Safari’s #1 Annoyance: No Tab From The URL Bar
By Daniel Miessler on June 14th, 2008: Tagged as Apple | Safari
I don’t mind too much when Safari lacks advanced features found in other browsers, but it’s highly annoying when it lacks the basics.
Why, for example, can’t I tab from the URL bar like Firefox? (shown below)
I mean, even Internet Explorer has this ability. How sad is it when the hoity-toity Apple browser doesn’t have basic UI functionality present in IE 6? Isn’t Apple supposed to be king of UI?
Dear Safari Team, you have a ton of really cool functionality in your browser, but unless you’re also doing the basics it doesn’t matter.:
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Safari and Firefox seem pretty much the same to me on this! Hitting tab whilst in the location bar takes me to the search field on both browsers.. What are you after..?
Comment by Adrian Bool — 6/14/2008 @ 8:26 am
Weird. I am able to tab through the drop-down list of options within the URL bar (seen above) when using Firefox. But if I try that using Safari I’m sent to the search bar.
Comment by Daniel Miessler — 6/14/2008 @ 1:07 pm
Well, my Safari is better because it can do it.
Oh: and it’s that other Tab button that points downwards.
Comment by Bobby — 6/14/2008 @ 1:24 pm
That’s an arrow key, Bobby. :) I’m talking about the tab button, which is a whole lot easier to find when you’re on your home keys.
Comment by Daniel Miessler — 6/14/2008 @ 1:31 pm
I’m really confused - what are you trying to do? Tab through the three options (contact/study/writing) that appear when you begin to type the URL? Why not simply use the down arrow? Tabbing moves you through the available fields, rather than the options in a particular field; the up and down arrows move you through the options in a field. Far from being bad UI, this is logical UI.
Comment by Sam — 6/14/2008 @ 1:34 pm
Sam, you make a good point about the arrow key being more consistent, but the fact is that the tab key is easier to use while typing. The number of times someone wants to tab down to a previous site within their history is much larger than the number of times they’re going to want to leave their URL history and go to the search field.
This is especially true now that Firefox is doing the intelligent history that searches not only the URL but the description of the site. Being able to tab through those options is invaluable.
Comment by Daniel Miessler — 6/14/2008 @ 1:39 pm
Hum. I may be talking from the viewpoint of someone who has pretty much always used Safari, but I would never even have considered hitting tab to move down to a previously visited site!
I can see your point about convenience, but Apple are really into consistency of approach in UI design, so it would go against everything they believe in to suddenly change the function of the tab key.
Comment by Sam — 6/14/2008 @ 1:46 pm
Yeah, now that you mention it I kind of agree with you. They’re aren’t they kind of group that does things “wrong” just because it’s more convenient. Good point.
Well, I wish they’d make an exception. Tab really is much easier than leaving your home keys and going to the arrows.
Comment by Daniel Miessler — 6/14/2008 @ 1:51 pm
Heh, yes, but that’s when you end up with hideously inconsistent UI like the problems people are talking about with Vista - http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001126.html
Comment by Sam — 6/14/2008 @ 4:58 pm