This Hidden Safari Feature Makes Browsing a Lot Faster

Using a computer is a lot faster if you become a keyboard shortcut ninja instead of doing everything with your mouse or trackpad. The problem: browsing the web is extremely mouse oriented. A hidden Safari option can help.

Open Safari’s Settings, head to the Advanced tab, and check the Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage. Now you can use the tab key on your keyboard to highlight the top link on the current page—you’ll see a blue box around the link. Keep pressing tab to cycle between links, then press Enter to open the current link. It’s fast, provided there isn’t an overwhelming number of links on the page. You can also press CMD+Enter to open the current link in a new tab in the background.

Credit: Justin Pot

I like using this while reading the news. I’ll open the homepage of a publication, use Tab to cycle between the articles, and open the ones that look interesting in a new background tab. Then I can use the keyboard shortcut CMD+W to that tab and jump to the next one. In this way I can read every article I’m interested on a site all without touching my mouse.

Now, there are dedicated apps for doing this including Shortcat, which offers more features for controlling the web (and other applications) using only keyboard shortcuts. That app is particularly good if you want to jump to a particular link right away, instead of having to press tab repeatedly to get to them. It’s worth looking into but you might not need it: Safari’s feature works well enough for me and doesn’t require me to install anything, which is nice.

Give the feature a try if you’re looking for ways to use your mouse less often—it’s already making me feel like a faster internet user.