Murphy Mac

Skip on down to the screencast if you want to see some of the new Safari features.

In case you haven’t heard: the browser-builders have been busy. Safari 3 is in beta and it runs on Windows too. Netscape recently released a browser. Which one are you going to use?

Murphy uses Firefox and Safari. It’s one way to keep two Google accounts logged in simultaneously, although there’s apparently another way.

Using a Safari Auto-Click bookmark Murphy can load tabs for the blog, stats, ads, etc. Then he does his regular browsing with Firefox, mainly because there are so many add-ons to take advantage of. Of course, having two browsers open isn’t the best idea for conserving resources.

Safari loads very quickly, but Murphy prefers to the look of Firefox. Finding the right button is easier for aging eyes with a splash of color. Having the bookmarks sync from one machine to another is another nice feature. You could get the sync functionality on Safari with .Mac - but Murph isn’t a subscriber.

What about the new Safari?

Murphy loves the new find feature. The old one was somewhat lame. If you typed your search and hit Return the Find box closed and you had to Command+F again to get it back. This doesn’t happen with the new Find, which also has some slick eye-candy graphics which actually make it easier to view the results.

Moving tabs around has been graphically enhanced as well. It looks like moving photos in iWeb.

There’s another new feature too - check out the screencast to see how to recover a window you didn’t mean to close.

Usually we save Monday for the really easy stuff. Murphy was a little late getting back from vacation, so this week it’s Tuesday.You can drag a URL from one window to another in Safari and Firefox.

You can create a new tab this way in Safari, or just drag a tab in Firefox. You can even drag a URL from Firefox to Safari.

In the screencast Murphy covers all the details. He’ll also show dropping a URL on the Desktop and dragging a background window - for a little bonus.

How do you send links? Command+L to highlight the URL? Command+C to copy the link? Go to Mail, create a message, paste in the link…

You don’t have to do all that! If you’re loyal to the natives like Safari and Mail you can take advantage of Command+I when you need to send a page. Yes, Command+I. Safari and Mail will tag-team the rest.

This is so easy, we almost didn’t make the screencast. But maybe you’re at work and you want to see it right now. Go ahead and watch, it’s short.
Take a look at this entry on Hawkwings if you want some more information on other browsers and similar capabilities.

Murphy doesn’t even use Mail in a conventional way. But it’s often open for things like quickly sending attachments, and having the Mac respond to emails demanding action.

This little trick isn’t a bad reason to keep Mail open either.

Lots of people used to use Google for their start page. Now that our browsers have Google built-in the home page is up for grabs.

So make your own start page, and spread your favorite sites across it. Use big, easy to click images. You can add text links for sites you don’t visit quite so often.

This little project used to be a hassle, even with semi-friendly web editors like MS Word. iWeb makes it incredibly easy to lay out the images and publish your new home page.

If you make a really good one go ahead and post a link in the comments.

All your RSS Feeds on One Safari Tab

Are there a bunch of sites you go to every morning? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have Safari load them all up instead of you clicking each address?

Sure, you already know you can click Open in Tabs from a bookmark folder, but did you know you can eliminate a click in the process? Murphy can show you in this screencast.

The screencast also covers how to add multiple RSS feeds into one tab, combining them into one big reading list.