Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition

Tips for Better Surfing

Safari is filled with shortcuts and tricks for better speed and more pleasant surfing. For example:

Reader

How can people read Web articles when there’s Times-Square blinking going on all around them? Fortunately, you’ll never have to put up with that again.

The Reader button in the address bar is amazing. With one click (or press Shift--R), it eliminates everything from the Web page you’re reading except the text and photos. No ads, blinking, links, banners, promos, or anything else.

The text is also changed to a clean, clear font and size, and the background is made plain white. Basically, it makes any Web page look like a printed book page or a Kindle page, and it’s glorious (Figure 12-5).

To exit Reader, press the same keyboard shortcut, or click the Reader button again.

Best. Feature. Ever.

The Reading List

The Reading List is a hide-able panel at the left side of the screen that lists Web pages you want to read later (Figure 12-6).

The Reading List doesn’t actually store the pages on the Mac; it basically stores a link to the page, just like a bookmark. You can’t read it later unless you’re actually online.

It does have some advantages over bookmarks, though. For example, it’s faster to flag a Web page you like—you don’t have to make up a name or location for it, as with a bookmark. The Reading List keeps track of what you’ve read; you can use the All/Unread buttons ...