MAC TREAT #121: Manage Top Sites in Safari

ByMike Moffit

Top Sites is one of Safari 4’s most notable features. Top Sites provides an at-a-glance preview of your favorite and most visited websites. While you browse, Safari 4 indexes and ranks your favorite sites, and then presents up to 24 thumbnails of those sites on a single page.

Sites with a star icon in the upper-right corner have new content. A single click opens the page and updates its thumbnail. Whenever you want to return to your Top Sites page, click the Top Sites button in the bookmarks bar.

Many people don’t know that this page is customizable. Open a new window in Safari 4 to see your Top Sites. Then, in the lower left corner of the Top Sites page click the “Edit” button. You can pin a favorite site to a specific location in the grid. That locks it into position, so you know just where to find it every time you open Top Sites.

To see 24 Top Sites click the Small tab. To see 12 Top Sites click the Medium tab. To see 6 Top Sites click the Large tab. To arrange the order of your Top Sites, click and drag a Top Site to the location on the Top Sites grid where you would like it to appear. To remove a top site, click the X icon connected to the Top Site you wish to remove. To lock a top site, click the “Push Pin” icon connected to the Top Site you wish to pin.

You can also manually add a webpage to Top Sites. First, load the page in Safari 4. Then drag the site icon located in the left side of the Address (URL) field to the Top Sites icon (the Top Sites icon looks like a waffle and is next to the Bookmarks icon.) This will add the website to the upper-left position in Top Sites.

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