Hello Amber,
I'll try to add my answers to Scott's regarding the use of bookmarks
in Safari. Top Sites is a feature that was introduced in Safari 4.
Instead of being sites that you choose to bookmark, these are the
sites that you visit most frequently, based on your recent browsing
activity. The idea is that you can easily get back to these sites
without having to set a bookmark for them, and that the places that
make up your top sites will change depending on your interests over
time. In contrast, you might use bookmarks for more permanent markers.
When you show your Bookmarks page (with Command-Option-B), there are
basically three areas: (1) a search field for running searches of your
bookmarks, (2) a table for selecting the collection or folder of
bookmarks you want to use, and (3) a table that lists the individual
bookmarks in your selected collection or folder. This is very much
like the organization of iTunes and other applications. What may be
complicating your view of the layout when you try to navigate this
page is the presence of both the bookmarks bar and the toolbar (which
includes the address bar) in Safari. You can toggle these between
hide and view with the following keyboard shortcuts:
Command-Shift-B hides or shows the bookmarks bar for Safari
Command-Shift-backslash hides or shows the toolbar for Safari (where
the backslash key is the rightmost key immediately below the delete
key and above the return key on an English language keyboard)
Keeping the bookmarks bar and the toolbar hidden for Safari is an old
trick that was used starting back in Tiger when VoiceOver's navigation
options were less sophisticated -- the items in Safari's bookmarks bar
and toolbar show up both in item chooser menu and when you navigate by
tabbing or with VO-arrow keys, so hiding these bars simplifies
VoiceOver's view.
Once you have hidden the bookmarks bar and the toolbar, pressing tab
will cycle you between the three areas that I described. Pressing
Shift-tab will cycle you through these areas in the opposite direction.
When you show your bookmarks page with Command-Option-B, you should be
positioned in the search box, with your selected folder or collection
from the table of collections or folders pointed to the location you
last used. This selection could also point to your "history" of
visited sites (that were not bookmarked). If you press tab you should
be taken to the table of individual bookmark locations listed under
that category. Interact (VO-Shift-Down arrow) to read and select
individual entries.
You can open a bookmark simply by pressing the space bar once when
you're on your selection, although Scott's correct that the context
menu (VO-Shift-M) will show you a range of options (including "open").
Having learned this before there was context menu support, I simply
use space to open bookmarked pages and I click on either the name or
address field of my bookmark with VO-Shift-space to edit the name or
address.
To select a different folder, use tab or your VO-arrow keys to move to
the table of folders and collections, interact, and navigate to the
selection either with VO-up or down arrows or by typing the first few
letters of the folder name. Then stop interacting and tab to the table
of bookmark entries for that folder.
You can also search for entries. Either type in your search term in
the search text field when you first show the bookmarks page or use
Command-F and type in your search term(s) then press return. You'll
be taken to the search field. VO-left arrow to find out the number of
matches. VO-left again to find out the search locations -- there
should be two specified: the first is your selected folder or
collection location and the second is "All". One of these will say
"checked". To run the same search for the other location (i.e. "All"
or your selected folder), select that location with VO-space. Then,
tab to the table of results. You'll find the matches for each case.
Just press space to navigate to a selection.
Scott has mentioned the hot keys for the bookmarks bar. There is a
general shortcut key for moving to a toolbar: Control-F5. This is a
Mac OS X shortcut that is not specific to Safari. If the toolbar is
hidden, it will also show the toolbar.
I generally keep my toolbar and address bar hidden. (If I show them,
I either use Shift-Tab to move to the table to select my folder, or I
open my bookmarks page with the shortcut for creating a new bookmarks
folder: Command-Option-N. This opens the page and takes my focus to
the table of folders. Since I don't really want to create a new
folder I then do a Command-Z to "undo" my created folder.)
I find that I can still access my address bar (with Command-L to copy
or paste in address locations), and my Google search bar (with Command-
Option-F). However, as soon as I execute my actions, the toolbar
closes again, so these items don't show up when I use item chooser
menu, etc.
There's an old archived post on bookmarks that I wrote two years ago.
It lists the entries that show up under the table of categories
(including history items and RSS feeds), but I think the present
description is more up to date. However, it was pretty detailed, so
if you want to check it out, here's the location in the old Mailing
List archives for this list:
http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40macvisionaries.com/msg30591.html
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
On Feb 3, 2010, Scott Howell wrote:
Amber,
First the Top sites is a fancy name for the most recently visited
sites. The more sites you visit, the more likely they will fall off
the list. Second to access a bookmark, I interact with the url in
the table and use VO-shift-m to bring up the contextual menu. THen
you can select the action you wish. As far as the menu bar, you
could use a hot spot which is VO-shift-a number 1-9 and you can
remove this hot spot with the same steps and to go to that hot spot,
you simply press VO-number where number is 1-9.
hth,
On Feb 3, 2010, Amber Pearcy wrote:
Good morning listers,
As you can see from the subject line, I have several questions for
all of you today. I'll start with the questions about bookmarks
and top sites. I have been trying to figure out the difference and
functions of both of these two components of Safari for several
months now, but I can't seem to make much headway. Is top sites
only meant to be a temporary list of the most recently visited
sites, or does it actually store bookmarks permanently? I was
under the impression that I could store my bookmarks there
permanently, but often, when I try to find a specific bookmark, it
isn't in that list.
In regards to the actual bookmarks section of the browser, I have
never been successful opening the bookmarks that I have saved
there. I have tried VO space, clicking with VO Shift space and
double clicking. I think I have even searched in vain for a
contextual menu. Therefore, I resorted to saving everything in top
sites, but now, even this doesn't seem to be working well.
Concerning the tool bars, if I know that there is a tool bark at
the top of a web page or in
a particular program, is there a shortcut or VO command that will
take me to the tool bar from anywhere in the program or on the web
page?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Peace,
Amber
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