolbar. Choose one of the four choices in the New Tabs Open With pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 1-9. We like to open in the Top Sites display, which we explain later in this chapter.

Figure 1-9: Choose how you want to see new tabs.

If you turn on Safari in iCloud on your Mac and one or more iOS device, you can access tabs opened on one device from another. On your Mac, click the iCloud button on the toolbar to see the tabs open in Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, as shown in Figure 1-10. See Book I, Chapter 3 to learn about iCloud.

Figure 1-10: Access tabs that are open on other devices with iCloud.

To work with tabs, set your preferences as explained here:

1. Open Safari and choose Safari⇒Preferences.

2. Click the Tabs button on the toolbar.

3. From the pop-up menu shown in Figure 1-11, choose when you want tabs to open instead of windows.

Figure 1-11: Choose your Tab preferences.

4. Select the check boxes to activate one or both of the two choices:

· -click Opens a Link in a New Tab: Rather than leave the current web page and replace it with the linked page, a -click will open the linked page in a new tab and leave the current web page open.

· When a New Tab or Window Opens, Make It Active: When you click the New button, the tab or window that opens becomes the active one.

5. Click the Close button.

Managing tabs

When you open multiple tabbed windows, as shown in Figure 1-12, you can rearrange how they’re ordered, close them, or save a group of tabs as a bookmark that you can reopen all at once with a single click of your mouse or add them to your Reading List (which we explain shortly).

Figure 1-12: Tabbed browsing lets you juggle multiple web pages inside a single window.

Some cool things you can try doing with tabbed windows include

· Add a new tab. Press +T or click the plus sign at the far right of the Tab bar.

· Switch from tab to tab. Press +Shift+→ or +Shift+←.

· Close a tab. Move your mouse over the tab and click the X that appears or press +W, although that will close the Safari window if you have only one tab open.

· Rearrange the order of your tabs. Drag and drop a tab to the left or right of another tab.

· Move a tab to a new window. Drag it below the Tab bar and then let go of your mouse button, or right-click a tab and choose Move Tab to New Window.

· Save every currently loaded tabbed window as a bookmark. Right-click any tab (or click the Bookmarks menu) and choose Add Bookmark for These Tabs.

· Save the articles of every currently loaded tabbed window in the Reading List. Right-click any tab (or click the Bookmarks menu) and choose Add These Tabs to Reading List.

· Merge a bunch of open web page windows into a single web page with tabs for each window. Choose Windows⇒Merge All Windows.

· View tabs that get shoved off the row of visible tabs when you’ve opened too many tabs to display them all. Click the double right-pointing arrows on the rightmost tab.

· Open a contextual menu that displays all the tab options. Right-click a tab.

Setting your Safari home page

The first time you open Safari, the Apple website appears because it’s set as the default home page. Subsequent times you open Safari, the website you were browsing when you last closed or quit Safari (or shut down and restarted your Mac) reopens. You can change your Safari home page to whatever you want — even a blank page, if that’s what you prefer.

Throughout this chapter, all step-by-step instructions are given for Safari. Just keep in mind that other browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and so on) work in relatively similar ways.

To define a home page in Safari, follow these steps:

1. Click the Safari icon on the Dock or Launchpad.

2. Click in the Search and Address field at the top of the Safari window and type the address of the web page you want to use as your home page.

If you have set the page as a bookmark, you can just click the bookmark to open the web page.

3. Choose Safari⇒Preferences and click the General button on the toolbar.

4. Click the Set to Current Page button.

The website address of the page you are viewing automatically fills the Homepage field, as shown in Figure 1-13.

You can also skip Step 2, go directly to Safari General preferences, and type the URL in the Homepage field.

If you want Safari to open to your home page or a blank page when you restart or reopen Safari (instead of opening the most recent web page you visited), choose Homepage or Empty Page from the New Windows Open With pop-up menu.

5. Close the Safari preferences pane.

Figure 1-13: Set your home page here.

Searching within a web page

You can search for a word or phrase within the text on a web page, and Safari will find and highlight each occurrence of the word or phrase. Here’s how:

1. From the web page you want to search, choose Edit⇒Find⇒Find.

Under the toolbar, the Find Banner appears that has a search field and navigation buttons.

2. Type in the word or phrase you want to find.

3. Click the small triangle next to the magnifying glass to choose whether you want to find text that starts with the word you entered or contains the word you entered.

The results are immediately highlighted in the text and the number of hits is shown to the left of the search field.

4. Use the navigation arrows to go to the next or previous occurrence of the search term.

5. Click Done to close the Find banner or choose Edit⇒Find⇒Close Find Banner.

Organizing Your Website Experience

You can use Safari just to browse new websites and read articles at the moment you find them, but that doesn’t take advantage of all Safari can do to help you manage your web browsing adventure — it’s not named Safari for nothin’! In this section, we tell you how to use the Safari features that organize favorite websites you want to revisit, manage the articles you want to read later, and list links to articles your friends have posted on social media sites you use — namely, Bookmarks, Reading List, and Shared Links. You access all three from the Sidebar, which opens when you click the Sidebar button (the open book) or choose View⇒Show Sidebar.

To make the Sidebar pane wider or narrower, move the pointer to the right edge of the Sidebar until it becomes a vertical line with an arrow on one or both sides, and then click and drag.

Using bookmarks

Bookmarks are links to websites, such as a favorite news outlet or a reference source. Click a bookmark, and Safari opens to the bookmarked web page. What’s more, bookmarks let you group likeminded websites, such as news sites, book review sites, gadgets sites, or sites related to one project you’re working on, together in folders.

The Favorites bar, as shown in Figure 1-14, gives you quick access to websites you visit most frequently.

Figure 1-14: The Favorites bar displays bookmark quick-link buttons and folders.

Use the Favorites bar for one-click access to your favorite or frequently visited websites. You can place as many bookmarks and folders as you like on the Favorites bar, but you will see only the number that fit in the width of the Safari window; you have to click the arrows at the right end of the Favorites bar to open a menu that displays bookmarks that don’t fit. You can get around that problem by placing folders on the Favorites bar.

The Bookmarks menu and the Sidebar, as shown in Figure 1-15, show all your bookmarks and folders.

Figure 1-15: The Sidebar shows your bookmarks and folders.

Click the Sidebar button or choose View⇒Show Sidebar, and then click the Bookmarks tab. The Bookmarks section of the Sidebar displays the Favorites Bar and Bookmarks Menu folders that are fixed in the number one and two positions of the Bookmarks list. Clicking a folder displays the bookmarks within or collapses them if it’s already open. Click a bookmark to open that web page.

Bookmarks behave the same whether they appear in the Sidebar, on the Bookmarks menu, or on the Favorites bar. Simply click the bookmark, and it opens the linked web page. Click and drag to open a bookmark in the Bookmarks menu or a folder on the Favorites bar.

Adding bookmarks

By default, Safari comes with several bookmarks already placed on the Favorites bar and Bookmarks menu, all of which you see in Bookmarks on the Sidebar. You’ll probably want to add your own choices to bookmarks. To bookmark a website address, follow these steps:

1. In Safari, visit a website that you want to store as a bookmark.

A website is a collection of one or more web pages. If you want to bookmark a news website, for instance, you should use the top-level landing page as the bookmarked page instead of a web page that’s linked to a specific article.

2. Choose Bookmarks⇒Add Bookmark to open the dialog shown in Figure 1-16.

Or you can right-click the plus-sign button that appears to the left of the address bar and choose Add Bookmark.

By default, the Name text box displays the current web page’s title, which is typically the main website’s name.

You can also add a bookmark by simply clicking the icon to the left of the URL and dragging it down to the Favorites bar or into a folder in the Bookmarks section of the Sidebar.

Figure 1-16: Accept or edit a bookmark's name.

3. (Optional) Type a new name for the bookmark if you don’t want to keep the default name.

4. Click the Location pop-up menu and choose a location for storing your bookmark.

You can choose the Favorites bar, the Bookmarks menu, or a specific folder stored on either. (You discover how to create a bookmark folder in the “Storing bookmarks in folders” section, later in this chapter.)

5. Click the Add button.

Your new bookmark appears where you placed it.

Turn on Safari in iCloud on your Mac and your iOS devices, or Safari on a Windows computer with iCloud, to sync your bookmarks across all devices. See Book I, Chapter 3 to learn about using iCloud.

Storing bookmarks in folders

After you save many bookmarks, they can start to clutter the Bookmarks menu or Favorites bar. To organize your bookmarks, you can store related bookmarks in folders. There are two ways to create a bookmark folder: The first steps work in the Sidebar, and the second steps work in the Bookmark Editor.

Follow these steps to work in the Sidebar:

1. Click the Sidebar button (the open book) or choose View⇒Show Sidebar, and then click the Bookmarks tab.

You see a list of the bookmarks that came with Safari along with any you added. (Refer to Figure 1-15.)

2. Click the Add Folder button (the plus side) at the bottom of the Sidebar.

An Untitled Folder is added to the bottom of the list.

3. Type a name for the folder and press Return.

4. Click the icon next to the bookmark you want to add to the folder and drag it to the folder.

If you click the name, the web page opens.

