Force Safari to use one window only
JimD (2549 points) | Fri, 2008-04-11 12:56
I had posted this tip over at The Graphic Mac last week and it was quite popular, so I thought I would share this Safari tip with the readers of CB as well.
One of the things that has kept me using Firefox over the last few years is Safari's insistence on opening links in new windows, rather than a new tab in the current window. It drives me nuts. I hate having multiple windows open.
Thankfully, the latest version of Safari (3.1) has a hidden feature that forces all links to open in a new tab, rather than a new window — even the stubborn sites like Google and Gmail finally stay in a single window.
All you have to do is open Terminal from your Applications/Utilities folder and enter the following:
defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true
Hit the enter key and you're all set. To reverse this, simply retype the code into the Terminal and substitute false at the end where you previously typed true.
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Command and *click* on the link, and it opens the link in a new tab. Has been working for years.
–717
The preferences don't respect the tab settings, and even command + click doesn't work on many sites (Google Gmail comes to mind). Besides, you shouldn't have to use a keyboard to click a link and have it open in the same window - that's just bad design on Apple's part.
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Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.
Has anyone figured out how to do this on a PC? I use a PC (yek!) at work. Thanks!
Cherbs
Graphic Artist and Mac Addict
Cherbs
Graphic Artist & Mac Addict
Thanks! This should be an option in the next release. Especially that it's so easy to switch on.
i've found this solution to be quite clunky and breaks a couple of websites using target=_blank
i use the SingleWindow plugin from Bitheap instead, and it works without fail every time
http://bitheap.org/singlewindow/
andrew harrison
http://andrew.harrison.org