Apple's Safari to gain new tab, search and form features
In addition to some of the larger features such as "Web Clip," which was demonstrated at Apple Computer's recent developer's conference, the next-generation of the company's Safari web browser will also deliver several other incremental innovations that aim to improve the overall web browsing experience.
According to a Musings from Mars post, three of these more subtle advancements stand out in the recent developer preview of Leopard, the next major overhaul to the Mac OS X operating system. They include manipulatable tabs, in-page searching and resizable text areas.
Manipulatable browser tabs
Beginning with Safari 3.0 -- which will ship as part of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard -- Apple will offer users more flexibility in the way they manage the numerous browser tabs that too often seem to multiply exponentially during a lengthy web surfing session.
In addition to being able to reorder tabs through drag-and-drop, Apple in Safari 3.0 is adding the ability to drag individual tabs off an existing browser window, thus creating a fresh browser window with the contents of that tab.
Users will also be able to drag tabbed windows from one Safari window to another, or ask the browser to consolidate all open windows into one, making tabs for each existing page in a single Safari browser window.
Screenshot credit: Musings from Mars
In-page lightbox searching
Safari 3.0 will dip further into Apple's Spotlight toolkit, offering in-page searching that allows users search "live" for specific search terms on any web page.
Unlike the existing version of the browser, which highlights only the first instance of a text match on a page, Safari 3.0 will find all instances of the search term right off the bat.
Instead of identifying matches with a semi-translucent blue or yellow background highlight -- which is sometimes difficult to discern -- Apple is implementing the "lightbox" technique it invented for Dashboard, dimming the web page background and shinning a spotlight on the text matches.
Screenshot credit: Musings from Mars
Resizable text areas
Finally, Web designers developing pages for Safari will no longer have to fiddle with TEXTAREA form elements in order to satisfy user requirements, while at the same time maintaining some semblence of good page design.
The version of Safari 3.0 shipping as part of Leopard Preview enables a "resize" corner that allows users to resize text fields on a web page in real time, to suit their text-editing needs.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, along with Safari 3.0, remains on track for a release during the first half of 2007.
According to a Musings from Mars post, three of these more subtle advancements stand out in the recent developer preview of Leopard, the next major overhaul to the Mac OS X operating system. They include manipulatable tabs, in-page searching and resizable text areas.
Manipulatable browser tabs
Beginning with Safari 3.0 -- which will ship as part of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard -- Apple will offer users more flexibility in the way they manage the numerous browser tabs that too often seem to multiply exponentially during a lengthy web surfing session.
In addition to being able to reorder tabs through drag-and-drop, Apple in Safari 3.0 is adding the ability to drag individual tabs off an existing browser window, thus creating a fresh browser window with the contents of that tab.
Users will also be able to drag tabbed windows from one Safari window to another, or ask the browser to consolidate all open windows into one, making tabs for each existing page in a single Safari browser window.
Screenshot credit: Musings from Mars
In-page lightbox searching
Safari 3.0 will dip further into Apple's Spotlight toolkit, offering in-page searching that allows users search "live" for specific search terms on any web page.
Unlike the existing version of the browser, which highlights only the first instance of a text match on a page, Safari 3.0 will find all instances of the search term right off the bat.
Instead of identifying matches with a semi-translucent blue or yellow background highlight -- which is sometimes difficult to discern -- Apple is implementing the "lightbox" technique it invented for Dashboard, dimming the web page background and shinning a spotlight on the text matches.
Screenshot credit: Musings from Mars
Resizable text areas
Finally, Web designers developing pages for Safari will no longer have to fiddle with TEXTAREA form elements in order to satisfy user requirements, while at the same time maintaining some semblence of good page design.
The version of Safari 3.0 shipping as part of Leopard Preview enables a "resize" corner that allows users to resize text fields on a web page in real time, to suit their text-editing needs.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, along with Safari 3.0, remains on track for a release during the first half of 2007.
Comments
By the way, I just wanted to say that this forum has some dang good smileys.
Sounds cool. Maybe I'll have to consider switching back from Firefox, or at least sharing time between them.
By the way, I just wanted to say that this forum has some dang good smileys.
dang!
Resizable text areas
I saw this in Webkit not long ago, but it disappeared again. Really handy. I thought it might become a part of a later build of Safari for Tiger, though.
In addition to being able to reorder tabs through drag-and-drop, Apple in Safari 3.0 is adding the ability to drag individual tabs off an existing browser window, thus creating a fresh browser window with the contents of that tab.