Follow these steps to work in the Bookmark Editor:

1. In Safari, choose Bookmarks⇒Edit Bookmarks to display your saved bookmarks.

2. Click the New Folder button at the bottom left of the window, as shown in Figure 1-17.

An untitled folder is added to the top of the list.

Click Favorites Bar, Bookmarks Menu, or another folder in the left column if you want the new folder to be placed inside an existing folder.

3. Type a name for the folder and press Return.

4. (Optional) Click the disclosure triangle to the left of a folder name to display the bookmarks and folders within that folder.

5. Click and drag the bookmarks you want to move into the new folder.

6. Choose Bookmarks⇒Hide Bookmarks Editor.

Rearranging or deleting bookmarks

Safari saves your bookmarks and bookmark folders in the order you create them, adding them to the bottom of an ever-growing list. If you continue to add bookmarks to the Bookmarks menu without placing them in folders, you may find that you have a gazillion bookmarks listed willy-nilly and can’t remember what half of them link to (guilty, as charged). As time passes, you probably have bookmarks you don’t use anymore — some may not even work anymore. The procedure is the same whether you work in the Sidebar or the Bookmarks Editor. Follow these steps to put your bookmarks in a more logical order and delete any you no longer want:

1. In Safari, choose Bookmarks⇒Edit Bookmarks.

Or click the Sidebar button and then click the Bookmarks tab.

Figure 1-17: Add new folders in the Bookmarks Editor.

2. Click the folder you want to move or delete (Sidebar) or click the disclosure triangle next to the folder name that contains the bookmark (Bookmarks Editor).

The contents, which might include bookmarks and additional folders that contain other bookmarks, are listed below.

Click the additional folders to see the bookmarks contained within. You may need to repeat this step several times to find the bookmark you want.

3. Click and drag the bookmark or bookmark folder you want to move up or down the list to a new folder or position.

Drag the bookmark or folder beyond the last item in a folder to move it out of the folder. A line shows where the item is being moved to; if you move it into a folder, the folder is highlighted.

Safari moves your chosen bookmark to its new location.

4. Click and drag bookmarks up and down within the collection or folder to change the order in which they are displayed.

5. In the Bookmarks Editor, click the bookmark that you want to delete and press Delete.

Or, in the Sidebar, control-click the undesired bookmark and choose Delete from the pop-up menu.

You can also delete a folder this way, but all the bookmarks and folders within the deleted folder will be deleted.

To restore a bookmark you mistakenly deleted, press +Z or choose Edit⇒Undo Remove Bookmark.

6. Choose Bookmarks⇒Hide Bookmarks Editor to return to the most recent web page you viewed or click the Sidebar button to close the sidebar.

Renaming bookmarks and folders

You may want to bookmark several web pages from the same website but have trouble differentiating them in the Bookmarks menu or Sidebar because the name that’s displayed begins with the website and then the slashes and such to specify the web page. You can rename bookmarks and folders to something that’s more meaningful to you, which will help you find your bookmarks more quickly. Here’s how to rename in the Bookmarks Editor or the Sidebar:

· Bookmarks Editor: Choose View⇒Edit Bookmarks. The Bookmarks Editor opens (refer to Figure 1-17). Click the bookmark or folder you want to rename, and then click it again. The pause between the two clicks is more pronounced than in a double-click. The name of the bookmark or folder is highlighted. Type the new name you want to use or click the text to edit it, and then press Return.

· Sidebar: Click the Sidebar button, and then click the Bookmarks tab. Control-click the bookmark or folder you want to rename, and choose Rename Bookmark from the pop-up menu. The name of the bookmark or folder is highlighted. Type the new name you want to use or click the text to edit it, and then press Return.

Importing and exporting bookmarks

After you collect and organize bookmarks, you might become dependent on your bookmarks to help you navigate the web. Fortunately, if you ever want to switch browsers, you can export bookmarks from one browser and import them into another browser.

To export bookmarks from Safari, follow these steps:

1. In Safari, choose File⇒Export Bookmarks to open the Export Bookmarks dialog.

2. (Optional) Type a descriptive name for your bookmarks if you don’t want to keep the default of Safari Bookmarks.

3. Click the Where pop-up menu to choose where you want to store your exported bookmarks file.

If you click the arrow button that appears to the right of the Save As text box, a window appears displaying all the drives and folders that you can choose in which to store your bookmarks.

4. Click Save.

After you export bookmarks from one browser, it’s usually a snap to import them into a second browser. To import bookmarks into Safari, follow these steps:

1. In Safari, choose File⇒Import Bookmarks to open the Import Bookmarks dialog.

2. Navigate to the folder where the exported bookmarks file is stored.

3. Click the bookmark file you want to use and then click the Import button.

Your imported bookmarks appear in an Imported folder that includes the date when you imported the folder. At this point, you can move this folder or its contents to the Bookmarks bar or Bookmarks menu to organize them. (See the earlier section, “Rearranging or deleting bookmarks.)

