If your iMac is connected to the Internet, you can browse or surf the sites on the World Wide Web. For surfing, Mac OS X provides the Safari browser, which enables you to quickly move from one Web page to another, search for interesting sites, and download files to your iMac.
Open and Close Safari 98
Open a Web Page 100
Follow a Link to a Web Page 101
Open Several Web Pages at Once 102
Find Your Way from One Page to Another 104
Return to a Recently Visited Page 106
Change the Page Safari Opens at First 108
Keep Bookmarks for Web Pages You Like 110
Find Interesting Web Sites 112
Download a File from the Internet 114
Keep Up to Date with News Feeds 116
Choose Essential Security Settings 118
To start surfing the Web, you open the Safari browser.
Open and Close Safari
Open Safari
Note
If the Safari icon does not appear on the Dock, click the desktop. Choose Go and Applications, and then double-click the Safari icon in the Applications folder.
The Safari window opens and shows your default page.
Note
The default page may be the Top Sites page, which shows the pages you have visited most recently, your home page, or another page.
You can then browse to another page as explained later in this chapter.
The Safari menu opens.
The Safari window closes.
Tip
Are there quicker ways of opening and closing Safari?
The quickest way to launch Safari is to have your iMac launch it when you log in.
Can I use other another Web browser instead of Safari?
Safari is a fast and responsive browser, but you can use another Web browser instead if you prefer. The next most popular browser for Macs is Firefox, which you can download for free from www.mozilla.com. Camino, free from www.caminobrowser.org, is another fast and easy-to-use browser for Macs.
Each Web page has a unique address called a uniform resource locator or URL. The most straightforward way to go to a particular Web page is by typing its URL into the address box in Safari.
This technique works well for short addresses but is slow and awkward for complex addresses.
Open a Web Page
Safari selects all of the current address.
Note
If you find triple-clicking difficult, press
Note
You do not need to type in the http:// part of the address. Safari adds this automatically for you when you press
Safari opens the Web page and displays its contents.
Once you have opened a page in Safari, you can use the easier way of navigating to a Web page: Clicking a link on a page to go to another page.
Most Web pages contain links to other pages. Some links are underlined, whereas others are attached to graphics or to different-colored text. When you position the mouse pointer over a link, it changes from
Follow a Link to a Web Page
Note
If the Safari window is not showing the status bar, choose View and Show Status Bar to display it.
Safari shows the linked Web page.
To browse quickly and easily, you can open multiple Web pages at the same time. In Safari, you can open multiple pages on separate tabs in the same window or in separate windows.
Use separate tabs when you need to see only one of the pages at a time. Use separate windows when you need to compare two pages side by side.
Open Several Web Pages at Once
Open Several Pages on Tabs in the Same Safari Window
Note
You can also click Add (
The shortcut menu opens.
Note
You can now repeat steps 2 and 3 to open further pages on separate tabs.
Open Several Pages in Separate Safari Windows
The shortcut menu opens.
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You can also open a new window by pressing
Note
You can also move back to the previous window by closing the new window you just opened.
As you browse, Safari tracks the pages that you visit, so that the pages form a path. You can go back along this path to return to a page you viewed earlier; after going back, you can go forward again as needed.
Safari keeps a separate path of pages in each open tab or window, so you can move separately in each.
Find Your Way from One Page to Another
Go Back One Page
Safari displays the previous page you visited in the current tab or window.
Go Forward One Page
Note
The Next Page button is available only when you have gone back. Until then, there is no page for you to go forward to.
Safari displays the next page for the current tab or window.
A pop-up menu opens showing the pages you have visited in the current tab or window.
Safari displays the page.
Go Forward Multiple Pages
A pop-up menu opens showing the pages further along the path for the current tab or window.
Safari displays the page.
Tip
Can I navigate from page to page, or tab to tab, by using the keyboard?
You can use the following keyboard shortcuts to move quickly from page to page and from tab to tab in Safari:
Press
Press
Press
Press
Press
Press
Press
To help you return to Web pages you have visited before, Safari keeps a History list of all the pages you have visited recently.
If you share a user account with other people, you can clear the History list to prevent them from seeing what Web pages you have visited. You can also shorten the length of time for which History tracks your visits.
Return to a Recently Visited Page
Return to a Page on the History List
The History menu opens.
Note
If the item for the Web page you want appears on the top section of the History menu, before the day submenus, simply click the item.
The submenu opens, showing the sites you visited on that day.
Safari displays the Web page.
Clear Your Browsing History
The History menu opens.
The Are You Sure You Want to Clear History? dialog opens.
Safari clears the History list.
When you launch Safari, it automatically opens a page called your home page, the page from which it is set to start. Safari also opens your home page each time you open a new window.
You can set your home page to any Web page you want by using the technique explained here.
Change the Page Safari Opens at First
The Safari menu opens.
The Preferences window opens.
The General pane opens.
Safari changes the Home Page text field to show the page you chose.
The Preferences window closes.
Tip
Are there other General preferences I can benefit from changing?
