Safari is definitely the most energy-efficient browser available for your computer so it’s wise to use it as your browser of choice, especially if you’re on a battery-reliant Mac notebook.
If you’re going to use Safari as your full time browser, then it makes sense to learn some of the more important keyboard shortcuts to supercharge your workflow. In this post, we’ll consider a dozen must-have Safari shortcuts to power up your browsing experience.
1. Quickly switch between open tabs
To quickly switch between tabs using your keyboard, use Control (⌃)-Tab (⇥) or Control (⌃)-Shift (⇧)-Tab (⇥) to navigate your open tabs forward and backwards. You can also press Command (⌘)-1 to Command (⌘)-8 to quickly switch to a specific tab. If your open tabs don’t fit Safari’s tab bar, simply swipe left or right on any tab using your trackpad to reveal the ones outside window boundaries.
2. Instantly jump to the rightmost tab
To instantly jump to the rightmost open tab, press Command (⌘)-9. This handy shortcut only works on Mac computers running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or newer. On older macOS editions, this shortcut takes you to the ninth tab.
3. Close a tab
You can quickly close a tab by pressing Command (⌘)-W. To close all tabs except the currently active one, right-click or Control (⌃)-click the one you’d like to keep and choose Close Other Tabs from a popup menu. Alternatively, Option (⌥)-click the tab’s close symbol (“x”).
4. Reopen recently closed tabs/windows
Have you ever closed a tab and instantly regretted doing so? No big deal, there are several shortcuts for bringing recently closed tabs. If your last action in Safari was closing a tab, use the standard undo shortcut Command (⌘)-Z. Otherwise, press Shift(⇧)-Command(⌘)-T or choose Reopen Last Closed Tab from Safari’s History menu.
5. Switch between windows
We know how to switch between tabs, but how do you quickly switch between windows? Just press Command (⌘)-` or Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-` to switch windows in reverse.
6. Go back/forward
Let the trackpad and mouse rest. Use the Command (⌘)-] shortcut to advance to the next webpage and Command (⌘)-[ to go back to the previous webpage.
7. Scroll a full page
To scroll a full page at a time, hold the Option (⌥) key and press the Up or Down arrow key. You can also press the Space bar or the Space+Shift (⇧) combination to scroll down or up a full page.
8. Jump to the webpage top/bottom
To instantly reach the very top or bottom of a webpage, hold the Command (⌘) key on the keyboard while pressing the Up or Down arrow key.
9. Show/hide the favorites bar
Every little bit of real estate counts. To show or hide your Favorites bar, press Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-B.
10. Open a private-browsing window
To quickly open a new private-browsing session, press Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-N.
11. Show/hide the sidebar
Want fast access to Bookmarks, Reading List and Shared links? Try pressing Command (⌘)-Shift(⇧)-L.
12. Jump straight to the URL bar
If you want to quickly access the address bar to type in a URL or enter a search query, use Command (⌘)-L.