Creating a Reading List

Sometimes you find a great article that you really, really want to read but you just don’t have time. Instead of bookmarking the page (we tell you all about bookmarks in the previous section), you can save the article to Reading List. And you can read those articles offline so you can get caught up on your reading while flying. Here’s how to save and manage articles in the Reading List:

1. In Safari, with the article or web page you want to read later open, click the One-Step Add button (the plus sign) at the left end of the Search and Address field.

The article is added to your reading list.

2. When you’re ready to read one or more of your saved articles, click the Sidebar icon in the toolbar (it looks like an open book) or choose View⇒Show Sidebar.

3. Click the Reading List tab to see the articles you placed there.

The Reading List, down the left side of the Safari window, shown in Figure 1-18, shows the title of the article, its source website, and the first few words of the article.

Scroll through the list to see articles further down.

Figure 1-18: The Reading List stores articles you want to read at a later date.

4. Click the article you want to read.

It also could be a web page with more than one article, such as the cover page of a newspaper.

The web page opens in the main part of the Safari window to the right of the Reading List.

Click the Reader button for distraction-free reading.

5. Click the All or Unread buttons to change which articles you see in the Reading List.

6. To delete an article from the list, click the article and then click the X in the upper-right corner near the name of the selected article.

7. To delete the whole list, click the Clear All button.

8. Click the Sidebar button again to close the Sidebar.

Seeing what your friends are reading

The latest version of Safari (7.0 as of this writing) added a feature that’s pretty neat if you use LinkedIn or Twitter. The Sidebar has a third tab called Shared Links, which displays the links posted by people you follow on LinkedIn and Twitter. Here are a few things you can do with this new feature:

· Click a link to see it in the Safari window on the right, as shown in Figure 1-19.

· Control-click to open a contextual menu, and then choose to open the link in a new tab or window, or on the source website (LinkedIn or Twitter).

Figure 1-19: Shared Links shows you what your friends are reading online.

· Choose View⇒Update Shared Links to refresh the list and see the latest additions.

· Click the Search field (pull down on the list if you don’t see it at the top of the list) and type a word or phrase to find related links in the list.

Displaying favorites in Top Sites

While you browse the web and go from one site to another to another, Safari pays attention behind the scenes to which websites you visit most. By tracking the websites you visit most frequently, Safari can display a selection of Top Sites that you can browse through to return to what Safari deems to be your favorite websites.

To display the Top Sites view of websites you visited, that Safari believes are your favorite websites, follow these steps:

1. In the Safari window, click the Top Sites icon (it looks like a grid) on the Favorites bar to open the Top Sites display window.

You see thumbnail views, shown in Figure 1-20, of the sites you visited most frequently. A star appears in the upper-right corner of the thumbnail of sites that have been updated since you last visited.

You can modify the thumbnail view. Go to Safari⇒Preferences, click the General button, and then choose how many sites you want to see in Top Sites — 6, 12, or 24 — from the Top Sites Shows pop-up menu. When you change the size of the Safari window, the number of thumbnail images in Top Sites remains, but the size of each individual thumbnail changes to fit.

Figure 1-20: Add or remove Top Sites choices.

2. Click a Top Sites thumbnail image of a website you want to visit.

Safari goes to that web page.

3. (Optional) Hover the cursor over the upper-left corner to see the Top Sites editing options:

· Exclude website. To exclude a Top Sites selection that Safari deemed a favorite, click the X in the upper-left corner of that Top Sites thumbnail image. As you delete one thumbnail, a new one is added in the lower-right corner of the Top Sites display.

· Make a website permanent. To mark a Top Sites selection as a permanent top site, click the pushpin icon next to the X in the upper-left corner of the Top Sites thumbnail image. The pushpin icon is highlighted to indicate that the website is a permanent top site. Click a highlighted pushpin icon to reverse the action: The page is no longer a permanent fixture in the Top Sites display and is replaced by a website you visit more frequently.

4. (Optional) To rearrange the order in which your Top Sites thumbnail images appear, click a top site and drag and drop it to the location where you want it to appear.

5. (Optional) To add a new website to the Top Sites display window to Top Sites, do one of the following:

· Press and hold the Add button to the left of the Search and Address field and then choose Add to Top Sites from the pop-up menu.

· Click the tiny icon to the left of the address, and then drag and drop it into the Top Sites display window where you want it to appear.

· Click and drag the URL icon to the Top Sites button.

· Drag a link from another source directly into the Top Sites display window, such as a website link in an e-mail message, or from another open Safari web page window.