In the New Windows Open With pop-up menu (
History is handy for revisiting Web pages, but you can also create markers called bookmarks for sites you want to revisit. The advantage of bookmarks over History is that you can organize your bookmarks and put the ones you use most frequently on the Bookmarks bar so that you can access them with a single click.
Keep Bookmarks for Web Pages You Like
Create a New Bookmark
The Bookmarks menu opens.
The Add Bookmark dialog opens, with the Web page's title added to the upper box.
The pop-up menu opens.
Safari closes the Add Bookmark dialog and adds the bookmark to the location or folder you chose.
Organize Your Bookmarks
Safari opens a list of all your bookmarks.
Note
The Bookmarks bar collection contains the bookmarks that appear on the Bookmarks bar below the address bar.
Safari adds a new bookmarks folder to the list.
Note
You can click and drag the bookmarks folders into a different order. You can also place one folder inside another folder.
Tip
How do I go to a bookmark I have created?
If you placed the bookmark on the Bookmarks bar, click the bookmark. If you put the bookmark on the Bookmarks menu, click Bookmarks, and then click the bookmark on the Bookmarks menu or one of its submenus (
Perhaps the best aspect of the Web is that you can search it for exactly the information you need.
Safari has a built-in search capability for searching with Google, the Internet's biggest search engine. You can also open a different search engine and search from it.
Find Interesting Web Sites
Search with the Built-in Google Search Feature
Safari displays a page of search results from the Google search engine.
The Web page opens.
Note
When examining search results, it is often useful to
Search with a Search Engine other than Google
Note
Other search engines include Microsoft's Bing (
www.bing.com), Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), and Cuil (www.cuil.com).Safari displays the search engine you chose.
The site displays a page of search results.
Safari opens the linked Web page.
Tip
How can I get more useful search results?
Here are three ways to make your search results more accurate and helpful:
To keep two words together as a phrase instead of searching for them separately, put them in double quotes. For example, use "add memory" to search for that phrase rather than for add and for memory separately.
To exclude a word from a search, put a – sign before it. For example, –g5 tells Google not to return search results that include the term "G5."
To make sure each search result includes a particular term, put a + sign before it. For example, +upgrade tells Google to return only search results that include the term "upgrade."
Many Web sites contain files that you can download and use on your iMac. For example, you can download applications to install on your iMac, pictures to view on it, or songs to play.
Mac OS X includes applications that can open many file types, including music, graphic, movie, document, and PDF files. To open other file types, you may need to install extra applications.
Download a File from the Internet
The shortcut menu opens.
Note
Depending on the file type and the preferences you have set, Safari may open the file automatically for you.
The file opens.
Depending on the file type, you can then work with the file, enjoy its contents, or install it.
Note
If the file is an application, you can install it as discussed in Chapter 3. If the file is a data file, such as a document or a picture, Mac OS X opens the file in the application for that file type.
The Downloads stack opens.
The file opens.
Tip
Can downloading files from the Internet be dangerous to my iMac?
Files available on the Internet for download can contain software that attempts to attack your iMac or compromise your privacy. For safety, download files only from Web sites that you trust, and use antivirus software as discussed in Chapter 14.
What should I do when clicking a download link opens the file instead of downloading it?
If you like to keep up to the minute with what is happening, use Safari's news feeds to bring you the latest news. The news feeds use a technology called Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, to enable you to subscribe to Web sites and to receive the latest information when it becomes available.
Keep Up to Date with News Feeds
Open a News Feed from Safari
The News pop-up menu opens.
Safari displays a page showing the headlines of the available articles.
Safari opens the article.
Note
To find articles on a particular topic, click in the Search Articles box and type one or more keywords.
Open a News Feed from a Web Site
If multiple news feeds are available, a menu opens.
Safari opens the news feed.
Note
You can bookmark a news feed by choosing Bookmarks and Add Bookmark.
Tip
How can I get the latest news feeds in Safari?
Choose Safari and Preferences. The Preferences window opens. Click RSS (
The Web is packed with fascinating sites and useful information, but it is also full of criminals who want to attack your iMac and steal your valuable data.
Safari comes with several important security settings. It is a good idea to make sure all the protective settings you need are turned on.
Choose Essential Security Setting
The Safari menu opens.
The Preferences window opens.
The Security pane opens.
The AutoFill pane opens.
The Preferences window closes.
Tip
Should I allow pop-up windows for certain Web sites?
Pop-up windows can be dangerous. Some shopping sites need pop-up windows to function properly, but many malicious Web sites use pop-up windows to distribute malevolent software. For safety, keep pop-up windows blocked until you know a particular site requires them. Then choose Safari and Block Pop-up Windows to temporarily allow pop-ups, removing the check mark from the command. When you have finished, click the command again to restore the blocking.
What are cookies, and should I accept them?
A cookie is a small text file that a Web site uses to store information about what you do on the site – for example, what products you have browsed or added to your shopping cart. Cookies from sites you visit are usually helpful to you. Cookies from third-party sites, such as those that advertise on sites you visit, may threaten your privacy. For this reason, choose Only from sites I visit rather than Always in the Accept Cookies area.
