Safari 4
So a beta of Safari 4 is out today. It works well, in my opinion! But in using it again now, I was reminded of the biggest usability block for me between it and Firefox: the different tab shortcuts. In Firefox, brilliantly, you can select each tab with Apple-1, Apple-2, Apple-3, etc. In Safari, you have to Shift-Something-Left or Right to cycle through.
It’s pretty minor, I know. But I did manage to fix it, with the help of this post by Marc Liyanage. I:
- created a folder in My Home > Library > Scripts > Applications
- copied a bunch of shortcuts in there (you can unzip this handy folder and drag it in)
- installed a copy of FastScripts by Daniel Jalkut
- went into FastScripts preferences, and added each shortcut with the corresponding keystroke
The only slight bummer here is that it’s not a free solution, because FastScripts is commercial software. I originally tried to pull it off by enabling the scripting menu using AppleScript Utility.app and assigning shortcuts with System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts, but I couldn’t get it to work. My guess is it’s because these Apple-1, Apple-2 shortcuts were already assigned in Safari to the Bookmarks toolbar, but I don’t know for sure. Any suggestions there please let me know.
On http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/ there’s a link to FastScripts Lite which is free. It is limited to 10 keyboard shortcuts.
There’s also Proxi from Griffin Technology: http://proxi.griffintechnology.com/.
But FastScripts is easily worth its money. I use it all the time to enhance or override application behavior I don’t like with a quick AppleScript.
FastScripts is also much more lightweight than other solutions like Proxi. Just look at the memory footprint, startup time or CPU activity.
Marc, you rock, thanks! I agree. I’m going to buy FastScripts at the end of the trial. I’m glad though that there’s a free alternative. Since you need nine shortcuts for this hack, FastScripts Lite would do the trick.
Also a big thank you for your PHP distros. They’ve been a huge help over the years.