6. To exit the Top Sites display window, click one of the thumbnails to go to that website.

You can also type a web address in the Search and Address field and then press Return to go to that website or click a bookmark.

You can choose the Top Sites display as the default for a new tab (refer to Figure 1-9).

Storing Personal Info and Keeping it Private

Safari and iCloud have terrific built-in features that help you remember user names and passwords and credit card information. And Safari has security and privacy features to keep that personal information to yourself — or to your Mac. Here we tell you how to use AutoFill so Safari remembers passwords for you, and then we explain how to keep your information safe.

Using AutoFill to track passwords and more

If you don’t share your Mac and you visit a lot of websites that require usernames and passwords, Safari can remember and automatically fill in the username and password for you when you open those websites. Safari can also automatically fill in forms with your name and address, credit card information, and information you’ve completed on an online form in the past. Safari encrypts this information, so even though it’s remembered, it’s safe.

To use the AutoFill options, as shown in Figure 1-21, do the following:

1. Choose Safari⇒Preferences and click the AutoFill button on the toolbar.

2. Select the Using Info from My Contacts Card check box.

Safari presents pre-filled drop-down fields in website forms that request information such as your address and telephone number, which will be taken from Contacts.

Click Edit to open Contacts and view the information that will be accessed. (See Book V, Chapter 1 to learn more about Contacts.)

3. Select the User Names and Passwords check box.

The first time you visit a website that requires a username and password, Safari asks whether you want it remembered. If you choose Yes, your username and password are filled in automatically the next time you visit the website.

4. (Optional) Click the Edit button next to User Names and Passwords, or click the Passwords button on the AutoFill dialog toolbar, both of which open a list of websites and passwords you asked Safari to save. You can also do the following:

· Select the Show Passwords for Selected Sites check box to see the remembered password when you click a site in the list.

· Select AutoFill User Names and Passwords if you want to override a websites’ request and use AutoFill anyway.

· Click a website (or Control-click multiple websites) and then click the Remove button to eliminate those user names and passwords from Safari’s memory.

Then click the AutoFill button to return to the AutoFill window.

5. Select the Credit Cards check box and then click Edit to add your credit card number(s) and expiration date(s).

When you’re making an online purchase and reach the credit card information fields, a drop-down field lets you choose which credit card you want to use from those you entered.

If you choose to use AutoFill for names, passwords — and especially credit cards — we highly recommend setting up your Mac to require a password whenever it is turned on or wakes from sleep. See Book III, Chapter 2 to learn more about Mac security features.

6. Select the Other Forms check box, which will remember what you enter the first time you fill in a form and use it if the same website asks for the same information again.

Click the Edit button to see, and remove, websites for which AutoFill has been enabled.

Figure 1-21: AutoFill keeps track of passwords and fills in forms.

If you turn on the Keychain option in iCloud, the information you let AutoFill manage is available across all devices signed in to the same iCloud account with Keychain activated. See Book I, Chapter 3 to learn about iCloud.

Protecting your web-browsing privacy

Safari encrypts your web browsing to help avoid Internet eavesdropping and potential digital theft. And, instead of letting websites access your information automatically when you fill out forms, Safari detects forms and presents your information in drop-down fields so you can choose which information to insert.

As a rule, Safari keeps track of your browsing history, but if you use Safari on a public Mac, perhaps in a library, you may not want to leave a trace of where you’ve been. Choose Safari⇒Private Browsing and Safari keeps your browsing secrets safe. In a nutshell, turning on the Private Browsing keeps your web-browsing history usage private by

· Not tracking which websites you visit

· Removing any files that you downloaded from the Downloads window (Window⇒Downloads)

· Not saving names or passwords that you enter on websites

· Not saving search words or terms that you enter in the Search and Address field

In other words, the Private Browsing feature gives Safari a case of amnesia when you turn it on, making Safari mind its own business until you turn off Private Browsing. You know when Private Browsing is active because you see the word Private in the Search and Address field. You can use the navigation buttons during the session, but when you close Safari, your viewing history is erased.

When Private Browsing is turned off, Safari goes back to thoughtfully keeping track of the websites you visit and the terms you type into the search box so you can easily return to those sites or searches later.

In addition to Private Browsing, Safari offers Security and Privacy preferences. Do the following to set these up:

1. Choose Safari⇒Preferences and click the Security button on the toolbar.

2. Select the check box next to the options you want to activate:

· Fraudulent Sites: When you open a website that Safari finds suspicious, you receive a warning that requires you to confirm or cancel opening the page.

· Web Content: JavaScript is a language used for buttons, forms, and other website content; if this check box is left clear, some website functionality may be lost. Pop-up windows often contain advertising, so you may want to leave this check box clear. That said, some website functionality may be lost if you don’t enable this feature. In both cases, if necessary, you’ll receive a message from the website prompting you to activate the feature.

