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Basically, you can view one Web page at a time within the browser's window frame; the others are "behind" the one you are viewing.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

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Apple updates Safari Web browser, adding tabbed windows


April 23, 2003


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard

   Apple has updated its Safari Web browser. It can now open new Web pages in a tab instead of a separate window.
   Tabbed Web browsers are new to most Mac users. The idea is simple. When you open a Web page in a new window, the page appears inside the frame of the browser's window as a new entry in a row of tabs. Clicking on any tab brings its otherwise hidden window to the front, hiding the others.
   This is easier to grasp when you see it in action than when you read about it. Basically, you can view one Web page at a time within the browser's window frame; the others are "behind" the one you are viewing, ready to take its place if you click on any of their tabs.
   Safari handles tabs perfectly. You can turn off tabs in Safari's preferences and use Safari the older way, in which all new windows open separately, or you can mix 'n' match your windows by Ctrl-clicking links and choosing tabbed or non-tabbed windows for each one. (If you have a two-button mouse, just click the right button to get the same effect.)
   An easier way for most of us is to use the standard Safari keyboard modifiers for opening a Web page in a new window. You might not know about these (they're hidden away in some cases), so you may want to write them down.
   Cmd-click: Open a page in a new tab if tabbed windows are turned on, or open in a new foreground window if tabs are turned off.
   Option-Cmd-click: Open a page in a new window if tabbed windows are turned on, or open in a new tab if tabs are turned off.
   Shift-Cmd-Click: Open a page in a new tab in tabs are turned on, or open a page in a new background window if tabs are turned off.
   Tabs take time to get used to. I encountered tabbed browsing the first time in Opera, the Scandinavian browser available for Windows, Linux and many other platforms besides the Mac. I didn't like the way Opera did it.
   But Mozilla and its derivative browsers have made tabs widely popular among many users. I find tabs helpful in three ways:
   1. You never get the kind of window clutter you get with regular, multiple windows.
   2. You can easily find a Web page you opened a while back; it's right inside your browser's main window frame, in its own tab, instead of being hidden behind a dozen other windows.
   3. You're encouraged to multitask. OS X is a superb multitasking operating system (able to do many things at the same time, in other words), but I suspect many users single-task their browsers -- by opening one window and then closing it before they open the next. Tabs invite you to open as many Web pages as you want without closing any other ones.
   Safari is free. The latest version is available from Apple's Web site at www.apple.com. It's still a beta program (one that is being tested before release), but has been behaving well on my Mac.