How to Manage Tabbed Browsing in Safari for macOS

This article explains how to make use of tabs in the Safari web browser in macOS.

Manage Safari Tabs

To access the Tabs settings in Safari, open Preferences under the Safari menu (or press Command+, (comma) on the keyboard.

When the Preferences menu opens, select Tabs.

Open New Pages in Tabs

The first option in the Safari Tabs menu is a drop-down menu labeled Open pages in tabs instead of windows. This menu contains the following options:

• Never: With this option selected, when you click a link that's coded to open in a new window, the link opens in a separate Safari window.
• Automatically: With this option selected, when you click a link that's coded to open in a new window, the link opens in a new tab in most cases. Although Safari makes an effort to launch a tab instead of a new window, it may not always be successful with this option enabled.
• Always: With this option selected, when you click a link that's coded to open in a new window, the link opens in a new tab. Safari overrides all settings and forcefully opens the link in a new tab each time.

The Safari Tabs Preferences dialog also contains the following set of check boxes, each accompanied by a tabbed browsing setting.

• Command-click opens a link in a new tab: Enabled by default, this option provides a keyboard shortcut (Command+mouse click) to force a specific link to open in a new tab.
• When a new tab or window opens, make it active: When enabled, a new tab or window automatically gains focus as soon as it is opened.
• Use Command-1 through Command-9 to switch tabs: Also enabled by default, this setting allows you to skip to specific open tabs by using these keyboard shortcuts.

Shortcuts

At the bottom of the Tabs Preferences dialog are some helpful keyboard and mouse shortcut combinations:

• Command+mouse click: Opens a link in a new tab (only when enabled; see above).
• Command+Shift+mouse click: Opens a link in a new tab and makes it the active tab.
• Command+Option+mouse click: Opens a link in a new window.
• Command+Option+Shift+mouse click: Opens a link in a new window and makes it the active window.