· Internet Plug-ins: For the most part, plug-ins enable media playback on a website, such as videos, music, or slideshows. Some plug-ins track your browsing history. Click the Manage Website Settings button to see which plug-ins are installed on your Mac and which sites have been using them, as shown in Figure 1-22. You can read about the security-risk level and set specific settings for each plug-in.

When a web page requires a plug-in that isn’t installed, an arrow points to the object that requires the plug-in with a message that reads “Missing Plug-In.” You can usually click to install the necessary plug-in.

3. Click the Privacy button on the toolbar to open Privacy preferences, as shown in Figure 1-23.

Figure 1-22: Manage your plug-in settings form the Security preferences.

Figure 1-23: Specify your privacy settings here.

4. Tighten your web-browsing security by clicking the Remove All Website Data button to remove cookies.

Safari keeps a list of websites that keep track of information about you. This data is stored on your Mac in different places and used in different ways. Clicking the Remove All Website Data button, deletes this data but that may lead to problems with loading your favorite web pages until Safari builds up the information again. You can click the Details button and see who’s tracking what, and then select specific sites you would like to remove.

The three basic types of information are

· Cache is information, such as a web page address, your Mac stores and remembers about your Safari usage so Safari runs faster. You can empty the cache by choosing Safari⇒Empty Cache. A confirmation dialog will ask whether you really want to do this because it can slow down your browsing.

· Cookies are pieces of information about you that websites you visit use to track your browser usage. Cookies may also be used for user authentication or specific information. When you sign up with a website, that site gives you a cookie so that the next time you go to that website, it recognizes you because it sees you have one of its cookies.

· Local storage is information about you that’s used by the websites you visit.

5. Select an option to block cookies and other website data: Always, Never, or From Third Parties and Advertisers.

If you selectively block cookies by selecting the From Third Parties and Advertisers option, you are less likely to have trouble with online stores that use cookies to keep your shopping cart information.

6. Select an option to limit location services.

Some websites ask to identify your physical location, which they can access based on your Internet connection. You can select when you want to be asked by selecting the Prompt for Each Website Once Each Day or the Prompt for Each Website One Time Only options; if you want to tacitly deny access to everyone, select the Deny without Prompting option.

7. Select the Ask Websites Not to Track Me check box.

This is a request, not a demand, which means websites can continue to track you if they decide to deny (ignore) your request.

8. Choose none, one, or both of the options for the Smart Search Field.

9. Click the Notifications button on the toolbar to see a privacy-related preference.

We explain the Notification Center in full in Book I, Chapter 6. Within Safari, there are websites that would like to notify you when information is updated. The first time this happens, a dialog asks whether you want to allow the website to push notifications. You can allow or deny this action. Allowing it means you will receive a notification each time new information is added to the website and the website manager deems it worthy of telling you; denying means you will be left alone and will see the new information the next time you choose to visit the website. The Notifications preferences shows a list of websites that have asked for your permission to send notifications along with the response you gave.

10. Click the Close button.

If you have reason to believe that your Mac or your Internet browsing have been tampered with, you can reset Safari. To do this, choose Safari⇒Reset Safari. A dialog opens with a series of check boxes, as shown in Figure 1-24. You can’t undo this procedure; so carefullychoose the items you want to reset.

Figure 1-24: Resetting Safari wipes out all traces of your browsing history, and then some.

Saving and Sharing Web Pages

When you come upon a web page containing a story or a recipe that you want to save for later reference, you can add it to the Reading List, as we explain previously, or you can save the file. If you want to share that great recipe with friends, you have many options so they can have a look at what you find so interesting. We explain both saving and sharing here.

Saving a web page as a file

When you save a web page as a file, you store the complete text and graphics of that web page as a file on your Mac’s hard drive. Safari gives you three ways to save a web page:

· As a Web Archive: A web archive is meant for viewing a web page only in the Safari browser.

· As an HTML Source File (called Page Source): If you view a web page saved as Page Source, you won’t see any of the graphics, but you will see text references to the graphics and each one’s associated URL. Saving a web page as an HTML source file lets you view and edit that file in any browser or web page authoring application, which is helpful if you want to figure out how someone designed that particular web page.

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, which is a special language used to specify the layout and behavior of web pages.

· As a PDF (Portable Document Format) file: In simple terms, Safari saves the web page as an image and exports it at a PDF file, which can be viewed, but not edited, in many popular apps such as Preview, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Word, and Pages.

PDF is a special file format for storing the layout of text and graphics so they appear exactly the same on different computers.

To save a web page as a file, follow these steps:

1. In Safari, find the web page that you want to save and choose File⇒Save As.

Or, choose File⇒Export as PDF.

