Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Yosemite Edition

Tips for Better Surfing

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

The Reading List

The Reading List stores entire Web pages that you want to read later (Figure 12-12). These aren’t just bookmarks (links); the Reading List downloads and stores the full contents of each page you’ve requested so that you can read them when you don’t have an Internet connection. Better than that, actually: It stores that page and any other pages necessary to continue reading an article that you’ve flagged.

The Reading List also makes it faster to flag a Web page you like—you don’t have to make up a name or a location for it, as with a bookmark. Also, the Reading List keeps track of what you’ve read; you can use the All/Unread buttons at the top of the list to view everything or just what you haven’t yet read.

You might treat the Reading List as a list of pages you’ll want to read once later, and use bookmarks for pages you like to revisit frequently.

To make matters even sweeter, iCloud synchronizes your Reading List among your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and so on (if you’ve turned on Safari syncing in System Preferences→iCloud). It’s as though the Web always keeps your place as you move from gadget to gadget.

To add a page to the Reading List, use one of these techniques:

• Shift-click a link. That simple trick adds the linked page to the Reading List. You don’t have to visit the page itself (only the link to it), or even to open the Reading List itself.

• Click ...