The name Safari fits – the Internet today bears some resemblance to a thicket that is difficult to penetrate. And the search for what you are looking for sometimes turns into a safari, i.e. a long journey through difficult terrain
Almost everyone searches for something on the Internet. Safari 3 is supposed to help you find what you want, and we especially like the new search function that lets you search on already loaded pages. You can access it from the “Edit” menu or by pressing the “Command-F” key combination: Safari will then push a small gray line at the top of the window into the image, into which you type the search term. If the term is found, the line shows the number of places where it was found, while below it on the discreetly darkened Internet page the places where it was found are marked with a white frame – the currently selected place is highlighted with a yellow background and text in bold letters.
If you search via the input field with the magnifying glass at the top right of the Safari window (shortcut Command-Option-F), you start a query with Google – other Internet search tools such as MSN or Yahoo cannot be reached directly via this input field. If you want to use it, you have to call the respective Internet pages ( www.msn.com or de.yahoo.com )
Security and legal issues
Images and texts are protected: Without the consent of the author/photographer/graphic designer, you may not republish images or text. Safari 3 therefore warns in several places when you enter the legal gray area.
Apple promises a little bit full-bodied that the function “private surfing” protects against data theft. This means that the browser only temporarily stores all data that accumulates on the Mac during an Internet visit. This includes the history (= the list of recently visited Internet addresses), the cache for images, style sheets and HTML pages, the memory for form data and all cookies. Cookies are small pieces of text that the operator of a server can store on the Mac, for example, to include a function such as “things you’ve viewed recently” in its pages. But the protection feature of Safari 3 always requires that you close Safari after visiting the internet – as long as the software is still active, all the mentioned info is stored on the Mac and thus accessible to anyone who can gain access to it.
Images are stored quickly
Safari can save the HTML code of web pages or the whole layout including images and animations. In addition, there is a very simple method to save a copy of an image on the hard disk: You click on the image with the mouse, hold down the mouse button and drag the image to the desktop. Safari then saves the image that is visible in the browser to the hard drive. This should only be used for private purposes; before using it on other internet sites or even on printed works, you should clarify image quality and usage rights with the author of the image.
How Web Clips work
Web Clips is what Apple calls a feature in Safari that lets you cut out parts of an Internet page and save them to your hard drive. The special thing about this is the automatic update that happens whenever you start Dash-board from Mac-OS X (factory default is F12). A web clip is therefore a snippet of a web page that you always have in Dashboard – you don’t need to launch Safari and go back to the original page.
Such web clips are saved only as a definition, their content is cached. Subsequent changes are not possible. So if you want to have another clip of the web page, you have to close the old version in Dashboard (hold down the Option key and move the mouse over the clip until you see the white X on a black background) and create a new clip. Alternatively you can try to open Dashboard, move the mouse over the clip and click on the small “i” in the lower right corner. Dashboard then shows the settings for this web clip, the “Edit” button allows – up to a certain degree – to change the clip.
For professionals: If Safari recognizes the structure of the page, the frame for the clip is automatically created at the position of the mouse pointer. If Safari can’t recognize a page structure, you have to move the cropping frame manually and set the size. The respective structural element of the page or the exact size of the frame is then stored in the user folder in the subfolder “Library/Preferences” in the file “widget-com.apple.widget.web clip.plist”, which can be opened with any text editor if interested.
If Safari does not start
Apple’s Internet browser has an interface for plug-ins, but they can only display or play additional file types in the browser window. What Apple has not foreseen is to extend Safari itself, for example to add additional menu commands, windows or toolbars. Nevertheless, some software manufacturers offer corresponding extensions, but they use an interface that was designed for completely different purposes. Therefore, if you install software like Concierge Saft, Pith Helmet or Picture Lens, you risk that the browser won’t start after updating the operating system.
If Safari refuses to start, you should empty two folders and try again. Mostly this solves the problem, because all manufacturers of these Safari plug-ins use the same mechanism, so a bug usually cripples all plug-ins. The folders are “/Library/InputManagers” and “/User/[username]/Library/InputManagers”. For the test you pull out all files and subfolders from these two folders and store them on the desktop for a short time. If Safari can be started again, the cause is found – and we recommend not to install these plug-ins anymore.
If Safari crashes during operation
If, on the other hand, the trip to the Internet ends rather abruptly because Safari crashes, an Internet plug-in is usually responsible for it. Internet plug-ins are extensions that a browser needs to display certain types of files, for example video movies in Flash format (file extension usually: “.swf”). These plug-ins are located in two folders “/Library/Internet Plug-Ins” and “/User/[username]/Library/Internet Plug-Ins”. If Safari crashes when opening an internet page, the culprit is almost always to be found in one of these two folders. Since the latter has priority (the plug-ins there are loaded preferentially), clear it out first and move the files and folders to a folder on the desktop. Then you restart Safari and try to access the page. If Safari shows an error message (“… can’t find the plug-in”), click the “OK”-button – if the rest of the page loads without the browser crashing, one of the plug-ins was indeed responsible for it. Otherwise, repeat the procedure with the Internet plug-ins from the other folder. If Safari works fine without plug-ins, download them one by one back to the respective source folder, then restart Safari and check if the page can be loaded. As soon as the crash occurs again, the culprit is clear – the last loaded Internet plug-in.
In case of such a crash due to an Internet plug-in, we recommend using a search help like Google or sites like Versiontracker ( www.versiontracker.com ) or Macupdate ( www.macupdate.com ) to download a new version of the corresponding plug-in from the Internet pages of the respective manufacturer. Most of the time you will also find the information whether the respective plug-in is compatible with the current version of Safari or with the current version of the operating system.
For security reasons, we do not recommend loading a plug-in via an Internet link on any page. The Trojan (= hidden, malicious software) OSX.RSPlug.A uses this link mechanism to install itself on the respective Mac. Therefore we advise to find out the manufacturer of a plug-in and download the software from their pages.
Security recommendations
Internet plug-ins must be programmed for Mac-OS X in such a way that they can be installed without administrative rights and without entering a password. If a plug-in won’t work without entering a password, you should cancel the installation and clarify with the manufacturer why the password entry is necessary.
Internet plug-ins must be programmed for Mac-OS X in such a way that they can be installed without administrative rights and without entering a password. If a plug-in does not want to work without entering a password, you should cancel the installation and clarify with the manufacturer why the password entry is necessary.
Behind the lock: Only when Safari shows a black lock in the upper right corner, information like account number or password is safe – the transmission is encrypted.
Conclusion
Safari 3 is a fast browser that has only two weak points in our eyes: The handling of bookmarks, which takes some getting used to, and the limitation to the Google search aid when typing into the browser window (see also the box “New in version 3” on this page). Apart from that, the software works quickly and reliably, which is worth a lot on the Internet.