The Save As dialog opens, as shown in Figure 1-25.

Figure 1-25: Choose the file format and location.

2. (Optional) Type a new descriptive name in the Save As or Export As field if you don’t want to keep the one Safari automatically fills in for you.

3. (Optional) Add any tags you want to associate with the saved file.

Tags are keywords that help you find your file at a later date. See Book I, Chapter 4 to learn about tags and tagging.

4. From the Where pop-up menu, choose where you want to store your file on your Mac’s hard drive.

If you click the Expand (downward-pointing arrow) button to the right of the Export As field, the Save As dialog expands to let you choose more folders to store your file.

5. If you choose Save As, open the Format pop-up menu, choose Web Archive or Page Source, and then click Save.

After you save a file as a Web Archive, Page Source, or PDF, you can view it by double-clicking the file icon in the folder where you saved it.

Saving a photo from the web

Websites are full of graphics and photos. There are times when you want to save an image, and Safari makes it easy to do — just make sure that you keep the image to yourself if you don’t have the rights to it. To save an image to iPhoto, do the following:

1. In Safari, find the image on a web page that you want to save.

2. Right-click the image and choose Add Image to iPhoto Library, as shown in Figure 1-26.

Or choose one of the other saving options from the menu.

Some websites “protect” against copying the images by using a transparent overlay that prevents your click from being on, and selecting, the image you want to copy.

Figure 1-26: Right-click to save an image from a web page.

3. iPhoto opens automatically and the image is imported.

You can adjust, share, or print the image. (See Book IV, Chapter 3 for details on using iPhoto.)

Sharing a web page

If we had to choose one word to describe Apple apps, it would probably be “sharing.” Whether it’s text in Pages, an image in iPhoto, or a web page in Safari, the procedure for sharing is the same and as simple as a click.

To share a link to web page, do the following:

In Safari, click the Share button on the toolbar or choose File⇒Share; then choose one of these options, as shown in Figure 1-27:

· Email This Page: Sends a link to the web page in an e-mail message. The Mail application loads and opens a new e-mail message containing your web page link. Fill in the address and subject fields, write an accompanying message, and click Send. (See Book II, Chapter 2 to learn about Mail.)

· Messages: Sends a link to the web page that the recipient can click to open the web page with her web browser. A message bubble opens. Fill in the address field and click Send. (See Book II, Chapter 3 to learn about Messages.)

· AirDrop: Sends the link to other Macs on the same network with AirDrop opened.

· Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn: Opens a form with the link attached. Type your tweet or status update and click Send or Post. If you aren’t signed in to your account, you will be prompted to sign in or create a new account. (See Book I, Chapter 3 to learn about setting up Internet accounts.)

Figure 1-27: Share news and discoveries with people you know.

If you send a link to a web page and that web page or website is changed or is no longer available, someone who clicks the link will see an error message instead of the web page you wanted him to see.

Printing a web page

Rather than saving or sharing a web page as a file, you might just want to print it instead: for example, you might want to print a press clip that lauds your latest art installation and mail it to your grandmother who doesn’t have Internet access. To print a web page, follow these steps:

1. In Safari, find the web page you want to print and choose File⇒Print to open the Print dialog.

2. Open the Printer pop-up menu and choose the printer to use.

3. Use the other pop-up menus to choose print quality, number of copies, and page range.

Leave Print Backgrounds and Print Headers and Footers unchecked as this usually prints unnecessary information that only wastes ink.

4. Click the Show Details button to see more options, with regard to page size, scale, and layout. Click Hide Details to close these options.

If you click the PDF button, you can save your web page as a PDF file.

5. Click Print.

Viewing and Playing Multimedia Files

The most basic web pages consist of mainly text and sometimes graphics. However, most websites offer robust content beyond simple words and pictures, including content stored as video, audio, and other types of common files, such as PDF files. Usually, you can just click the playback button, and the audio or video begins to roll. Sometimes you might need additional software — a plug-in — to view content, and you will be prompted to download the appropriate plug-in.

Watching video

Many news sites offer videos that require plug-ins, which are special apps that can read specific types of media, such as Adobe Flash, Windows Media Player, or RealPlayer.

To download the necessary plug-in so you can play Windows Media video content, go to

www.microsoft.com/mac/products/flip4mac.mspx

and download Windows Media Components for QuickTime. This app allows the QuickTime Player that comes with your Mac to play most video files designed to run with Windows Media Player.

Some websites won’t work unless you’re using Microsoft Windows. In this case, you might need to run Windows on your Mac with one of the applications described in Book III, Chapter 5.