Users will also be able to drag tabbed windows from one Safari window to another, or ask the browser to consolidate all open windows into one, making tabs for each existing page in a single Safari browser window.
Firefox does all of this now.
In-page lightbox searching
Safari 3.0 will dip further into Apple's Spotlight toolkit, offering in-page searching that allows users search "live" for specific search terms on any web page.
Unlike the existing version of the browser, which highlights only the first instance of a text match on a page, Safari 3.0 will find all instances of the search term right off the bat.
Instead of identifying matches with a semi-translucent blue or yellow background highlight -- which is sometimes difficult to discern -- Apple is implementing the "lightbox" technique it invented for Dashboard, dimming the web page background and shinning a spotlight on the text matches.
This might be pretty nice. Firefox does offer a "highlight all" but no "dim everything else". They both perform the same function, which is better is probably a matter of personal preference.
Finally, Web designers developing pages for Safari will no longer have to fiddle with TEXTAREA form elements in order to satisfy user requirements, while at the same time maintaining some semblence of good page design.
Is this fixing a bug or adding a feature?
The version of Safari 3.0 shipping as part of Leopard Preview enables a "resize" corner that allows users to resize text fields on a web page in real time, to suit their text-editing needs.
OK, maybe this is pretty nice. Some sites only provide a tiny post-entry area.
I saw this in Webkit not long ago, but it disappeared again.
It didn't disappear. You need to manually enable it. Set WebKitTextAreasAreResizable to true.
Firefox does all of this now.
Actually Firefox doesn't do all of this... yes it allows you to reorder tabs, but you can drag a tab off a window to make a new one, or drag a tab over to another browser... Very nice feature.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
In addition to being able to reorder tabs through drag-and-drop, Apple in Safari 3.0 is adding the ability to drag individual tabs off an existing browser window, thus creating a fresh browser window with the contents of that tab.
Users will also be able to drag tabbed windows from one Safari window to another, or ask the browser to consolidate all open windows into one, making tabs for each existing page in a single Safari browser window.
Firefox does all of this now.
Huh??? Mine (1.5.0.7) certainly doesn't do this. IF i have another window open I can drag a tab to it and the page goes to the tab page. The original tab isn't removed from the original window and I can't just drag it off the page. Also, if there's a way to consolidate tab in one window I haven't found it yet.
So far, the best solution I've found for too many tabs in Safari:
Are you trying to be clever, or just annoying? Do you really prefer the proliferation of windows over the proliferation of tabs?
Actually Firefox doesn't do all of this... yes it allows you to reorder tabs, but you can drag a tab off a window to make a new one, or drag a tab over to another browser... Very nice feature.
OK, you are right, a couple of the features aren't currently performed, namely combining and splitting windows. You can drag a tab to another existing window though, or another browser. I just dragged this tab from Firefox to Safari.
So far, the best solution I've found for too many tabs in Safari:
Haha.
Well that's true, though I doubt that having way too many windows is better...
OK, you are right, a couple of the features aren't currently performed, namely combining and splitting windows. You can drag a tab to another existing window though, or another browser. I just dragged this tab from Firefox to Safari.
Yeah but that just reloads the page... you could just drag the "clipping" from any browser on a mac and drag it to another window's address panel.. The cool thing about this, is it isn't treated as a page to open, it's treated as a consistant page that say if you are changing things on it (text boxes etc) those "changes" remain even after moving it arround.
Even better would be if there was a permanent toggle button that made the downloads appear and disappear in the window.
But for normal browsing, I'll use tabs to save space.
Sounds cool. Maybe I'll have to consider switching back from Firefox, or at least sharing time between them.
By the way, I just wanted to say that this forum has some dang good smileys.
Odd then that you chose not to use any in your post.
Firefox does all of this now.
You forgot: "Less space than an iRiver. No wireless. Lame."
Would just be nice if there was a way to alphabetize the bookmarks.
Here Ya Go....Saft Plug-In http://haoli.dnsalias.com/Saft/
It does MUCH more than just alphabetize Bookmarks,Check it out.
That's why I like Opera 9 so much - EVERYTHING opens in a new tab, unless the link is a specific, allowed pop-up. I want one and only one browser window, and that's one of the things that really pisses me off about Safari when I use it. (I also love how Opera handles downloads via a tab, instead of a new window, and wish Safari had an option to do the same.)