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Keyboard Shortcuts for the Safari Bookmarks Toolbar
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By Tom Nelson Tom Nelson Writer Tom Nelson is an engineer, programmer, network manager, and computer network and systems designer who has written for Other World Computing,and others. Tom is also president of Coyote Moon, Inc., a Macintosh and Windows consulting firm. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on December 2, 2020 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Browsers Safari Chrome Firefox Microsoft The Safari web browser makes it easy to access your favorite websites via keyboard shortcuts on Mac. It's supported this feature for quite a while. Starting with OS X El Capitan and Safari 9, though, Apple changed the way those keyboard shortcuts work by default. We explain it all below and show you how you can use those shortcuts for your favorites again. The following guide applies to Safari 9 and higher. How to Use Safari' s Keyboard Shortcuts
If you hold down the Command key and press a number from one to nine, you can switch between the different tabs currently open on your browser. Before the launch of Safari 9, these shortcuts were used to access websites saved to your Favorites. For example, Command + 1 brought up the first site on the left in the Bookmarks toolbar; Command + 2 accessed the second site from the left, and so on. How to Enable Safari Favorites Keyboard Shortcuts
If you want to use keyboard shortcuts for your favorites instead of your tabs, you need to change how they work in the browser's settings. Here's how: Select Safari, then Preferences. Select Tabs. Remove the checkmark from Use -1 through -9 to switch tabs. The command+number keyboard shortcut returns to switching among websites on the Favorites toolbar. Close Preferences. Organization Is the Key
Safari's keyboard shortcuts let you access up to nine URLs. Before you give them a workout, though, take some time to look at your Favorites and rearrange or organize them if necessary. Keyboard shortcuts only work for individual websites, not with any folders that contain websites. For example, let's say the first item on your Favorites is a folder called News, which contains your preferred news sites. That folder and all of the bookmarks within it would be ignored by the keyboard shortcuts. Consider a Bookmarks toolbar that looked like this: News (folder)Apple (folder)Google Maps (site)About Macs (site)Banking (folder)Facebook (site) Only the three bookmarks that directly point to a website are accessible via keyboard shortcuts. The three folders on the Bookmarks toolbar are ignored. With this in mind, you may want to move all of your individual websites to the left side of the Bookmarks toolbar, while moving your folders to the right. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire The Best Windows Keyboard Shortcuts in 2022 How to Manage Tabbed Browsing in Safari for macOS Adding Favorites to Internet Explorer 11 How to Add Safari Bookmarks on an iPhone or iPod Touch How to Install, Manage, and Delete Safari Extensions How to Show the Favorites Bar in Microsoft Edge How to Activate and Use Responsive Design Mode in Safari How to Use Firefox for Mac How to Manage the Top Sites Feature in Safari How to Modify the Mac Finder Sidebar How to Delete Cookies in Every Major Browser How to Use the Google Spreadsheets AVERAGE Function How to Activate the iPhone Debug Console or Web Inspector Add More Features by Turning on Safari's Develop Menu Viewing the HTML Source Code in Safari How to Pin Sites in Safari and Mac OS Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies