My Safari Configuration - Can you improve it?

[Cattywampus_]

Hi there,

Right I'm trying to make the move to Safari from Firefox. Simply put - Safari is a sleeker and faster. Main gripes are the plugins system isn't as a sleek as Firefox.

Anyway - after coming from Firefox for many years, I have got into many habits and gotten used to ways of doing things. I have tried emulating most of them on Safari using Plugins. I have listed them below - can you offer any better solutions? Also have listed some features I would like to try and implement.

1. CMD+1/2/3 etc for Tab Selection.
Solved this using Safari Commander - nice app. Only $5 CAD.

2. Undo Tabs
Solved by using Glims

3. CMD+K to jump to Google Search field
Added "Google Search..." to Keyboard Shortcuts for Safari in Sys Prefs.

4. Trackpad Gestures
I wanted to make the rotate gesture move back and forth between tabs. I solved this using MultiClutch. Not updated for 10.5.6/Safari 4.0 but does work.

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Unresolved Issues

Address Bar - find URLs from History/Bookmarks - not just from the start of the URL
Firefox 3.0's AwesomeBar is, well.... Awesome. If I were to visit the websites forums.macrumors.com and www.macrumors.com - if I wanted to visit the Forums site by typing in Safaris address bar, I would have to start with "foru...". On Firefox's AwesomeBar, I could simply type "macrumors" and it would display both the Forums URL and MacRumors URL. This is a major drag. To date, I have not found a solution to this. Anyone know a way to enhance Safari's address bar?

Flash Block for Safari 4.0
I found a plugin called ClickforFlash - which wouldn't load flash movies without me first clicking on it. This had draw backs. First of all - there was no Global On/Off function. I sometimes like to have Flash files load all the time. Furthermore, adding sites to the whitelist - if you open a webpage in a tab and that tab isn't focused immediately - the flash video still doesn't load until you focus that whitelisted tab. An annoyance for me. Does anyone know a good Flashblocking plugin for Safari 4.0?

Edit : It actually appears that this is a default behaviour of Safari. Even with Click4Flash removed. If someone could replicate this I'd be greatful :-

Go to Youtube.com and CMD+Click on a video. Do not switch to the tab with the video for a few seconds. Then click the tab. When You click the tab, it should show it loading - the video does not load in the background (until you actually focus that tab). Thanks.

Duplicate Tab with Keyboard Shortcut
I like to have the function to be able to duplicate the current tab. In Firefox I could do this by CMD+SHIFT+T. I have not found any way of doing this on Safari 4.0. Anyone?

Bookmarks Bar - poor performance
A strange one: I have folders on my Bookmarks Bar (i.e. General, News, Tech, Forums etc). Each folder has several sites in it. I click the folder on the bar and a list drops down. Now - if I click one folder, I cannot move my mouse over to the next folder on the bar and that list drop down. I have to click off that folder drop down, and then click again to open the next folder. Very annoying. Anyone else have this problem? Anyone know a way around it?

I think that covers it now. Many thanks to those who can help.

 

[lostinmysphere]

Flash Block for Safari 4.0
I found a plugin called ClickforFlash - which wouldn't load flash movies without me first clicking on it. This had draw backs. First of all - there was no Global On/Off function. I sometimes like to have Flash files load all the time. Furthermore, adding sites to the whitelist - if you open a webpage in a tab and that tab isn't focused immediately - the flash video still doesn't load until you focus that whitelisted tab. An annoyance for me. Does anyone know a good Flashblocking plugin for Safari 4.0?

I think general consensus is that this is the best add blocker:

http://burgersoftware.com/en/safariadblock

Also, although you didn't mention it, there is this fantastic plugin (though if you have glims you might not need it):

http://alexstaubo.github.com/keywurl/

 

[Cattywampus_]

Thanks.

I have just installed Safari AdBlock. Its nice that it blocks ads but its not blocking all flash movies unless I click on them to load them. Any other options?

Many thanks.

 

[Cattywampus_]

Hi,

Just made a discovery regarding Flash Blocking. Not exactly regarding blocking but he behaviour of how flash items work in Safari. I have noted my findings in the original post in red.

Many thanks.

 

[Cattywampus_]

Well after a couple of days I just couldn't get used to it.

Firefox might take a few extra seconds to load but my god its features far out weigh those of Safari.

My only MAJORLY annoying gripe with Firefox is if you click on a flash movie, you lose access to keyboard shortcuts. Like, after clicking on a YouTube video you that flash movie hogs the keyboard until you click out of it with your mouse. Very annoying. A 'bug' that has been reported by many people.

Hope it is something fixed in near future releases.

 

[clevin]

My only MAJORLY annoying gripe with Firefox is if you click on a flash movie, you lose access to keyboard shortcuts. Like, after clicking on a YouTube video you that flash movie hogs the keyboard until you click out of it with your mouse. Very annoying. A 'bug' that has been reported by many people.

Hope it is something fixed in near future releases.

I can't reproduce that, you sure about the problem? which version of flash do you have?

 

[Cattywampus_]

I can't reproduce that, you sure about the problem? which version of flash do you have?

Latest Flash and latest Firefox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ZvmbkuXM8&feature=dir

Click inside the movie (i.e. Click the pause/play button etc) then try and then try and change to another tab using CMD+1/2/3

Doesn't work. Flash movies steal keyboard commands until you click outside the flash video.

 

[clevin]

indeed, I see what you mean, both on mac and windows.

Im not sure which way I prefer it, since keyboard is effectively controlling the video. you can certainly file a bug report to mozilla.

If I were to find any solution or work around for this, I will sure to reply again.