The Bookmarks Bar

Mac Tip #137/18-Feb-2004
The Bookmarks Bar

Go to the View menu in Safari and ensure there’s a check mark beside Bookmarks Bar. This puts a bar below the Address Bar where you can store Bookmarks you want to use particularly often.

One way to add an item to this Bar is to drag the icon from the left-hand end of the Address Bar. As you drag and hover over any existing items they move out of the way. Just drop the icon where it suits you along the Bar. Now you can visit that page just by clicking its name on the Bookmarks Bar.

If you hold down the Control key while you click on an item in the Bookmarks Bar you can choose to edit the name or address or to delete that item.

There are two other really cool things you can do with items in the Bookmarks Bar.

1. You can access the first nine items (not including folders) with the Command Key and a Number. For example, if I have links to the Apple website, MacTips.Info and my bank in that order I can access Apple with Command 1, MacTips with Command 2 and the bank with Command 3. The screenshot shows my actual Bookmarks, not the examples I’ve mentioned in this paragraph.
2. If you regularly want to be able to open several pages as a group you can put them all in a folder in the Bookmarks Bar. Go to the Bookmarks menu and choose Show all bookmarks. In the list of Collections on the left choose Bookmarks Bar. From the Bookmarks menu choose Add Bookmarks Folder. Drag bookmarks into it from the list of bookmarks. Check the box called Auto-Tab. Now if you click that folder on the Bookmarks Bar itself all the items within that folder will simultaneously open into tabs.