Besides downloading and installing the Windows Media Components for Quick Time, you could also download and install both

· The RealPlayer app (www.real.com)

· Adobe Flash (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/?promoid=JZEFT)

After you have these three apps installed, you should be able to watch videos on most every website you visit.

Some users have reported problems between Adobe Flash and Safari and some websites. If you run into similar trouble, the solution is to install and use a separate browser, such as Chrome, for websites that use Adobe Flash.

Listening to streaming audio

Many websites offer audio that you can listen to, such as live interviews or radio shows. Such audio is often stored as streaming audio, which means that your computer downloads a temporary audio file and begins playing it almost instantly but doesn’t actually save the radio app as a file on your hard drive.

Sometimes you can listen to streaming audio through the iTunes application, sometimes you need a copy of Windows Media Components, and sometimes you need a copy of RealPlayer.

Viewing PDF files

Many downloadable documents, booklets, brochures, e-book editions of The New York Times best-selling nonfiction and fiction titles, and user guides are offered as a PDF file. If a website offers a PDF file as a link you can click to open, you can view and scroll through it directly within Safari.

You can save a PDF document you’re viewing to look at later by clicking the document displayed in the Safari web browser window and choosing File⇒Save As. You don’t have to choose Export as PDF because the file already is a PDF. If you double-click a PDF file icon, you can view the contents of that PDF file by using the Preview application included with every Mac.

You can also view PDF files by using the Adobe Reader application — a free download from Adobe (www.adobe.com) — which offers the basic features of the Preview application plus extra features for opening and viewing PDF documents. If you have problems printing certain PDF files with the Preview application, try printing them with the Adobe Reader application instead.

Downloading Files

Part of the web’s appeal is that you can find interesting content — music tracks, or free demos of apps you can try before you buy, for example — that you can download and install on your own computer. (When you copy a file from the web and store it on your computer, that’sdownloading. When you copy a file from your computer to a website — such as your electronic tax forms that you file electronically on the IRS’s website — that’s uploading.)

Download those files only if you trust the source. If you visit an unknown website, that unknown website might be trying to trick you into downloading a file that could do harmful things to your Mac, such as delete files, spy on your activities, or even bombard you with unwanted ads, so be careful. Safari has built-in protections that scan websites and downloads to warn you of potential dangers. To discover ways you can protect your Mac (and yourself) from potentially dangerous Internet threats, take a look at the earlier section on protecting your web-browsing privacy and consult Book III, Chapter 2.

When you find a file you want to download, follow these steps:

1. Click the Download link or button to begin downloading the file you want to save on your Mac’s hard drive.

An arrow button appears next to the search field with a small progress bar. Clicking the progress bar opens a list of past and current downloads and their status. You can also view downloads from the Downloads stack on the Dock, and from there, open them in the Finder.

2. When the file has completely downloaded, double-click the file icon in the Downloads progress list to open the file.

Alternatively, you can go to the Downloads stack on the Dock and open the file from there.

If you downloaded an application, that application might start running or installing itself on your Mac, so follow the onscreen instructions. See Book I, Chapter 5 to read about the App Store and downloading apps.

If you click the magnifying glass icon to the right of a file displayed in the Downloads progress window, Safari opens a Finder window and displays the contents of the Downloads stack.

By default, downloaded files are saved to the Downloads folder. To change the destination folder, choose Safari⇒Preferences and click the General button. From the Save Downloaded Files To pop-up menu, choose Other, and then click the destination folder in the chooser.

While the Safari Preferences are open, choose to open “safe” files, such as PDFs, photo, and movies, as soon as the download is finished by selecting the Open “Safe” Files After Downloading check box.

Using Extensions

You can enhance your Safari Internet navigation experience by adding extensions, which are add-on applets designed by developers and approved by Apple. To find and install extensions, follow these steps:

1. Click the Safari icon on the Dock or Launchpad.

2. Choose Safari⇒Safari Extensions.

The Safari Extensions Gallery on the Apple website opens, as shown in Figure 1-28.

Figure 1-28: Safari Extensions automate and add features to your web browsing activities.

3. Search for extensions by scrolling through the extensions on the opening page or clicking a category and scrolling through the results.

4. When you find a useful or entertaining extension, click the Install Now button.

The extension is installed in your Home directory’s hidden Library folder to be accessed by Safari. (See Book I, Chapter 4 to learn more about the Library folder.) Depending on the type of task the extension performs, it may appear as a banner under the toolbar or as a button on the toolbar, or it might show up on-call: for example, as password manager.

5. To manage your extensions after you install them, choose Safari⇒Preferences and click the Extensions tab.

6. Click the extension you want to manage and choose settings from the menus offered. Click Uninstall if you want to remove the extension.

7. Click a bookmark or enter a new URL in the Search and Address field when you’re finished visiting the Extensions Gallery.